The Independent Women's Forum is disappointed that the National Organization for Women would engage in sexist attacks aimed at Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The Independent Women's Forum notes that one of the stated goals of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is to eradicate sexism. NOW president Kim Gandy even stated that they will "monitor the media and call them out for their sexism directed at Palin. A woman slurred, regardless of her party or stances, is a woman slurred."
However, a NOW spokeswoman has reportedly engaged in sexism towards Palin when she stated that the Alaska governor is "more a conservative man than she is a woman on women's issues. Very disappointing."
Allison Kasic is the director of the Silberman Center for Collegiate Studies at the Independent Women's Forum describes such comments as "silly...hurtful [and] needlessly divisive."
"Because it shifts our focus away from the important things -- you know, from talking about the issues and talking about which candidate is going to have better judgment and their experience and all those sorts of things," remarks Kasic. "And it focuses it on nasty identity politics -- and I don't see anything positive coming out of those sorts of comments."
Kasic says she would think that a lot of people in the feminist establishment would be excited about a woman running for vice president, even if they did disagree with her political stance.
When John McCain announced Governor Palin as his running mate, NOW released a statement slamming that choice as "a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters." In that statement, Gandy accused McCain of not understanding that women supported Senator Clinton "not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues" -- something that Gandy claims Palin is not.
5 Comments
John | September 15, 2008, 5:42pm | #
It is finally coming out that liberals groups, such as NOW, are not champions of "women" but rather champions of women who support abortion on demand and the homosexual agenda. The left's attack on Palin is due soley on her pro-life stance. How is it a step backward for women to have a conservative woman who has juggled career and family and succeeded in both? The fact is Palin represents what the left has argued for as long as I can remember; a strong, intelligent, family-oriented woman who has been elected to her state's highest office and now a shot at the vice presidency. As a conservative man, I am proud to support Sarah Palin and if the Republican's lose in November, I will be the first to suggest she runs for President in 2012; Palin-Rice? Now that would be a ticket I could get behind.
SteveM | September 16, 2008, 9:54am | #
Liberal gender-feminists want an either/or situation...
Either you're a career-sacrificing submissive slave who chooses to stay home and be a house wife,
Or you're a "free" and "independent woman" who does what she wants and pursues any given life goal, regardless of effect to your children.
See?
A woman like Sarah Palin is a typical working conservative woman: She remains domestic, remains a dedicated wife and mother AND holds down an outside job.
This is a thorn in the eye of the lib gender-feminists.
Why? Because it proves that babies and children are not "burdens", that a woman who mothers her children isn't "sacrificing", that a wife who actually does things for her husband isn't a "slave".
It proves that a woman can choose to have a career...without abandoning her children and husband.
And what of women who DO choose to stay home and be full-time homemakers?
Is it not their CHOICE? And is it really some sort of cursed and odious life? To have a thousand domestic skills at your fingertips? To be needed? To be able to sew, or cook a meal? To be an important, loving, caring part of your family's life?
It's a sad shame that liberal women have worked so hard to make GOOD, CARING women feel like their "slaves" and "have no life".
It really is.
Sarah Palin is awesome, she's a woman for young women to look up to and admire.
Hillary Clinton was full of lies. Not empty accusation, she was caught time and again.
Hillary plays the victim.
Hillary pulls the gender card.
Palin is a real woman; conservative women tend to despise the "victim" title and prefer to "woman up". That's why we're proud of them and love 'em.
Young women absolutley needed a Sarah Palin to come along and show them the difference between a genuinely strong, real woman....and a weak, self-absorbed woman who loves the victim role.
Eric | September 17, 2008, 11:00pm | #
Really?
See, as someone who is watching this, What NOW is mad at sarah palin for is removing the right to choice.
Right wingers feel that it's all fair and good as long as it's by their rules. Noone that is truly pro choice is pro abortion, however, I would RATHER see someone get an abortion than raise a child that they don't want or see the idea of someone to be raped and not have an option.
You can hold onto archaic values and cry more about "sexism" as this is now the token of the right wing party. Honestly though, for 40 plus years, the republican party has worked against the rights of women as individuals and more as breeding machines.
I guess that because it's a choice that you don't agree with you should be allowed to tell other people how to make that choice.
And to anyone who truly feels that the pro-choice movement is trying to make women feel belittled because they CHOOSE to be homemakers, you are living a lie. My girlfriend (yes, I'm a guy) is a raving liberal. She is also independent. She is also completely in control of her own life. If she wanted to be a housewife, then that's fine. Let her be, it's her CHOICE.
You feel that gays are gonna hurt you? please. Why are republicans so obsessed with other people's bedroom? You want to make your choices but you refuse to recognize others.
And this is what we're left with, a nation of god fearing, pregnant nationalists who feel it's their duty to populate the homeland.
FEAR is the mindkiller, and your inability to free yourself from fear is what will prevent you from ever being happy.
Good luck with that, and I truly pity you all.
priscilla | September 19, 2008, 2:57pm | #
I was very excited when a politically knowledgeable woman with years of experience was running for president but this small town politically uneducated opinionated tomboy who McCain selected for her gender and oil connections does nothing for me. She said that she hadn't thought about Iraq. She's been too busy ridin' and shootin' and firin' people. She's got clout and know's how to use it; Not vice or presidential material. "She ain't woman enough to take away my rights".
nun | September 22, 2008, 9:56pm | #
Comments such as Gandy's are the reason why NOW is a dead organization. The values that they espouse do not apply to most women, just "their kind" of women.
Happily, I do not fit into that group.