Gianna on Obama (and more on feminism)

By DCH

I’ve read with interest the wide range of reactions to the Palin for VP candidacy from women, including that of my thoughtful fellow blogger, Danae, here at BD.

Perhaps the most amusing quote I have seen so far is from Professor Wendy Doninger who states of Palin: “Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.”

In NOW’s Aug 29th statement on Palin, they said: “Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women’s rights.”

It seems that some on the left are unwilling to recognize that women are as diverse as men - an accusation they have long leveled at the right.

Classical feminism was about gaining universal recognition of the equality of women with men — equality best understood in terms of the diversity of women’s interests and abilities and the legal freedom each woman should have to live up to her potential, just as men already could.

Dorothy Sayers put it this way:

What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person.

Yet, Slate.com and other left-wing websites are brimming with articles that vociferously attack Palin for not thinking as they believe a woman ought to think. Bad enough on a male politician, for Palin, her beliefs are not just narrow-minded but traitorous, they opine.

How does one get more insulting than to assume that a person should think with their genitals?

And, what cherished belief seems most important to them? What makes Palin a traitor to her sex? What is called a woman’s “most basic” right?

The right to life?

The right to vote?

The right to own property?

The right to be free from violence?

The right to equal pay for equal work?

The right to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals?

The right to liberty - to travel freely and inquire liberally (no male permission required)?

The right to educational and professional opportunities - without discrimination or harassment?

No, it seems that when this brand of feminists talk about a woman’s most basic right - the one you must believe in if you are to be afforded full faith and credit as woman - they mean the right to order the execution of your preborn son or daughter at ANY stage of pregnancy, without benefit of anesthesia, for ANY reason whatsoever.

Palin, they say, would eliminate abortion unless it threatens the mother’s life. But Obama would deny any legal protection to Gianna Jesson and other infants born alive during their abortion. While the majority of Americans might not completely agree with Palin’s position, they certainly don’t agree with Obama’s. In fact, most Americans today believe there should be more restrictions on abortion than currently exist.

Some men support abortion on demand. So do some women. Some women oppose abortion on demand. So do some men. Ideology is not the province of gender and it is time today’s feminists admitted that women are grown-ups who do not need to be told “how women think.”

Again, Dorothy Sayers:

Are women really not human, that they should be expected to toddle along all in a flock like sheep? I think that people should be allowed to drink as much wine and beer as they can afford and is good for them; Lady Astor thinks nothing of the sort. Where is the ‘woman’s point of view’? Or is one or the other of us unsexed? If the unsexed one is myself, then I am unsexed in very good company. But I prefer to think that women are human and differ in opinion like other human beings.

I have an idea. Let’s stop unsexing people because of what they think. Cool?

My guess, most people will cast their vote on issues other than abortion. That’s fine. There are whole lot of issues that are important to men and women. Me, I’m for the self-described feminist candidate who has won more elections than she has lost (on her own merit) and who welcomes life — whether that of her newest son or her preborn grand baby. Oh, and she’s also for energy development. Check. And 2nd Amendment rights. Check. And lower taxes. Check. And open, transparent government. Check. She opposes economically disastrous cap and trade legislation. Check. …