Category Archives: Level The Playing Field In The Political Arena

WHY SOME WOMEN HATE SARAH PALIN

Put her out of her misery, please

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Lynette Long: WHY SOME WOMEN HATE SARAH PALIN.

This post by Belinda Luscombe was pretty enlightening for me in an unfortunate way.  I have been wondering why a number of women I know and respect get apoplectic at the mention of Sarah Palin.  You can almost see sparks shooting from their hair.  When I try to say “A lot of women are not so much for Sarah Palin as they are against the media riculing her or the talking heads disparaging her” ( because someday we really would like a woman vice president or, better yet, president).  The response I often get, after a rolling of the eyes upward is “No one is disparaging her.  Or at least they’re not disparaging women in general.” I see.  Well, actually, I don’t.  But after reading Belinda Luscombe’s post, I’m beginning to.

Some polls are suggesting that after gaining an initial bump, McCain‘s campaign is being hobbled by Sarah Palin‘s vice-presidential candidacy. The voters who are deserting her fastest, some of whom are even calling on her to withdraw, are mostly women.

Ah, women, the consistently, tragically underestimated constituency. What the Democrats learned during the primaries and the Republicans might now be finding out the hard way, I learned at my very academic, well-regarded all-girls high school: that is never to discount the ability of women to open a robust, committed, well-thought-out vat of hatred for another girl.

It’s a simple three-point pass-fail exam: Will the other girls like her?

Here’s why Palin doesn’t make the grade:

1. She’s too pretty. This is very bad news. At school, pretty girls tend to be liked only by other pretty girls. The rest of us, whose looks hover somewhere around underwhelming, resent them and whisper archly of their “unearned attention.” So, if everyone calls your candidate “hot,” you’re in a whole mess of trouble. If the Pakistani head-of-state more or less hits on her, well, yes, she’ll get a sympathy vote, but we’re in Dukakis-in-the-tank territory. It’s an admiration vaporizer. (Of course a candidate can’t be too ugly, or it will scare the men, who are clearly shallow as a gender.)

2. She’s too confident. This also bodes ill. Women have self-esteem issues. But they also have other-women’s-esteem issues. As almost any woman – from the head of the Budgerigar Breeders association to Queen Elizabeth – can attest, it’s almost impossible to get confidence right. Too timid and you’re a pushover. Too self-aggrandizing and you’re a bad word unless it’s about a dog, or Project Runway‘s Kenley. Or Michelle, my best friend until 9th grade, after she won that debating prize and got cocky.

3. She could embarrass us. History is not on Palin’s side. Every time a woman gets a plum job, be she Hewlett-Packard‘s ex-boss, Carly Fiorina, or CBS‘s Katie Couric, there’s always that whispery fear that people will think she got the job just because she’s a woman. So if things don’t go well – and a couple of YouTube clips have suggested that they’re certainly not going well for Palin – women are the first to turn on her for making it harder for the rest of us to louse up at work.”

The fact of the matter is once a female decides it’s over with another female, it’s like an end-stage marriage. No matter how seemingly benign, every attribute becomes an affront: the hair, the voice, the husband, the moose-shooting, the glasses, the big family, the making rape victims pay for their own rape test kits.

I know, I know. With all this extra baggage a female candidate has to bear, the chances of finding a woman whom other women won’t hate seem skinnier than last year’s jeans. But don’t despair, if all else fails, we could just do what we always do and just vote in some guy. It’s worked so well for us in the past.”

Fo the entire post go to Lynette Long: WHY SOME WOMEN HATE SARAH PALIN.

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Where Feminism, Copyright Law and This Interminable Election Intersect

2004 cover with dandy Eustace Tilley, created ...

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Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » Where Feminism, Copyright Law and This Interminable Election Intersect.

AdvancingWomen.com thinks the point the original New Yorker cover meant to make was that even sophisticated, urbane and worldly New Yorkers….. or particularly sophisticated, urbane and worldly New Yorkers…. could be insular and parochial when it comes to viewing the rest of the country.  The so called “fly over” area of middle America..states like Kansas and Nebraska, are often heaped with particular scorn. And if the elite, entrenched establishment of the Eastern seaboard think of Kansas City as out of the hub bub, bright lights, fashion forward, deep thinking, heavy weight pontificating and intellectual clarity of the East, what then of Alaska?  Must be a wolverine and moose infested, vast frozen tundra of backwoodsmen and women, “clinging to their guns and religion”, and as Al Gore has demonstrated in his slides and film, about to slip into the watery nether world of the Bering Straits, that slim sliver of maritime border between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific, between the U.S. and Russia, which Palin can see from her window.

One has to wonder if that same parochial, condescending perspective doesn’t affect some of the media and the talking heads who appear to view Sarah Palin as a “country bumpkin”, illiterate about global geo-politics and not nearly savvy enough to climb on to the world stage.  One has to wonder how all these brainy, politically savvy, white male politicians, who definitely fit into Washington D.C., managed to get us into two simultaneous wars, a financial and credit meltdown and mortgage crisis all of which are rattling the world markets.  It doesn’t seem the bar is set that high that Sarah Palin should be viewed quite so harshly.  Perhaps if she has less hubris she would do less and therefore foul up less than some who have been in power for decades, if not generations.

Where Feminism, Copyright Law and This Interminable Election Intersect

Above is a recent New Yorker cover mocking Sarah Palin. The drawing is a parody of one of the New Yorker’s most famous covers:

It was drawn by the late Saul Steinberg, and titled “View of the World from 9th Avenue, 1976“:

For more posts go to Feminist Law Professors

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“Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”

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Feminist Law Professors » Blog Archive » Inverview With Congressional Rep. Carolyn Maloney About Her New Book, “Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”.

This is exactly the kind of coming together and collaboration of women’s communities of interest that AdvancingWomen.com has been talking about and, hopefully, encouraging.

Part one here. Part two here.

In this instance, Feminist Law Professors and The New Agenda are focusing on the same themes found in “Rumours of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” and reflected in this Interview With Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney by MadamaB, Crossposted at The Confluence and MadamaB’s own blog

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is described by author, MadamaB, as a “gracious, intelligent, fiery and fabulous feminist.” Among the many points Congressman Maloney makes is that real progress will come “when there is a critical mass of women in government. Once 30% of our representatives are women ( Ed. some say 50%) , women’s issues begin to be addressed. The United States is nowhere near that critical mass yet.”

What is important, in the context of women’s emerging communities on the Net, is not the specific point a women’s activist makes, but the fact that she is taking a pro-woman stand in a society where there is a systemic bias which diminishes women and results in limiting their progress.  What is significant in this instance is that Feminist Law Professors , The New Agenda, The Confluence and MadamaB’s own blog have all come together on the Net to reinforce each other’s perspective on the themes in Maloney’s book.

AdvancingWomen.com‘s position is that “it is important that a meaningful part of content on the Net be shaped and produced by women and offer new paradigms to support women’s advancement…. Our first task is to foster a sense of inclusive community among women’s groups with many different agendas and ideologies because that is the catalyst which will drive open communication among them and form the foundation for both networking, and its further evolution into a support system….
To achieve women’s advancement in many areas – business, law, politics, academia –  we need a critical mass of women and women’s organizations to share their knowledge and strategies.”

When AdvancingWomen.com sees women’s groups like Feminist Law Professors , The New Agenda, The Confluence and MadamaB come together to share their knowledge and strategy, we feel very encouraged that the first steps towards that synergistic nexus of women’s communities on the Net has been taken and its evolution in growth and influence has begun.

When we look at the tools women have created or managed on the Net, a common theme runs through them: “Tina Sharkey at Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) BabyCenter ( networking and sharing information about child care and child raising); Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr (photo sharing); Mena Trott, co-founder and president of blogging powerhouse Six Apart ( connecting and communication through blogging); and Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, which lets users build their own social networks ( do it yourself, customized social networking)”.  In one way or another, all these women have addressed the technical “how to” part of the equation of women’s communicating and networking on the Net.  Other groups, many just now forming, are driven by the need to fill this new engine for thought and dialogue with their own passion, to level the playing field for themselves and other women.

In the beginning,  many purposeful and committed women may have found themselves a bit put off by the jarring disconnect of the techie culture, in contrast with their own more reflective styles. Very young men in tight T shirts with screaming logos or rebellious, clever or obscure quotations, slumped in bean bag chairs for an all night “hackathon” until some got leg burns from their lap tops, amid crumpled, empty pizza boxes, crushed Red Bull cans and blaring music pulsating through a giant open space, frequently a loft or run down office. Was there a flash of genius there?  Definitely, sometimes.  Mostly they could have produced the same work from 9 to 5 but the crazy hours and adrenalin high were all part of the exuberant experience for them.

For equally driven women, either in their corner office, having fought tooth and nail to get there, or who might have met at Starbucks for a latte or a caramel frappe, or be sipping oolong tea on their deck or multi-tasking in their home office, Blackberry in one hand, baby on a hip, stepping over the tennis shoes of their son, roughly the same age as the founders of some of the new Net companies like Facebook….there may have been a sense that they didn’t belong in this new Net frontier.  Not that the wonderboys were swinging open any doors for them.  But women have long ago learned no one is swinging open any doors for them.  If women want to walk into the tech scene and become powerhouses on the Net, we have to step up, open our own doors and “make the path by walking on it.”

AdvancingWomen.com has no doubt that women will go for it and stake our own claim to our sphere in the Networked world, particularly now that the social networking era with all of its new, automated tools is upon us. We have a hunch that “our” Net, the “women’s communities’ Net” will be different.  It will be less about technical wizardry…..not that we don’t appreciate every ounce of that as it makes our work easier….give us those WordPress plug ins by the barrel full; it will be more about solving deep rooted problems woman have faced.  It will be less about reaching out for new Net frontiers to conquer, than working together to reshape attitudes and stereotypes from the past that have prevented us from crossing old frontiers.

This time, we don’t have to ask permission to join the “old boys’ game”.  ( Many of the old boys got “kicked under the bus” by the wonderboys anyway.)  This time we have the tools and the ability to use the Net to route around the existing power structure, bypass the gate keepers, and ignore the often condescening “talking heads”  to speak directly to each other, each from our own community of interest reaching out to like-minded others.

Also see:

Community on the Net – The Platform To Network, The Power to Mentor

Don’t Cry for Us, Silicon Valley

BlogTalkRadio interview with Amy Siskind : The New Agenda

BlogTalkRadio interview with Amy Siskind : The New Agenda.

We thought you might want to hear more from the co-founder of The New Agenda., a new non-partisan group for women’s rights.

Amy Siskind, co-founder of The New Agenda

Amy Siskind, co-founder of The New Agenda

“On September 10 our own Amy Siskind was the guest on Tommy Christopher’s Unusable Signal on BlogTalkRadio.
Amy talked with co-hosts Tommy Christopher and Tom Fitzsimmons about the founding of  The New Agenda and explained the group’s non-partisan mission and goals.

We’ve excerpted a few snippets from the hour-long interview to share here. Just click on each link to transform it into a tiny little in-line mp3 player” — to listen, go to The New Agenda.

( Disclosure – I am also a co-founder of The New Agenda, a group characterized as a “big tent”, with members having a whole range of different idealogies but joined in their commitment to women’s rights.  So I guess it would be fair to say, like all members of The New Agenda, I am a committed supporter of women’s rights and the goal of advancing women…. as if that weren’t perfectly clear to all who follow AdvancingWomen.com and this blog.  However, the reason I will be following and reporting on The New Agenda from time to time, is because the group has formed and taken a bold, activist and leadership role in protecting and advancing women’s rights in multliple venues and on many levels. For women everywhere, this should be extremely newsworthy and relevant to their lives.   If you have comments or feedback, agree or disagree, we invite you to share your thoughts )

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Lynette Long: NEW AGENDA TARGETS CHRIS MATTHEWS FROM LA TIMES

Lynette Long: NEW AGENDA TARGETS CHRIS MATTHEWS FROM LA TIMES.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews remains in the bull’s eye for new women’s group

Forget the battle for the White House — here’s a campaign that’s really heating up: the bid by a new women’s group to hold Chris Matthews accountable for what it asserts is “misogynistic journalism” practiced by the voluble MSNBC political pundit.

The New Agenda, a nonpartisan organization promoting women’s rights, today sent a letter to NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker asking for a meeting to discuss Matthews’ attitude toward women.

Amy Siskind, one of the group’s founders, said in an interview it wants Matthews (at right, with Ron Reagan behind him) to issue a public apology and change his on-air behavior. Absent that, he needs to be fired, she said…

The group’s letter applauded the recent decision by MSNBC to remove Matthews and Keith Olbermann from prominent roles anchoring political events, but said more action is needed.

“MSNBC can regain its reputation as a respectable news organization by taking more appropriate action against Chris Matthews,” the letter said. “If Matthews were an employee in a Fortune 500 company, he would have been fired for sexual harassment long ago. Instead, MSNBC peddled misogynistic journalism to the American public.”

Compiling a list of actions that it deemed offensive, The New Agenda wrote that the “Hardball” host a couple of years asked if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would “castrate” a fellow Democrat with whom she had feuded, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

The letter also faults Matthews for likening Hillary Clinton, during the Democratic primary campaign, to Nurse Ratched, the power-mad character from Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

“The historic candidacies of both Hillary Clinton and [Republican vice presidential nominee] Sarah Palin have brought to light for all Americans the rampant sexism in the media,” the letter said.

For the complete post go to Lynette Long: NEW AGENDA TARGETS CHRIS MATTHEWS FROM LA TIMES.

The Big Tent – by Dr. Violet Socks

The Big Tent – Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » .

In her explanation of “The Big Tent”, which is how leader Amy Siskind characterized “The New Agenda”, Violet Socks says, in part:

“Imagine a big lawn party with lots of little booths and kiosks staffed by different groups. This lawn party is Feminism. Over in one rather large booth we have the liberal feminists; they’re wearing power suits and carrying Blackberries. In another part of the lawn the cultural feminists are holding court in their Earth Mother skirts, with some womyn-only music playing on the speakers.

In the middle of the lawn is a big blue tent with a sign saying, “The New Agenda.” This is the tent where women from all the different booths and kiosks gather to work on the issues they agree on — which, as we all know, is not every issue. They don’t stop being themselves when they go to The New Agenda tent, and they don’t abandon their beliefs. They just put aside their differences long enough to talk about the things they do agree on.

Pro-choice women will never agree with pro-life women on abortion, but they do agree on equal pay and healthcare and domestic violence. In The New Agenda tent, those are the things they can work on together. The Hothead Paisan lesbians and the feminists-for-Christ probably won’t be joining each other’s social clubs anytime soon, but in The New Agenda tent they can put their heads together to figure out how to combat sexism in the media.

The idea is to create a place where we can join forces on the many issues that unite us, instead of remaining always divided by the issues that separate us.”

For more of Dr. Socks post, go to

The Big Tent – Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » .

Sarah Palin on feminist issues : The New Agenda

Sarah Palin on feminist issues : The New Agenda.

Violet Socks, Editor of The New Agenda has posted these statements to help clarify what Sarah Palin’s position actually is.  Violet says:

“Sarah Palin calls herself a “pro-life feminist.” Basically, that’s feminism minus abortion rights.

Obviously that puts her at odds with modern American feminism on a crucial issue. But to hear tell from the many feminist writers now publishing furious editorials, Sarah Palin isn’t just out of step on that one issue. She is, according to them, the antithesis of everything feminism means.

Really?

I thought I’d start a collection of Palin’s own statements on feminist issues. I post these for now without comment; that’ll come later. From what I can tell, the feminist writers who are attacking Palin are doing so with an astonishing disregard for the truth. I’m still trying to sort out why.”

To view the lists go to Sarah Palin on feminist issues

For more on The New Agenda see our post about The Big Tent

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Lynette Long: LYNETTE’S COMMENTS AT A MCCAIN-PALIN RALLY


LYNETTE’S COMMENTS AT A MCCAIN-PALIN RALLY

Crowded house: Thousands listen to Senator John McCain at a Republican rally in Fairfax, Virginia.

Although everyone may not agree with Lynette Long’s conclusion, AdvancingWomen believes it would be difficult  to dispute her logic or the clarity of her thinking on this controversial issue.

This is the text of my speech at the McCain rally on September 10, 2008:

My name is Lynette Long. I am a feminist, a mother, a Democrat and an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter and I am voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin on November 4.

After the last Democratic Primary was over and it was clear Senator Clinton was not going to get the Democratic nomination, myself, and a small group of Clinton supporters met with Senator McCain and Carly Fiorina. I personally explained to Senator McCain that women comprise well over half of the population, yet you will not see a single picture of a woman on paper currency or on a single coin in circulation. Women are underrepresented in every branch of government and there has never been a female president or vice president. I personally asked Senator McCain loudly and clearly to choose a woman for the Vice Presidential slot and to increase the number of women in the cabinet and on the Supreme Court. Senator McCain listened respectfully to my request. Little did I know then that he heard me and the millions of women of this country who have gone unrepresented in the Executive branch of government for far too long.

When I made similar requests of the Obama campaign, I was laughed at by the canvassers outside my home, told there weren’t enough qualified women by a member of his Finance Committee, and asked by a member of a policy committee why I was making such a stupid request. Gender is the most fundamental human characteristic. The first comment made when a child is born is either, “It’s a girl” or “It’s a boy.” From that second on, boys and girls live in parallel universes in the same culture. You can’t learn what it is to be a woman, unless you are one. You can’t have a government essentially devoid of women that knows what’s best for women. You can’t legislate for women, without women.

By choosing Governor Palin as his running mate, Senator McCain acknowledged that two men can never know what it is like to be a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister – things Governor Palin knows all too well. Senator McCain chose the second only bi-gender ticket in American history reinforcing his image as a maverick. Choosing a vice-president, was the first significant decision Senator McCain and Senator Obama had to make. Senator Obama talks about change but picked a running mate who is part of the Washington establishment. Senator McCain’s actions speak for themselves.

I have given my loyalty to the Democratic Party for decades. My party, which is comprised primarily of women, has not put a woman on a presidential ticket for 24 years. My party was disrespectful to all women when they refused to nominate my candidate, Hillary Clinton, for president or vice president, even though she received more votes than any other Democratic or Republican candidate in history. My party stood silently by as Hillary Clinton was eviscerated by the sexist attacks of the mainstream media. My party’s candidate was mute when Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Pfleger openly mocked Senator Clinton from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ. My party’s candidate was silent when the rapper Ludacris released a new song calling Hillary a bitch. Neither my party nor its candidate has demonstrated in this election that they hold women in high esteem. And yesterday, I understand Senator Obama personally said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, and it’s still a pig.” Well, Mr. Obama, calling girls names is something fifth grade boys do and I don’t want a fifth grader running my country.

I might not agree with Senator McCain and Governor Palin on all the issues, but I don’t agree with any candidate on all the issues. But in Senator McCain and Governor Palin, I find two people with personal integrity and a love of their county — individuals who not only talk the talk but walk the walk. I can work with that. I will vote for McCain-Palin. In fact, I’ve decided to try to win one vote a day for the McCain-Palin ticket. My new personal mantra is, “A vote a day, keeps Obama away.”  I urge all Clinton supporters and McCain supporters to do the same. Thank you.

A great moment for women – The Boston Globe


By Cathy Young September 12, 2008

WHATEVER THE OUTCOME of the presidential race, 2008 will be a memorable Year of the Woman. First, Hillary Clinton came close to capturing the Democratic nomination, a feminist dream that failed. Now, there is Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential pick: to some a new feminist dream, to others a feminist nightmare – a conservative female politician who embraces a right-wing social agenda, including opposition to abortion.

To the contrast between Clinton and Palin, add a contrast between Palin and Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Joseph Biden, himself a player in gender politics as the champion of a major piece of feminist legislation – the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.

Is Palin – whose image as a tough woman has evoked comparisons to historical and fictional female fighters like Joan of Arc and Xena, Warrior Princess – a feminist hero?

To some feminists, the answer is a clear no. Novelist Jane Smiley brands her “a woman who reinforces patriarchal power rather than challenges it.”

But the charge is unfair. Unlike right-wing columnist Ann Coulter, to whom Smiley compares her, Palin is not known for attacking the women’s movement; she credits it with breaking down gender barriers and creating the opportunities she has enjoyed. While antiabortion, she belongs to a group called Feminists for Life.

As a social issues liberal with strong concerns about religion-based public policy, I have some serious disagreements with Palin, though it’s often hard to separate the reality of her views from the caricatures painting her as a zealot. But I also believe that her candidacy is a great moment for American women.

First, more representation for feminism across the spectrum of political beliefs is a good thing. Women, like men, should be able to disagree on gun ownership, environmental policies, taxes, even abortion while agreeing on gender equity.

Second, the biggest feminist issue in America today is the career-family balance. Despite remaining discrimination, motherhood is at the core of the “glass ceiling” holding back female achievement. How inspirational, then, to see that the “mommy track” can be a road to the White House. Palin is a mother of five who resumed an intensive work schedule days after giving birth, and whose husband seems to be a full partner.

Palin’s candidacy may also be a watershed moment in conservative politics. The right has long been ambivalent about working mothers; a number of conservative politicians and pundits have been given to chiding “selfish” women who pursue career ambitions after having children. Now, a mother with a high-powered career is a conservative hero, and full-time motherhood may be forever gone from the roster of “family values.” ….

Ultimately, women should vote on the basis of a candidate’s ideas and ability, not gender. But in the contest of the vice presidential candidates, Palin represents by far the better version of female empowerment. Regardless of how we vote or who wins, that empowering message is here to stay.

Cathy Young is a contributing editor at Reason magazine.

Why We Fight : The New Agenda

Why We Fight : The New Agenda.

This is a post that sums up the kind of media sexism women have had to grapple with and the long terms effects it may have on today’s youth:

Gary Kamiya’s article in Salon was graced by that picture of Palin. That picture of Hillary is from Spy Magazine, circa February 1993, just a month after she and Bill arrived in Washington.

The post concludes:

This is why we fight. We fight for my daughter and the millions of girls like her who are endangered by the sexist rhetoric that passes for media these days. We fight for the millions of boys who are looking at the Progressive Dude Nation right now, at their style, their pazzazz, their irreverence, and who are wanting to posture the same stance one day if they haven’t adopted it already. There is more at stake than just this year, this election, or the next four years. There are legions of young minds being shaped, and we must inform them, using rhetoric that is natural to their intellect, of what is going on right now and what is possible for the future.