Lori Ziganto: Sarah Palin and the end of identity politics

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In an opinion piece cross-posted at RedState.com and the NewsReal Blog, Lori Ziganto notes the death of Old School Feminism -- long live Sarah Palin and the New Feminism. Good riddance, says Ziganto, who takes delight in the delicious irony that it is the Old School Feminists who "have hammered the final nail into their own coffin, by exposing themselves for what they truly are and what they truly believe." While the writer thinks that Sarah Palin deserves credit for helping to user out the old and ring in the new, she cautions that identity politics must not be allowed to rear its ugly head again:

I wrote something recently about Sarah Palin and the new face of feminism, entitled Taking Feminism Back: Sarah Palin Endorses Nikki Haley for SC Governor. My point was that conservative women are strong, capable and are fed up at having faux feminists (who are actually Femisogynists) constantly claim that they speak for us as they strive to turn all women into perpetual victims, at the mercy of big strong daddy government. We are also tired of motherhood being diminished and considered a detriment instead of an attribute. I was taking the term feminist back, not because it’s a necessary or even a desirable term, but so that the LEFT can no longer use it and can no longer continue to use identity politics as a wedge and a way to put people in race based and gender based boxes.

But, apparently some, even at the pro-Palin New Agenda, are now trying to turn Palin and other GOP women into typical Stepford Feminists. No. We must not allow that. Sarah Palin and the women of the GOP are “true feminists,” in the original intent of the word, yes. And the fact that the faux feminists on the Left are so up in arms about them using the term, which they have bastardized beyond recognition, attests to that fact.

But the term is not necessary.

The reason I’m happy that Palin and the “mama grizzlies” are in the forefront isn’t because they have girly bits. It is because of what they believe. It is because of the kind of people they are. It is that they are coming forward now, as freedom fighters. It is because, like it or not, it just so happens to be the women of the GOP who have the will and the fighting spirit at this time. That is what we need: leaders with spines, boobies or not.

You see, while “Feminists/Femisogynists” were busily pant suiting themselves and trying to become men, other women were out there annihilating the glass ceiling, by raising their families and learning through actual living and perseverance. We didn’t learn by trying to be something we are not, but rather we learned by living.

Read the Lori Ziganto's op-ed unabridged here and here.

- JP