NYC Letter: The Republican Stepford Wife

Countdown 52 days to go

Feminism, a political construct of muliebrity, is supposed to be about the abiding principles of sisterhood. [We wait for the applause to subside.] It is not. It is about politics.

Feminists turn out in great numbers to destroy the reputation of a conservative jurist on harassment hearsay, but go missing when a confessed sexist -- but liberal -- president is credibly accused of rape.

The politics of feminism are owned by a crew of angry women, self-appointed pronouncers of the needs and wants of women, of what is and what is not womanly, of what is and is not a woman. If you are a woman who falls outside the political compass of the feminists, well, dear girl, you are not a woman at all. You are a political freak. A phony. A hypocrite. And most damning, you are a Republican tool.

Such a person, unworthy of an extra X-chromosome, such a person's accomplishments amount to nothing.

What brings all this up are recent feminist attacks on Alaska Governor and GOP VP pick, Sarah Palin.

S.C. DEM CHAIR: PALIN PRIMARY QUALIFICATION
IS SHE HASN'T HAD AN ABORTION

September 10, 2008 (Politico) - South Carolina Democratic chairwoman Carol Fowler sharply attacked Sarah Palin today, saying John McCain had chosen a running mate "whose primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.”

Ms. Fowler went on to issue a what-I-said-not-what-I-meant apology explaining what she meant, which was indeed several removes from what she said.

WARNING! REPUBLICAN TOOL!
Go On, Sarah, Prove You're A Woman, Have An Abortion

And there is this thoughful rant.

Her [scil., Sarah Palin] greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman. The Republican party's cynical calculation that because she has a womb and makes lots and lots of babies (and drives them to school! wow!) she speaks for the women of America, and will capture their hearts and their votes, has driven thousands of real women to take to their computers in outrage. She does not speak for women; she has no sympathy for the problems of other women, particularly working class women.

Wendy Doniger (O’Flaherty),
Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the
History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School,
professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations,
and manifest feminist crank
OP-ED September 9, 2008 (WaPo)

Ms. D(O) goes on to spread a number of discredited sensational claims against Mrs. Palin. We encourage you to read all of Ms. D(O)'s sputtering rant. There is nothing quite as entertaining as unhinged viciousness shoe-horned into an opinion piece.

Now you may or may not like Mrs. Palin (we do), you may or may not like her politics (we do), you may or may not like her story (we do), but we can all agree that Mrs. Palin is a woman.

We can also agree that were not having an abortion -- the obvious, if not compulsory, feminist choice when burdened with a mongoloid pregnancy -- Mr. McCain's primary criterion for veep, well, mainstream politicians like Joe Lieberman or Mitt Romney nicely fit the bill. For that matter, Joe Biden, ready to run with or against Mr. McCain, also would qualify had Mr. Obama not already picked the low-hanging fruit.