Elaine Lafferty, former editor of Ms. magazine and a Democrat, has been on Palin’s plane (EDIT: as a paid consultant) since soon after she was nominated and has offered a defense of the intelligence, feminism, and confidence of Palin in a piece at The Daily Beast titled “Sarah Palin’s a Brainiac.”
Of course this has created some furor in the feminist world, so here are my two cents. While Palin seems to have hit more of a stride now, all of her early exhibitions of intellectual work and curiosity showed someone unprepared for the job of VP, someone who had never thought about issues beyond the Alaskan borders, and someone who showed a lack of intellectual curiosity. Elaine may see someone different on the plane, but the public decides based on what they’re given access to, and their access to Palin has been minimal and, in the beginning, unsettling.
The other issue here is “What Is Feminism.” I believe that Palin thinks she is working for women–and to a certain extent her candidacy is good for feminism, forcing conservatives to support a powerful female candidate. Of course, we’ll see what the narrative on her “ability” and “intelligence” turns out to be after the election, when, if McCain loses, his camp may turn on her. Clearly in her own personal life, she has shown moxie and a great deal of confidence (over-confidence in taking on a job she wasn’t really ready for yet?).
Personally, I would call a woman who designates herself a feminist and who currently supports women’s progress in many areas of social/economic/political life, but not a woman’s right to choose, a feminist. I’m not sure who has the right to give or take that designator away, and I don’t think there’s a real point in fighting over the moniker itself. However, I do think we need to determine what is a viable feminism .
In our era, a woman, like any man, will have to work hard to achieve her desired social and economic standing. At the same time she has the right to a private sexuality. As a result, she may choose to prevent pregnancy or abort if pregnancy occurs at an undesired time, a time which will prevent her from achieving the social/economic independence and power that Palin claims women have a right to go after. Reproductive choice is today inherently tied into women’s status, and thus Palin’s feminism, a feminism that does not give a woman that right to choose, is not a viable feminism for our age.
Comments
Bob Lamm — October 28, 2008
I've just read Elaine Lafferty's defense of Sarah Palin. Your readers should know that in this column Lafferty tells readers that she has been working as a consultant to the McCain campaign "since shortly after Palin's nomination." So I believe it's fair to ask: isn't defending Sarah Palin what Elaine Lafferty is being paid for? How do we separate Elaine Lafferty, the Democrat and feminist, from Elaine Lafferty, the paid staff member for John McCain AND Sarah Palin?
gwp_admin — October 28, 2008
Bob, you're absolutely right--it should be pointed out that Elaine Lafferty is not just an observer, she's on the team. Thanks for noting this important point.
Elaine Lafferty — October 28, 2008
It's easy to seperate, Bob. I would not represent anything or voice an opinion I believed to be untrue no matter who was paying me, nor how much. (Does the fact that you get paid for a magazine article or op-ed mean you only have that opinion for the money? Of course not.) Simple transparency and integrity required that disclosure.
Dawn — October 28, 2008
Elaine's defense of Palin doesn't make me re-think Palin; it makes me question Elaine's ability to adequately advocate for my rights as a woman.
Gloria Feldt — October 28, 2008
Kristen, Elaine, everybody who will take a moment to think this out:
Anybody can call herself anything she wants to, but that doesn't make it true. A feminist must in the end have sufficient respect for the fundamental human rights of herself and other women that she publicly supports a)codifying women's civil right to make their own childbearing choices (all choices) without government coercion and b) acknowledging women's moral agency to make those decisions as a matter of simple justice.
We denigrate ourselves as women when we accept anything less. Reproductive justice for women isn't just a matter of opinion to be voted on willy nilly; it's a fundamental social justice principle.
Bob Lamm — October 28, 2008
I'm 61 years old, have always been interested in politics, and have watched presidential campaigns with great interest since it was John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon in 1960. Without question, the McCain/Palin campaign is the slimiest, the dirtiest, the most vicious I've ever seen. No other presidential campaign even comes close. This is sad for me since I have a very real debt to Elaine Lafferty, who while running Ms. enthusiastically published an essay of mine. But I have NO respect for anyone on the payroll of that slimy campaign and I have no interest in what they say--while cashing their checks--about John McCain, Sarah Palin, or anyone or anything else.
Emily — October 28, 2008
Aside from the conflict of interest issues that arose in the previous comments with respect to Elaine Lafferty and her assessment of Sarah Palin, I also took issue with the fact that I did not read anything redeeming in Lafferty's piece which truly attests to Sarah Palin's intelligence, capability, or competence.
With the media spotlight so fixed upon her for the past two months since her introduction as McCain's running mate, and the plum appearances on mainstream television venues that she has been offered, Sarah Palin has had more than enough opportunities to prove herself, without Lafferty having to do it for her just a few days shy of the election.
Ironically, what I heard in Lafferty's piece was the personal opinion of one of the very insiders of the "Beltway Establishment" that she chooses to criticize. It seems Lafferty has access to an individual candidate that may share certain thoughts on women's rights in private, but who has leveled some of the most ridiculous and underhanded charges against her opponent in this campaign, and one who is not brave enough to let her true abilities and concern for women's rights shine through in public, if these attributes do in fact exist.
gwp_admin — October 30, 2008
Thank you everyone for all your responses. As the election day gets closer it's important to keep the convo going.
Two things I wanted to address. First, Gloria, I very much appreciate your comment, and you're absolutely right, we do denigrate ourselves as women when we accept anything less than reproductive justice. I am a firm believer in this. However, I did want to take the question of "who is a feminist" out of the picture, because I don't think it should be appropriated by any one group of women. As was seen in the 70s, there could be very different visions of who a "feminist" was--from white heterosexual to African American to lesbian, from middle class to radical. I think fighting over "feminist" wastes time when we should be asking what feminism works.
In terms of what feminism works, my argument over reproductive justice being essential for a viable feminism was not meant to be a flippant, or very transitory, argument. My point was that the need for reproductive justice isn't just a "right"--which is a word that can be argued over by both sides meaning very different things--but a historical necessity. A historical necessity--that's a big thing. Women have no hope of equality in our society if they don't have control over their bodies.
Bob and Emily, I absolutely agree that McCain's campaign has turned into something vicious, putrid, and ugly. I can't vouch for this compared to many other campaigns, but their tactics have truly made my stomach turn. I think the campaign hit rock bottom this week when they tried to paint Rashid Khalidi as a terrorist/neo-Nazi. Rashid Khalidi is instead an extremely well-respected scholar, a fierce intellectual who has promoted education, civic engagement, and non-violent solutions for Palestinian causes. http://harpers.org/archive/2008/10/hbc-90003779
Bob Lamm — October 30, 2008
Kristen--
I noted above that I'm 61 years old. Thus I remember before Roe v. Wade when abortion was illegal across the United States. When adult women and women in their teens routinely died of illegal abortions, sometimes in back alleys, sometimes trying to abort themselves with coat hangers. If "feminists" like Sarah Palin have their way, we will see that become common again. I hope to NEVER see that again in my lifetime.
As for the "vicious, putrid, and ugly" McCain/Palin campaign, I've been posting on Facebook about all the historic crimes Barack Obama was involved in. He planned the Russian Revolution with Lenin and Trotsky. Pearl Harbor was Obama's fault. He helped socialist Islamic terrorists to sink the Titanic. All of that and much more. Just ask Johnny McC.
Diana — October 30, 2008
Her stance on abortion is not the reason Palin is not a positive choice for women. While hers is a stance I personally firmly disagree with, there are subtleties in the pro-/anti-choice debate such that pro-life does not automatically equal woman-hater. That being said, Palin has repeatedly enforced policies that have harmed women. It is not her religious views that make her a controversial women's rights activist. It is the fact that she does not seem to be fighting very hard for women's rights.
Girl with Pen » Blog Archive » Sex and Sensibility: Reproductive Rights — October 30, 2008
[...] other day I wrote a post saying that Sarah Palin could call herself a feminist if she wanted to (more on that next week), [...]
MicMac — May 1, 2010
For the record, Lafferty was not only on the payroll of McCain-Palin when she wrote these puff pieces passing Sarah off as a feminist, she also accepted payment from SarahPAC long after the election was over.