Well, the only good news is it's not a rape joke.
Reporter: Senator McCain's day began with a round of interviews on some of Miami's popular Spanish-language radio stations. One of the hosts, Enrique Santos, told McCain he was planning to cast his ballot the next day and remained undecided.
McCain: We have surveillance cameras, and we'll know how you vote, okay? [laughter] So, you, uh, I would suggest, if you vote the wrong way, you hire someone to start your car tomorrow morning. [laughter]
Reporter: That was a joke.
There's no better way to start your day than a joke about spying on and threatening American citizens!
Christ, I really, really, really loathe this jackass.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
when i'm 18, i get to vote
This is the cutest fucking thing ever:
"A little more than a month [ago], teacher Joyce Ben-KiKi had [7-year-old Aron Mondschein and his second-grade classmates] each send letters to a famous person as part of a language arts lesson. Ben-KiKi wrapped the exercise around well-known children's book character "Flat Stanley," so along with the letters, the children each tucked a Flat Stanley figure they had made into each envelope."I told them not to expect a letter back," Ben-KiKi said. "I told them these people are very busy and most likely will not write back."The list of recipients was impressive: Yankee third basemen Alex Rodriguez; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz; Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain. [Aron wrote his letter to Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.]Obama was the only one to write back.…Obama's three-page letter to Aron described Flat Stanley's visit with him and his staff in Washington, D.C. It chronicled their busy day together, which included coffee with constituents, a Senate committee meeting and a trip to the gym. It also had historical facts about the U.S. Capitol, details of Obama's job and a confession from Obama."Sometimes I get a little nervous before talking in front of a crowd, but Flat Stanley helped me practice the speech," Obama wrote. 'He made me recite it in front of him and then even gave me some advice so the speech would go smoothly. Flat Stanley is really a great coach.' "
The next day, Aron went up and told his mother, "When I'm 18, I get to vote!" How fantastic is it to hear about kids getting excited to vote?
And a note: I'm not crediting Obama with personally writing this note, as I realize there is a large possibility that he didn't. I'm crediting his campaign with paying attention to letters from kids with this amount of personal detail, and with motivating a young child to realize how important and all-around cool voting will be.
"A little more than a month [ago], teacher Joyce Ben-KiKi had [7-year-old Aron Mondschein and his second-grade classmates] each send letters to a famous person as part of a language arts lesson. Ben-KiKi wrapped the exercise around well-known children's book character "Flat Stanley," so along with the letters, the children each tucked a Flat Stanley figure they had made into each envelope."I told them not to expect a letter back," Ben-KiKi said. "I told them these people are very busy and most likely will not write back."The list of recipients was impressive: Yankee third basemen Alex Rodriguez; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz; Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain. [Aron wrote his letter to Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.]Obama was the only one to write back.…Obama's three-page letter to Aron described Flat Stanley's visit with him and his staff in Washington, D.C. It chronicled their busy day together, which included coffee with constituents, a Senate committee meeting and a trip to the gym. It also had historical facts about the U.S. Capitol, details of Obama's job and a confession from Obama."Sometimes I get a little nervous before talking in front of a crowd, but Flat Stanley helped me practice the speech," Obama wrote. 'He made me recite it in front of him and then even gave me some advice so the speech would go smoothly. Flat Stanley is really a great coach.' "
The next day, Aron went up and told his mother, "When I'm 18, I get to vote!" How fantastic is it to hear about kids getting excited to vote?
And a note: I'm not crediting Obama with personally writing this note, as I realize there is a large possibility that he didn't. I'm crediting his campaign with paying attention to letters from kids with this amount of personal detail, and with motivating a young child to realize how important and all-around cool voting will be.
Monday, October 27, 2008
change of heart
Remember when Sarah Palin declared that she was a feminist? Well, not so much anymore.
In an interview on NBC Nightly News that aired yesterday, Brian Williams asked Palin: "Governor, are you a feminist?"
"I'm not gonna label myself anything, Brian," said Palin. "And I think that's what annoys a lot of Americans, especially in a political campaign, is to start trying to label different parts of America different, different backgrounds, different...I'm not going to put a label on myself."
This is one time when a political candidate's flip-flopping really doesn't bother me. Go ahead and stay label-free, Governor. Because I don't know many feminists who would label you as such. And it doesn't help that you've got McCain running his mouth off about how you're the "direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America".
(By the way, what IS the liberal feminist agenda for America? I'm always hearing conservatives talking about the feminist agenda and the gay agenda and I feel really hurt that I wasn't invited to the Radical Meetings in which these agendas were apparently decided and sent out. At the very least someone could send me an email just letting me know what these agendas are, you know? I feel so out of the loop.)
I'm honestly really, really sick of this election. It's just been ten long months of this ugliness. Can we please just shut McCain out of the White House nice and quickly and then move on with our lives?
In an interview on NBC Nightly News that aired yesterday, Brian Williams asked Palin: "Governor, are you a feminist?"
"I'm not gonna label myself anything, Brian," said Palin. "And I think that's what annoys a lot of Americans, especially in a political campaign, is to start trying to label different parts of America different, different backgrounds, different...I'm not going to put a label on myself."
This is one time when a political candidate's flip-flopping really doesn't bother me. Go ahead and stay label-free, Governor. Because I don't know many feminists who would label you as such. And it doesn't help that you've got McCain running his mouth off about how you're the "direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America".
(By the way, what IS the liberal feminist agenda for America? I'm always hearing conservatives talking about the feminist agenda and the gay agenda and I feel really hurt that I wasn't invited to the Radical Meetings in which these agendas were apparently decided and sent out. At the very least someone could send me an email just letting me know what these agendas are, you know? I feel so out of the loop.)
I'm honestly really, really sick of this election. It's just been ten long months of this ugliness. Can we please just shut McCain out of the White House nice and quickly and then move on with our lives?
the personal is political
I've been mulling over this entry for awhile now. The issue of body image is one that has in some way affected almost all of the girls I've been friends with over the years. I don't know when it started, but it seemed like one day we all just woke up hating our bodies. How does this happen, why does it happen? We can name the usual suspects- billboards, MTV, magazines, etc. But it seems like that's almost not enough. There must be some radical reason why girls start hating the way they look with an intensity that seemingly comes out of nowhere. But if this is true, it's a reason that has eluded me.
I never really struggled with my body the way some girls did when I was growing up. Of course there were days I wished my breasts would just grow already or that my skin would magically clear. But when I grew older I accepted the fact that I'd never have an ample chest and admired my long legs and my green eyes. I never struggled with eating. I used to joke that although I seemed like the perfect candidate for anorexia (perfectionist, overachiever, worrier), I didn't have the willpower required to keep myself from eating. When I stopped to think about it, I felt like I had in some way dodged a bullet.
It didn't last. Since spring eating has felt like some unconquerable task. In her book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, Courtney Martin describes how when she was a teenager she struggled with an "almost eating disorder", which sounds like the best way to describe my experience. It seems to be getting better through therapy and the like, but I still wonder: how did this happen? How does this happen to girls like me?
At the climax of this, I felt like I was struggling with two people. I had this feminist self, who's read Fat is a Feminist Issue and Body Outlaws and Our Bodies, Ourselves and could rationally tell myself that I was beautiful and my body needed food to keep itself healthy and starving myself wouldn't make me happy. But it was like trying to use logic to conquer an emotion that was too great to be ignored. I couldn't avoid the girl inside of me that was scared and lonely and always, always hungry, the one who believed that if I couldn't control the pain I felt then at least I could control what I ate.
I wish I could pinpoint something that started this, some kind of reason that would give meaning to this experience. At the very least I could use it to speak out and say, "Here's what I went through and why I went through it" and maybe it could help explain why some girls struggle so much with food. But I know that the reasons behind my struggle are complex and multilayer and that to shorten it to one concrete fact would be impossible. And even if it was possible, that one reason wouldn't speak to the many different experiences people have, it would only be the story of one girl at this one time in life. I think it's that logical side of me again, searching for something simple and understandable. Because I don't really understand why it is that the rational I tell myself seems completely meaningless when it comes time for dinner. I don't understand why so many people starve and purge and binge. I wish that there was some good that could come out of all this. So I'm writing about my experiences in case there does turn out to be some good, that someone will read this and feel a little less alone.
I feel like I could go on about this issue for hours and still feel unfinished, but right now I'm just working on grounding myself. One day at a time.
I never really struggled with my body the way some girls did when I was growing up. Of course there were days I wished my breasts would just grow already or that my skin would magically clear. But when I grew older I accepted the fact that I'd never have an ample chest and admired my long legs and my green eyes. I never struggled with eating. I used to joke that although I seemed like the perfect candidate for anorexia (perfectionist, overachiever, worrier), I didn't have the willpower required to keep myself from eating. When I stopped to think about it, I felt like I had in some way dodged a bullet.
It didn't last. Since spring eating has felt like some unconquerable task. In her book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, Courtney Martin describes how when she was a teenager she struggled with an "almost eating disorder", which sounds like the best way to describe my experience. It seems to be getting better through therapy and the like, but I still wonder: how did this happen? How does this happen to girls like me?
At the climax of this, I felt like I was struggling with two people. I had this feminist self, who's read Fat is a Feminist Issue and Body Outlaws and Our Bodies, Ourselves and could rationally tell myself that I was beautiful and my body needed food to keep itself healthy and starving myself wouldn't make me happy. But it was like trying to use logic to conquer an emotion that was too great to be ignored. I couldn't avoid the girl inside of me that was scared and lonely and always, always hungry, the one who believed that if I couldn't control the pain I felt then at least I could control what I ate.
I wish I could pinpoint something that started this, some kind of reason that would give meaning to this experience. At the very least I could use it to speak out and say, "Here's what I went through and why I went through it" and maybe it could help explain why some girls struggle so much with food. But I know that the reasons behind my struggle are complex and multilayer and that to shorten it to one concrete fact would be impossible. And even if it was possible, that one reason wouldn't speak to the many different experiences people have, it would only be the story of one girl at this one time in life. I think it's that logical side of me again, searching for something simple and understandable. Because I don't really understand why it is that the rational I tell myself seems completely meaningless when it comes time for dinner. I don't understand why so many people starve and purge and binge. I wish that there was some good that could come out of all this. So I'm writing about my experiences in case there does turn out to be some good, that someone will read this and feel a little less alone.
I feel like I could go on about this issue for hours and still feel unfinished, but right now I'm just working on grounding myself. One day at a time.
Friday, October 17, 2008
what, you thought you'd get a real post?
I'm way too lazy busy working on college apps to write a real post so here's a rough draft of my latest opinion column for my school's paper. enjoy.
I’ve got a question. If you were to watch the five most popular television shows of the 1950s, how many references to teenage pregnancy do you think you’d find? I’m guessing the answer is zero. Compare this to the references to teen pregnancy in today’s movies and television- the number goes up dramatically. Personally, I think this is a good thing. Pregnancy is an issue that many students will think about, worry about, or experience and should be acknowledged if a movie or television show wants to portray a broad and accurate depiction of teenage life. Here is where my problem with teen pregnancy in entertainment lies: there are extremely few programs that describe this experience with anything resembling accuracy.
Full disclosure: I love the movie Juno. I know that lots of people do too. But let’s try to move past our love for Paulie Bleaker and the Moldy Peaches soundtrack and admit that the movie did not register high on the Reality Scale. First off, I don’t know about you guys, but if I told my dad I was pregnant, there’s no way he would simply look stern for a minute and then make a quip. Also, did anyone else find it odd that contraceptives were rarely mentioned? Juno is obviously a smart girl; why is it she didn’t think to have protected sex? There are possible explanations for this; perhaps they forgot in the heat of the moment. But then why wasn’t this explanation mentioned? To me, this omission makes no sense.
Another issue with the depictions of teen pregnancy is the lack of discussion about abortion. 22% percent of pregnancy ends in abortion and 17% of those abortions are had by teenagers, according to a 2008 study from the Guttmacher Institute. Whatever your personal stance on abortion may be, the fact is that abortion is a factor that comes into play in teenage pregnancy. So why is it that abortion rarely even discussed as a possible option, much less an option that a character eventually follows through on? Take ABC Family’s new series The Secret Life of the American Teen. I watched the first two episodes out of curiosity to see how a family show would handle the touchy subject of teen sexuality and its consequences. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. The show’s depiction of the main character’s pregnancy was dismal. First off, the main character kept claiming how she didn’t even know if she’d had sex or not- because if the show was going to portray a pregnant teen, then they’d have to show the stereotypical good girl, and good girls don’t know about sex. In this day and age, how many high school students do you know who can’t tell you what sex actually is? Also, abortion isn’t really mentioned- rather, it’s “mentioned”. Let me explain: when the main character reveals her pregnancy, one of her friends asks her if she has considered “the A word”. The other friend gasps and the main character looks as though her friend has told her to stab her womb with a pair of rusty scissors. It’s one thing if a character decides that abortion isn’t the right choice for whatever reason, it’s another if it’s shown as an act that cannot be even mentioned as a possibility.
Yeah, that's about all I've got. I started going on a bit of a rant on gender roles on The Secret Life of the American Teen but I wasn't sure that'd fly well at my school. We don't talk about gender roles all that often. This is about as academic as my brain can be right now, it's pretty fried out from writing 150 words on why X College is right for me. I'm thisclose to scrawling on a piece of paper, "I'm awesome, just LET ME IN I'M SO NICE I'LL MAKE YOU CUPCAKES!! Then I can sleep for more than five hours tonight" and sending it in. Maybe someone there will take pity on my poor soul.
Then again, maybe not.
I’ve got a question. If you were to watch the five most popular television shows of the 1950s, how many references to teenage pregnancy do you think you’d find? I’m guessing the answer is zero. Compare this to the references to teen pregnancy in today’s movies and television- the number goes up dramatically. Personally, I think this is a good thing. Pregnancy is an issue that many students will think about, worry about, or experience and should be acknowledged if a movie or television show wants to portray a broad and accurate depiction of teenage life. Here is where my problem with teen pregnancy in entertainment lies: there are extremely few programs that describe this experience with anything resembling accuracy.
Full disclosure: I love the movie Juno. I know that lots of people do too. But let’s try to move past our love for Paulie Bleaker and the Moldy Peaches soundtrack and admit that the movie did not register high on the Reality Scale. First off, I don’t know about you guys, but if I told my dad I was pregnant, there’s no way he would simply look stern for a minute and then make a quip. Also, did anyone else find it odd that contraceptives were rarely mentioned? Juno is obviously a smart girl; why is it she didn’t think to have protected sex? There are possible explanations for this; perhaps they forgot in the heat of the moment. But then why wasn’t this explanation mentioned? To me, this omission makes no sense.
Another issue with the depictions of teen pregnancy is the lack of discussion about abortion. 22% percent of pregnancy ends in abortion and 17% of those abortions are had by teenagers, according to a 2008 study from the Guttmacher Institute. Whatever your personal stance on abortion may be, the fact is that abortion is a factor that comes into play in teenage pregnancy. So why is it that abortion rarely even discussed as a possible option, much less an option that a character eventually follows through on? Take ABC Family’s new series The Secret Life of the American Teen. I watched the first two episodes out of curiosity to see how a family show would handle the touchy subject of teen sexuality and its consequences. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. The show’s depiction of the main character’s pregnancy was dismal. First off, the main character kept claiming how she didn’t even know if she’d had sex or not- because if the show was going to portray a pregnant teen, then they’d have to show the stereotypical good girl, and good girls don’t know about sex. In this day and age, how many high school students do you know who can’t tell you what sex actually is? Also, abortion isn’t really mentioned- rather, it’s “mentioned”. Let me explain: when the main character reveals her pregnancy, one of her friends asks her if she has considered “the A word”. The other friend gasps and the main character looks as though her friend has told her to stab her womb with a pair of rusty scissors. It’s one thing if a character decides that abortion isn’t the right choice for whatever reason, it’s another if it’s shown as an act that cannot be even mentioned as a possibility.
Yeah, that's about all I've got. I started going on a bit of a rant on gender roles on The Secret Life of the American Teen but I wasn't sure that'd fly well at my school. We don't talk about gender roles all that often. This is about as academic as my brain can be right now, it's pretty fried out from writing 150 words on why X College is right for me. I'm thisclose to scrawling on a piece of paper, "I'm awesome, just LET ME IN I'M SO NICE I'LL MAKE YOU CUPCAKES!! Then I can sleep for more than five hours tonight" and sending it in. Maybe someone there will take pity on my poor soul.
Then again, maybe not.
Monday, October 6, 2008
some people write witty titles
Rev. Peter Mullen has a lovely piece up on his blog. The champlain of the London Stock Exchange has not only proved that everyone and his mother has a blog nowadays, but that he is a homophobic bigot. He stated that religious people should start clamoring for the queer community to be branded, creating "discouragements of homosexual practices after the style of warnings on cigarette packets". He went on to say, "'Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS".
This is how prejudice works. It brands a certain people as less than human, making it okay to hate them or hurt them or advocate for them to be branded with a scarlet letter. I don't know why people still get so surprised when they read about hate crimes/murders. When you allow this breeding ground for hate to flourish, the result can be nothing good. In other words, don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.
This is how prejudice works. It brands a certain people as less than human, making it okay to hate them or hurt them or advocate for them to be branded with a scarlet letter. I don't know why people still get so surprised when they read about hate crimes/murders. When you allow this breeding ground for hate to flourish, the result can be nothing good. In other words, don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
less than reassuring
so palin's interview with katie couric was like watching the second half of Titanic, except there was no kate winslet to make the pain go away.
here's a quote on newspapers and other media:
Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.
Couric: What, specifically?
Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.
Couric: Can you name a few?
Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.
for one thing, alaska seems like an amazing place that i'd love to visit one day. but you cannot honestly tell me it is the freaking epitome of america. also, is there a reason why she does not name one single news source after being asked twice? it is not supposed to be a stumper.
she also decided to call herself a feminist, which is interesting considering that she has not one feminist value. she talks about equal pay (more on that later) and says that:
I’m a feminist who, uh, believes in equal rights and I believe that women certainly today have every opportunity that a man has to succeed, and to try to do it all, anyway. And I’m very, very thankful that I’ve been brought up in a family where gender hasn’t been an issue. You know, I’ve been expected to do everything growing up that the boys were doing. We were out chopping wood and you’re out hunting and fishing and filling our freezer with good wild Alaskan game to feed our family.
okay, for one thing, feminism is about more than just equal rights. my favorite definition of feminism comes from bell hooks: "Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." sarah palin is not a feminist by any definition, because she has done nothing that supports the feminist cause. i'd argue that she is an anti-feminist: she does not support women's reproductive rights, she does not support ending gay oppression, and she hasn't spoken out against racism, but i'd be shocked to find out she gave a damn about that. she's just using feminist language to try and appeal to the womenfolk, we vagina voters, and i'm pretty sick of it. also? we get it, you lived in alaska, you chopped your own wood and hunted rabbits and fed your family like Little House on the Tundra. ENOUGH already, please.
anyways, since palin is such a great feminist crusader, she of course supports equal wages for women. shockingly enough, she doesn't support an act that could have made that happen.
Couric: Where do you stand on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?
Palin: I’m absolutely for equal pay for equal work. The Ledbetter pay act - it was gonna turn into a boon for trial lawyers who, I believe, could have taken advantage of women who were many, many years ago who would allege some kind of discrimination. Thankfully, there are laws on the books, there have been since 1963, that no woman could be discriminated against in the workplace in terms of anything, but especially in terms of pay. So, thankfully we have the laws on the books and they better be enforced.
Couric: The Ledbetter act sort of lengthens the time a woman can sue her company if she’s not getting equal pay for equal work. Why should a fear of lawsuits trump a woman’s ability to do something about the fact that women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. And that’s today.
Palin: There should be no fear of a lawsuit prohibiting a woman from making sure that the laws that are on the books today are enforced. I know in a McCain-Palin administration we will not stand for any measure that would result in a woman being paid less than a man for equal work.
Couric: Why shouldn’t the Ledbetter act be in place? You think it would result in lawsuits brought by women years and years ago. Is that your main problem with it?
Palin: It would have turned into a boon for trial lawyers. Again, thankfully with the existing laws we have on the books, they better be enforced. We won’t stand for anything but that. We won’t stand for any discrimination in the workplace - that there isn’t any discrimination in America.
yeah, thank god we have laws in place that say women should have equal rights. and all we have to do to fix the whole "77 cents to a dollar" problem is just say really sternly that those rules better be enforced and lo and behold, they will be. i just love it when magic solves my problems for me!
and then we got her views on the queer community. jill at feministe put it best, so i'm going to quote her here:
Did you know that Palin has a gay friend? Because she does. Or rather, not a gay friend, a friend who just happens, coincidentally, to be gay. Who Palin just loves. But not like that. Because Palin has made a different choice in life; the choice to be straight, which she apparently sat down and thought about. Unlike her gay friend, who has chosen to be gay. Also, who has chosen to be her friend. Good friend. Who happens to be gay. Who she is not judging.
but the worst part of the interview was when couric asked her about roe v. wade. i'm not talking about her anti-choice views, we all know that. i'm talking about the fact that she doesn't seem to know any other Supreme Court cases. transcript here.
Couric: Why, in your view, is Roe v. Wade a bad decision?
Sarah Palin: I think it should be a states' issue not a federal government-mandated, mandating yes or no on such an important issue. I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas. Now, foundationally, also, though, it's no secret that I'm pro-life that I believe in a culture of life is very important for this country. Personally that's what I would like to see, um, further embraced by America.
Couric: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution?
Palin: I do. Yeah, I do.
Couric: The cornerstone of Roe v. Wade.
Palin: I do. And I believe that individual states can best handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in an issue like that.
Couric: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?
Palin: Well, let's see. There's, of course in the great history of America there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but …
Couric: Can you think of any?
Palin: Well, I could think of … any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.
this is who we're going to get stuck with if mccain gets elected president. this is the woman who will be our first female president if mccain dies. i want to be able to tell my daughter that the first female president was someone who i was proud to support, not someone who thinks that being close to russia will help her with foreign policy.
here's a quote on newspapers and other media:
Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.
Couric: What, specifically?
Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.
Couric: Can you name a few?
Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.
for one thing, alaska seems like an amazing place that i'd love to visit one day. but you cannot honestly tell me it is the freaking epitome of america. also, is there a reason why she does not name one single news source after being asked twice? it is not supposed to be a stumper.
she also decided to call herself a feminist, which is interesting considering that she has not one feminist value. she talks about equal pay (more on that later) and says that:
I’m a feminist who, uh, believes in equal rights and I believe that women certainly today have every opportunity that a man has to succeed, and to try to do it all, anyway. And I’m very, very thankful that I’ve been brought up in a family where gender hasn’t been an issue. You know, I’ve been expected to do everything growing up that the boys were doing. We were out chopping wood and you’re out hunting and fishing and filling our freezer with good wild Alaskan game to feed our family.
okay, for one thing, feminism is about more than just equal rights. my favorite definition of feminism comes from bell hooks: "Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." sarah palin is not a feminist by any definition, because she has done nothing that supports the feminist cause. i'd argue that she is an anti-feminist: she does not support women's reproductive rights, she does not support ending gay oppression, and she hasn't spoken out against racism, but i'd be shocked to find out she gave a damn about that. she's just using feminist language to try and appeal to the womenfolk, we vagina voters, and i'm pretty sick of it. also? we get it, you lived in alaska, you chopped your own wood and hunted rabbits and fed your family like Little House on the Tundra. ENOUGH already, please.
anyways, since palin is such a great feminist crusader, she of course supports equal wages for women. shockingly enough, she doesn't support an act that could have made that happen.
Couric: Where do you stand on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act?
Palin: I’m absolutely for equal pay for equal work. The Ledbetter pay act - it was gonna turn into a boon for trial lawyers who, I believe, could have taken advantage of women who were many, many years ago who would allege some kind of discrimination. Thankfully, there are laws on the books, there have been since 1963, that no woman could be discriminated against in the workplace in terms of anything, but especially in terms of pay. So, thankfully we have the laws on the books and they better be enforced.
Couric: The Ledbetter act sort of lengthens the time a woman can sue her company if she’s not getting equal pay for equal work. Why should a fear of lawsuits trump a woman’s ability to do something about the fact that women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. And that’s today.
Palin: There should be no fear of a lawsuit prohibiting a woman from making sure that the laws that are on the books today are enforced. I know in a McCain-Palin administration we will not stand for any measure that would result in a woman being paid less than a man for equal work.
Couric: Why shouldn’t the Ledbetter act be in place? You think it would result in lawsuits brought by women years and years ago. Is that your main problem with it?
Palin: It would have turned into a boon for trial lawyers. Again, thankfully with the existing laws we have on the books, they better be enforced. We won’t stand for anything but that. We won’t stand for any discrimination in the workplace - that there isn’t any discrimination in America.
yeah, thank god we have laws in place that say women should have equal rights. and all we have to do to fix the whole "77 cents to a dollar" problem is just say really sternly that those rules better be enforced and lo and behold, they will be. i just love it when magic solves my problems for me!
and then we got her views on the queer community. jill at feministe put it best, so i'm going to quote her here:
Did you know that Palin has a gay friend? Because she does. Or rather, not a gay friend, a friend who just happens, coincidentally, to be gay. Who Palin just loves. But not like that. Because Palin has made a different choice in life; the choice to be straight, which she apparently sat down and thought about. Unlike her gay friend, who has chosen to be gay. Also, who has chosen to be her friend. Good friend. Who happens to be gay. Who she is not judging.
but the worst part of the interview was when couric asked her about roe v. wade. i'm not talking about her anti-choice views, we all know that. i'm talking about the fact that she doesn't seem to know any other Supreme Court cases. transcript here.
Couric: Why, in your view, is Roe v. Wade a bad decision?
Sarah Palin: I think it should be a states' issue not a federal government-mandated, mandating yes or no on such an important issue. I'm, in that sense, a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas. Now, foundationally, also, though, it's no secret that I'm pro-life that I believe in a culture of life is very important for this country. Personally that's what I would like to see, um, further embraced by America.
Couric: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution?
Palin: I do. Yeah, I do.
Couric: The cornerstone of Roe v. Wade.
Palin: I do. And I believe that individual states can best handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in an issue like that.
Couric: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?
Palin: Well, let's see. There's, of course in the great history of America there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but …
Couric: Can you think of any?
Palin: Well, I could think of … any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But, you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a vice president, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.
this is who we're going to get stuck with if mccain gets elected president. this is the woman who will be our first female president if mccain dies. i want to be able to tell my daughter that the first female president was someone who i was proud to support, not someone who thinks that being close to russia will help her with foreign policy.
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