While wandering around, I found a blogsite that I would have embraced to my bosom on the strength of this awesome Blogging for Choice post.
Unfortunately, that was not the first post that I read at Reclusive Leftist; the one that took me there was Feminists and the mystery of Sarah Palin.
And ... well, it's more than a mystery to me as to why this blogger is so blindly enamoured of Palin. It appears to be some form of post-traumatic syndrome. Reclusive Leftist was a staunch supporter of Hilary Clinton for President and when the latter lost the nomination for the US presidential campaign, the former lost part of her ability for rational thinking.
Sarah Palin appeared to her as though the Governor had descended from heaven pure, powerful and perfect in her potential to rally her feminist followers. Uh, what?
Yes, I was gob-smacked. There's also a lot of rightwing Republican-style unvarnished Obama-hate going on there and I have no idea whether that developed as an antidote for the drubbing his supporters gave Hilary.Think back to the reactions to Sarah Palin’s speech at the convention. Remember the gal at Jezebel whose head throbbed with hate blood as she listened to Palin speak? ... What the hell is that? I cannot figure it out. I look and look, and it’s like trying to see someone else’s hallucination. No matter how hard I squint, I can’t see whatever it is they’re looking at. What is so horrifying?
My own reaction to Palin’s convention speech was the polar opposite. I can honestly say that, aside from Nixon’s resignation speech, Sarah Palin’s address at the convention is the only Republican speech I have ever enjoyed. Or even been much interested in. I don’t agree with Republicans on politics — not by a long shot — but as a person, I found Palin charming in a Harry Truman, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Erin Brockovich kind of way. How could you not? Especially after the goons had spent the previous weekend in a misogyny fest of lurid speculation and grotesque sexual insults about her and her family. I was proud of her for her courage, as well as for her personal accomplishments as a working-class regular person who went into politics and succeeded.
So I left a comment. It hasn't been approved and posted yet and many others have. Just in case it never shows up, here it is. I tried to make it humorous, playing up one aspect of Reclusive Leftist that seems a tad touchy.
Reclusive Leftist provides a link to a Slate item that goes into an arcane discussion about insurance coverage that seems to imply that it wasn't Sarah's fault that the rape kit had to be billed to victims, the insurance companies were somehow to blame. It doesn't address the issue at the state level, though it may have simply been yet another thing that Palin micro-managed incompentently and let fall between the cracks.So, how would you explain those non-heterosexual (I wasn't sure if the L-word is allowed in the comments) feminists who are suspicious about Palin?
1) They're certainly not trying to please their men or "currying" to their guys.
2) Most have not had abortions to regret; those who do have children wouldn't certainly begrudge her fertility or the handiness of a sperm donor.
3) Those who wear lipstick, regardless of whether they're pit bulls or not, would feel kinship with her. And those who don't might think she's hot.
4) They might get a little queasy about the evangelical christian stuff. Unless they're celibate, and then it's a moot point.
5) They probably like her tomboyishness and interest in sports.
6) They might wonder whether her acceptance of homosexuality is limited to her one closest gay friend or extends to all.
7) The rape kit. Now that could give them pause.
While some might assume that non-heterosexual women are less likely to be sexually assaulted, in fact there are men who think that forcibly subjecting (L-word) women to sexual acts is great sport.
To my knowledge, this has not been debunked.
I also told Reclusive Leftist that in my opinion Palin had the worst traits of Spiro Agnew, Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney combined, and that it was unacceptable that she should be above scrutiny or criticism because she was a woman.