Barbara Kay: The day Sarah Palin kneecapped radical feminism

Thanks to Sarah Palin, the long hibernation of socially conservative feminism is over
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In her column in Canada's National Post Tuesday, Barbara Kay explains why the Marxist-influenced feminists hate Sarah Palin. Those radicals had helped to create a culture that, says Kay, "if not overtly man-hating, is always man-blaming... and their contributions to the family and society trivialized." But that all changed on September 3, 2008, when Sarah Palin took the stage at the RNC convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul to accept the GOP's vice-presidential nomination in a speech which "electrified the nation":

Palin was the first public figure to openly and successfully ridicule the hitherto untouchable Barack Obama. She also was the first American woman to campaign for high office by paying homage, but no ideological dues, to the Sisterhood. This Alaskan small-town huntin’, fishin’ God-fearin,’ abortion-hatin’ mom of five showed that a woman can break through any glass ceiling she wants without the imprimatur of the feminist politburo.

Feminists watching Palin’s stunning performance knew a stake was being driven through their movement’s heart. They went ballistic. Feminist blogger Jessica Grose wrote on her Jezebel web site: “When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded … What I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay murderous, rage.” Judith Warner wrote in The New York Times that Palin was an “insult to women.” Comedian Sandra Bernhard riffed on YouTube: “Turncoat bitch! You whore in your cheap f***ing … cheap-ass plastic glasses.” Academic Wendy Doniger opined, “Palin’s greatest hypocrisy is her pretense that she is a woman.”

And who can forget Canada’s very own Heather Mallick — then of the CBC, now of the Toronto Star — who watched Palin with “my mouth open, my eyeballs drying out, my hand making shaky notes.” From those “shaky notes” emerged a stomach-turning attack on Palin’s “pram-face” daughter, Bristol, followed by the advice: “Turn your guns on [Bristol’s boyfriend] Levi, ma’am.” (And liberals say conservative discourse encourages violence!)

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If there is one issue that illustrates the bright line between revolutionary feminism and Palinite feminism, it is abortion. The unfettered right to abortion is an irreducible feminist dogma. It wasn’t always the case. The Suffragettes were political pioneers, but social conservatives. Thanks to Sarah Palin, the long political hibernation of socially conservative feminism is over.

One thing we all know is, you don’t want to stand between a Mama Grizzly and her babies. And these Mama Grizzlies happen to like babies a lot. The born ones and the unborn ones too. Exciting political times ahead.

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- JP