In a recent column on Huffington Post, Amy Siskind attempted to point out that sexism isn’t fair even when it is directed at conservative women. It sounds like such a reasonable idea until you actually read the piece she wrote. The two women whom she chooses to defend are Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean, and she is indignant that two of America’s most notorious sexists, David Letterman and Keith Olbermann, are the ones attacking Palin and Prejean.
Siskind is one of the founders of “The New Agenda”, a supposed feminist organization that is “dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls.” According to their website, their organization began in 2008 “…when 30 women met in Westchester, New York, to sketch out plans for a new non-partisan women’s rights organization. The attendees were community activists and leaders of women’s organizations from around the country, many of whom had met during Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. It was the painful lessons of that campaign that provided the raison d’être for the new group: to support women for public office, to draw a line in the sand against the sexism and misogyny so much in evidence in 2008, and to build a broad, non-partisan coalition to advance key goals for women.”
Somehow, an old feminist such as myself should be moved by the plight of Sarah Palin and an empty-headed beauty queen in California. What is their plight? Oh my god! They are victims of SEXISM! Siskind feels that Letterman’s stupid joke about Palin’s elder daughter getting knocked up at a ballgame was tantamount to torture. Despite the fact that David Letterman has been known for his compassion, even toward the mentally disturbed woman who stalked him, Siskind is going to pick up the Palin/Fox News meme and run with it in an attempt to illustrate how rampant sexism is in America. David Letterman might be guilty of a few sins, but there is absolutely no evidence to indicate that he hates women—which is more than can be said about the women who gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater and screamed the most vile things about his little boy and his partner, calling his son a “bastard” and his girlfriend “a slut”. How nice.
Siskind also is horrified that Keith Olbermann was disparaging Carrie Prejean on his show because he mentioned her fake breasts, which were paid for with pageant money. Here we have a young woman who has made a career from her looks. She has been in several beauty pageants, and she’s had plastic surgery to enhance the perkiness and size of her boobs. I doubt very seriously that Carrie Prejean participated in beauty contests and got fake breasts because she wants to enhance the lives of women, but Siskind takes up the torch for her and condemns Olbermann for mentioning the very assets that Prejean enhanced in order to impress male beauty judges. It’s my assertion that if someone, be they male or female, makes a career on their appearance and their body, and then tries to set themselves up as an icon for freedom of speech—they are fair game for anyone. That isn’t sexism. That’s comedy.
Despite the fact that Siskind and her ‘feminist’ ilk have declared themselves concerned with the welfare of women and girls, they ignore the ugly sexism of Newt Gingrich, who once averred that women would make lousy soldiers because they might get vaginal infections from being in ditches. Or John McCain’s lovely joke about Chelsea Clinton—the one where he said the reason Chelsea is so ugly is because Janet Reno is her father. The New Agenda also ignores Palin’s own remark during the 2008 campaign when told that Barack Obama had won the Democratic Primary: “So, Sambo beat the bitch?”
The New Agenda isn’t new at all. It’s right-wing demagoguery disguised as ‘feminism’. It’s home page shows a picture of a few women, all of whom are dressed in pure and virginal white, and the articles and comments from its denizens are 75% recycled Fox News garbage.
In the 70s, when I was coming of age, I experienced sexism on all sides. Men called me a “dyke” or a “bitch” if I had the temerity to refuse their sexual advances. An employer groped me, and when I quit and told my mother why I had quit, she didn’t believe me. Men, who I knew had protested the war in Vietnam and were all for civil rights, thought it was perfectly okay to make fun of women and make degrading jokes about the women’s’ movement. It was men who argued with me about the Equal Rights Amendment, and it was men who spit at me and the other women who marched for the ERA in Springfield, Illinois.
My feminist heroes were Maya Angelou and Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinam and Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman—women who had a great deal to sacrifice and who were bucking a system so entrenched it seemed impenetrable. These were women who endured bigotry and prejudice and hatred and violence and scorn and ridicule. All throughout history, we can point to women who risked their reputations and their lives to help other women, the poor, the downtrodden, the sick. Does Amy Siskind and The New Agenda acknowledge women of today who are that brave and that dedicated? No. She and they take up the banners of two women who have gained their fame and fortunes through lying, cheating, and grinding their stiletto heels into dirt rather than admit they’ve ever been wrong about anything.
It’s a ridiculous and insane stance to take. I got very frustrated by the responses of women on The New Agenda’s comments page, and attempted to argue these points there, but was barred from continuing. Evidently, they are bi-partisan and open and tolerant—except if someone actually has some facts to back up her point.
There is nothing wrong with feminism that we need fake feminists to come around preaching a fake doctrine. I don’t belong to any organization, including the National Organization of Women. I speak for myself, and for women like myself who grew up poor and afraid to speak out. If it hadn’t been for women like those I mentioned above and many others, none of us would have been empowered enough to find our voices and speak out against violence, hatred, and sexism. Amy Siskind and her pals owe their very existences to those who came before and fought like hell to make it possible for women to have the opportunities they have in this age. Sarah Palin is not a feminist. She’s not even a decent example of womanhood. Carrie Prejean is a spoiled brat who won’t shut up and go away.
I stand with Keith Olbermann and David Letterman, who are more feminist than Amy Siskind and her heroes.