Archive: Oct 2008

Nope, I’m not talkin about John McSarah Palin-cain. I’m talkin about the new team assembled here at GWP! And what a bunch, heh?

I’ll still be blogging pretty much daily.  Kristen Loveland will join me weekly, and our contributors will be bringing you monthly fare. Click on the names over there (->) to learn more about everyone’s background, and all our hot new column topics as well.

In addition to new regular voices, we’ve got a new look. Goodbye Blogspot, hello WordPress.

So welcome to the new site, sit back, take a good look around, enjoy the read, and get your pen on. We’ll be posting posts with your comments in them–under the title “Your Ink”–coming soon!

P.S. The GWP e-blast goes out this morning. If you haven’t received it and you’d like to, please be sure to sign up in the box up on the right.

Jacqueline Hudak’s column Family Stories appears the first Monday of the month. Here’s Jacqueline! -Deborah

As a feminist family therapist, my work is filled with stories.

I’ve wanted to add my voice to the conversation about Sarah Palin, and was reminded of this particular story from my practice, which I heard several years ago. I finally knew what I needed to say to Sarah Palin.

My patient was a 70-year old mother. I was working both with her and with her grown children, all in their forties at the time. The oldest daughter, who I’ll call Cathy, had been a client of mine, so I was familiar with her particular family story. On this day, only Cathy and her mother were able to attend the session; looking back, it was bit of divine providence.

Early in the session, the white-haired, frail mother looked at Cathy and said, “I’ve been thinking about telling you something. I haven’t spoken about it since it happened forty years ago, and always thought I would take this to my grave.”

The mother asked Cathy if she remembered a time when she was about 5 years old, and was left with her younger brother at her mother’s friend’s house. I knew for certain Cathy did remember. In fact, those days were vivid in her otherwise cloudy memory. The time her mother left her was part of a narrative she constructed about being abandoned as a young child to care for her younger sibling until her mother returned days later without explanation.

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And on the heels of Kristen’s awesome Palin/Morgan/generational commentary this morning, here’s one from my fellow graduate of Progressive Women’s Voices program, Avis A. Jones-DeWeever:

Where Have Our Standards Gone?

Sarah Palin survived the debate, but her down-home message can do little to reassure voters who have every reason to demand a change of direction.

What does it say about a nation, when the true take away message from a vice-presidential debate is that one of its participants actually does have the ability to string together a series of coherent sentences? Talk about the poverty of low-expectations. Sure, Sarah Palin made it through last night without adding to her long list of cringe inducing moments. But for a nation facing its greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, two sustained wars, and the lingering concern of the whereabouts and activities of Osama Bin Laden, being folksy just isn’t good enough. Competence matters. And clearly, Palin falls short.

Over and over, Governor Palin evaded questions, returned to the well-worn “Maverick” crutch, and sang the same ole’ Republican tune about the evils of government. But it’s hard to sell the tired anti-government spiel when your running mate pseudo-suspends his campaign to make sure that very government comes to the rescue of interconnected economies here and abroad.

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Sex Politics and Sensibility: More on Morgan
by Kristen Loveland

Robin Morgan wrote an anti-Palin piece a couple of days ago entitled, “When Sisterhood is Suicide,” which initiated a debate both on Girl with Pen between Deborah and Courtney, and at Feministing between Deborah, Courtney, and the wide feminist world. Deborah loved the content of the piece, but Courtney argued that its sarcastic, snarky tone was alienating. First, let me say that tone matters. I watched the debates last night in a Brooklyn bar with nary a McCain supporter in sight. In that setting there wasn’t a doubt about it: Biden won. He was calm, substantive, and authoritative in his knowledge, and never once attacked Palin personally. The Brooklyn crowd laughed at Palin’s folksky “darn its.” “Gosh darnit gee golly joe,” mocked the guy at the end of the bar. Folksy and “nice” and not snarky, Palin’s tone may have been endearing to some crowds, but it wasn’t to mine.

So tone matters– but audience matters more. Who was Robin Morgan addressing in her piece? I didn’t get the sense that she was trying to reach across the aisle, that this was the opening salvo in a conversation that would end with some congenial beers at the local bar between Morgan and Joe Hockey Mom McSixpack. This is Robin Morgan, after all.
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Live, from the National Council for Research on Women, it’s The Real Deal! The Council and its network of 115 research, advocacy, and policy centers are rolling up their sleeves to make sure that women’s and girls’ real-life challenges and concerns are placed front and center in the national debate. The blog will feature guest bloggers and lively commentary from a wide variety of experts and thought leaders.They’ve launched a mini-site that serves as a resource center of fact sheets, policy briefs, and reports produced by women’s research and policy centers and the more than 2,000 researchers in our network.

Check it out, and a hearty welcome to The Real Deal!

Yep, you heard it hear, and I’m not sure what this alligator has to do with it but it seemed a fitting image. This Monday will officially see the (re)launch of Girl w/ Pen as a group blog. We’ll post the new url here on Monday, and eventually (sniff sniff) this trusty blogspot site will shut down. So take a final look these next few days, and then it’s see ya at WordPress! But don’t worry. The content will be the same.

Only better.

I’m counting down til the debate. For pre-game commentary, check out Salon (“The Big Veep Sweepstakes”), feministing (on sexism and generations), and, well, everywhere! Addendum: These bits just in from the ladies over at the WMC:

In The Washington Post, political reporter Anne Kornblut, who has covered the Obama camp since the start of the election cycle and has also covered Hillary Clinton for the New York Times, shares her thoughts on media bias, her experience as a female journalist working in a mostly male press corps and her expectations for Thursday’s vice presidential debate.

Over at Politico, women ex-governors sound off. Among Sarah Palin’s class of trailblazing female governors, Palin is not universally embraced for her accomplishments. In interviews with the former governors who agreed to speak on the record, the subject of Palin tended to draw mixed emotions, with opinions sharply divided along partisan lines.

A Time poll shows Obama making headway with women. Propelled by concerns over the financial crisis and a return of support from female voters, Barack Obama has opened a formidable 7-point lead over John McCain, reaching the 50% threshold among likely voters for the first time in the general campaign for President, according to a new TIME poll.

Over at CBS, news anchor Katie Couric asked Biden and Palin some “Vice Presidential Questions.” This installment tackles Roe v. Wade and Supreme Court decisions.

The LA Times reports that John McCain’s running mate still appeals to many on a personal level, but other voters have grown wary of her experience.

Seen anything else particularly worth sharing? Feel free to post links in comments.

Yesterday Courtney Martin and I had a little convo about Robin Morgan’s latest piece over at the Women’s Media Center, in comments. Thought I’d share snippets here:

CM: Did you really think she was at her best D? You know I love me some WMC, and I thought it was chock full of interesting details, but I’m not sure this is a terribly effective way to communicate. Seems like a terribly effective way to alienate. And make the converted chuckle.

DS: Ok Court, you made me read it very closely again. I found objectionable parts. Like, “Bottom line: Obama’s book title: Dreams from My Father. McCain’s book title: Faith of My Fathers. Patriarchy? You think? Neither one gets it. BUT. One doesn’t not get it much more than the other.” I think of it differently. And I also think this line is a bit of doublespeak: “HRC campaigned intrepidly. But her campaign was unworthy of her—and that’s her fault.” If it’s her fault, then it’s her fault. Just own it. And lastly, this line: “We must never again collaborate in our own invisibility.” Not sure I agree with Morgan that that’s what happened in the primaries.

But other than that, I did think the piece–full of vitriol, yes, and sure to p** off the nonconverted–was effective in terms of pulling together a lot of what I’ve been thinking about the Palin-McCain ticket and hence in rallying a base. I do think outrage is called for in the face of McPalin. And I agree it’s not exactly a bridge-building kind of piece. But tell me more C — what specifically turned you off? The tone? The format? The content? I wanna know.

CM: You pointed out lots of the things that irritated me, but even more than that, I just find Morgan’s overall tone so alienating. It’s like, and I feel bad writing this but it’s really how I feel, a feminist Dowd…too clever and snarky and sarcastic to really communicate from the heart. Maybe I’m just cheesy, but my favorite writers get at the HEART of politics. I feel like she’s missing heart. (I’m also, totally admittedly, still angry at the way she characterized young feminists in her last controversial piece.)

It all got me thinking a lot about feminist messages and communication styles. Got thoughts on this? I’m curious to hear!

Check out this new poll about gender and power released last week by the Pew Research Center about who makes decisions at home. It got play in media outlets including USA Today, Today Show, ABC World News, and The Washington Post. Among the findings:

• In 43% of all couples it’s the woman who makes decisions in more areas than the man.
• By contrast, men make more of the decisions in only about a quarter (26%) of all couples.
• About three-in-ten couples (31%) split decision-making responsibilities equally.

From Pew’s website comes this zinger: “They say it’s a man’s world. But in the typical American family, it’s the woman who wears the pantsuit.”

We’ve known this for a while now, but there is much in the study that also looks new. For instance, on a totally different topic related to gender and power, the survey asked whether people are more comfortable dealing with a man or with a woman in a variety of positions of authority – doctor, banker, lawyer, police officer, airline pilot, school teacher and surgeon. The answer? Well, public attitudes are mixed. Read all about it here.

(Thanks to NCRW and CCF for the heads up.)

Well if you’re not awake this morning already, this one will wake you up. Robin Morgan has a new piece just up (remember Goodbye to All That #2?) over at the Women’s Media Center. In “When Sisterhood Is Suicide and Other Late Night Thoughts,” Morgan is at her absolute best.

She begins by offering 10 nice things first, as follows:

Ten Nice Things to Say About Sarah Palin:

1. She’s a lifelong NRA member and crack rifle-woman, but hasn’t yet shot a single person in the face.
2. She’s so unafraid of power that a majority-Republican legislative committee is investigating her abuse of it.
3. She’s broad-minded, willing to have evolution taught alongside creationism.
4. She gives “the personal is political” new meaning: Axing the public-safety commissioner for not firing her ex-brother-in-law (Trooper-gate); firing “foes” suspected of “disloyalty” (Library-gate).
5. She knows how to delegate, involving “First Dude” husband Todd in more governmental decisions than any male politician’s spouse has dared since Hillary tried to give us healthcare in 1993. (First Dude’s defying a subpoena from those meanies mentioned up in #2.)
6. She has executive experience: As mayor of Wasilla, then-constituency 5,000 souls, she presided over a population almost as vast as that of some urban high-schools.
7. She’s an existentialist: Bridge-to-Nowhere-gate, Highway-to-Nowhere-gate. She never “focused much on Iraq”—after all, “the war is part of God’s plan”—and she dismisses McCain’s reluctance to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as being like “Eastern politicians” about environment. (Check out Wasilla’s dead-Lake-Lucille-gate.)
8. She brings home the earmarked bacon—plus moose, caribou, wolf, and any other animal stumbling haplessly across her rifle-sight as she leans out of the ‘copter on another heli-hunt. But! Does she rely solely on godless government for her $500 million U.S.-subsidized natural-gas pipeline? No! Last June, at the Pentecostal Assembly of God Church, she declared, “God’s will has to be done to get that gas line built!”
9. She displays refreshing curiosity, as when she asked, “What is it exactly the VP does?” (Don’t scoff: Are you smarter than a 5th grader?)
10. She’s multi-talented—studied journalism, tried sportscasting, can slickly scan a teleprompter (unlike her running-mate). She’s a jock (Sports-Complex-gate.) She was a beauty queen (as all of McCain’s wives were; how ‘bout that?) She’s patriotic—well, except for attending that secessionist Alaska Independent Party conference during the seven years when First Dude was a party member pulling down DWI convictions on the side. Best of all, she’s a born-again feminist, a “feminist for life.” Which I guess makes me a feminist for death.

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