Mostly, I'm very proud that this website has not joined in the woman-bashing trend that is the so-called "progressive" blogosphere's response to news of Palin's various family issues. Like Sean-Paul, I agree that her family's private issues are not worthy of my attention. Her Hypocrisy? Wingerism? Cronyism? Yes, let's talk about that. But leave her kids out of it. Period. SP speaks for me:
It's a private family matter. Leave it be. And leave Palin be. What McCain wants more than anything is to discuss Palin, not McCain.
If McCain wins, I guarantee you that Palin will not be Cheney to McCain's Bush (heh). People here have defended pro-Iraq war Hillary for many legit reasons, including the sexist crap she endured during her run. Let's not all make ourselves fools and hypocrites now. Palin sucks, for many reasons. The behaviors and failures of her family: not among them.
Oh, and this struck me hard, via Twisty.
I recognize that a couple of brutally murdered Pakistani girls may not fascinate to the extent that, say, a Sarah Palin does, but I beseech those bloggers among you to postpone writing another Geraldine Ferraro post long enough to pass this story around. The idea that cultural tradition might even fleetingly be construed by supposedly civilized beings as an excuse for ritual murder is the direct result of the same global misogynist paradigm that brings us “harmless” Western-style femininity, Jesus, the nuclear family, street harrassment, pornography, and rape culture. I am not moron enough to suggest that Western Internet-feminists can prevent barbarism through blogging, but we can damn well get the word out.
There's "feminism," and then there's Feminism, yo?
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I Saw That Story
on Pakistan, but didn't have a time to post it here and forgot. Grisly. And, yes, the "cultural" excuse is bullshit - it's about power, not culture.
The only thing that I'll add is that the reaction in some quarters on what are supposed to be progressive outlets is simply a more "civilized" version of that Pakistan story. It's about shame and sex and women. That's the undercurrent of it. On the surface, they claim that it's about values or vetting or some such thing, but what they are really trying to tap into is this country's long history of shaming women over sex.
So much easier I guess than pointing out that until 1996 Palin was a member of an organization that supported having Alaska vote on whether to secede from the United States. But I guess that's not nearly as scandalous or awful as her teenaged daughter having had sex.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt