Feminists

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These “Mama Grizzly” (a term that I take issue with because it automatically assumes that women taking place in the movement are doing so BECAUSE they mothers and wives, as opposed to women joining the movement for their OWN benefit) feminists (or fauxminists, if you will) reject the last 40 years of feminism and link themselves to the original feminists - the suffragettes.

Now, Valenti goes on to describe the significance of that link, but just from my own perspective I think the link is also significant because of the way these first fighters for suffrage marketed themselves. The fight for suffrage was fought originally not on the basis that men and women are equal and that women are just as capable of making political decisions as men, but on the basis that men and women are fundamentally different - that the world would be a better place if women were able to vote, as they would bring their kindness and charity and soft gentle ‘feminine’ qualities to the table. Just an interesting little detour there. MOVING ON!

By tying their “feminism” to the suffragists, whose goal was realized nearly 100 years ago, they’re not-so-subtly saying that women in America have achieved equality. In fact, they don’t believe that systemic sexism exists. The conservative writer Christina Hoff Sommers, for example, says that women aren’t oppressed and that “it is no longer reasonable to say that as a group, women are worse off than men.” If you believe women have made it, you’re not going to fight very hard on their behalf. But it’s difficult to rally women’s support behind a message of inaction, so Palin is doing her best to frame this nonmovement as proactive and, of course, “empowering.”

That is the crazy part!! These women do not believe that sexism wards women is prevalent in our society anymore. They don’t believe that cultural norms harm women anymore. I don’t understand how you can call yourself a feminist if you DON’T INTEND TO FIGHT FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS. Plus, you all know my hatred of Christina Hoff Sommers, who is basically the antichrist, so any movement she is involved with is automatically off my list of things to join.