Livid. Insulted. Outraged. Appalled. And possibly bordering on Psychotic. These words are all appropriate descriptions of me upon hearing of John McCains choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. And with just the smallest self-reflection I could see how that intense of a reaction to a veep choice of a party and a politician that I had no intention or possibility of ever voting for would seem a little, shall we say, extreme.
I kept trying to calm myself down and gain just a little perspective. But then with every email, and every phone call I had that day, I realized I had not lost it, we all had lost it. It seemed as though most if not all of my friends were having the EXACT same reaction. Now they may not have been expressing it with quite as colorful of language as I was, but nonetheless the feelings and sediments were the same. Best simplified as “what the F$@#!”
So now, a couple days later, and still no more calm or rational about the choice, it occurred to me to ask myself, how could this possibly be this emotionally charging for me? My reaction could most obviously be compared to the reaction of millions of Hillary supporters across this nation. Women, who let’s be honest, for months now I had wanted to tell to simply “get over it.”
So why did my reaction to Sarah Palin look so much like their reaction to Hillary’s defeat?
I think these two political situations can teach us so much about the feminist movement and gender equality in our society.
I, as a self-proclaimed feminist, had absolutely no negative reaction to Hillary Clinton not winning the nomination. Would I have been proud to see the first female president, of course! But what saved me from heartache (besides my sincerest excitement and support of Barack Obama) was the expectation that the number of accomplished and successful female politicians will continue to grow and that first female president is not in fact too far off. And though I have the utmost respect for Hillary Clinton and her accomplishments, I have to admit to preferring the first female president not break through the glass ceiling in some part because she was married to a president.
So back to Sarah Palin, why was this so damn infuriating? Thinking back over my life as a young feminist of generation X/Y I realized I grew up firmly believing I could do anything I wanted to do, hold any office or job I so desired, and would never be denied success, so long as I proved myself. I never believed I would be held back by men. I knew I might have to work harder to be treated the same, but always felt that my goals were always achievable.
So to see a woman given a position that no man would be given with the same credentials seems to undermine and diminish hard-working, successful women everywhere! This only seems to drive a wedge between the genders, men won’t come out and say this in our politically correct world, but those males more qualified for the job, should be outraged too! We (women) have worked so hard to prove we were deserving of our positions and accomplishments, to have a woman promoted for simply (as a correspondent on Jon Stewart so eloquently put it) having a vagina was offensive to say the least and likely a major setback for the women’s equality movement.
Hillary and millions of accomplished hard-working women prove everyday that women have what it takes to succeed. John McCain and by association the republican party have proven that they do not believe in equality between the sexes, because clearly they view all women, qualified or not, as the same.
Basil Pesto
4 weeks ago
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