Losing the battle, and maybe the war
September 13, 2008
by Ciccina
|Originally posted at The Lurking Canary.
Today I read that our nasty little homegrown clero-fascists have grabbed mainstream headlines by putting both feet squarely on the new third rail of American politics: racism. See here for an article on some kind of dreadful anti-Obama novelty type item. The article doesn’t link to an image of the product itself, and I’m not providing one, because I don’t intend to promote it through the back door (“you wouldn’t believe this – click here now to see it!”).
But the article itself reminds me of a question that is still, unfortunately, rhetorical – where was the “objective” mainstream media outrage over the “Hillary nutcrackers“? They were sold in a big honking display at the CNBC store at National (Reagan) airport. Maybe there were AP articles that declared them unambiguously sexist and implicitly immoral, but I don’t remember seeing them. This is the kind of item the press deems trivial and ignores, or describes as controversial, something that some people find offensive, or to which feminist groups object. This article, while published in the not-MSM Huffington Post, is by a Chicago-based “editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer,” and it captures the mealy-mouthed equivocating reaction in all its contextual glory:
I’m still trying to figure out what to make of it — feeling at once troubled that this is more cultural rollback, that it’s OK (again, still) to mock the concept of women in power with quasi-sexual guffaws that mask deep male anger and fear, a la Tucker Carlson; yet at the same time swayed by the idea that this light-hearted product, while it has obvious appeal to Hillary haters, could also appeal to her supporters and to women in general because it conveys female empowerment, and in any case it’s funny, and sometimes it’s OK to just lighten up.
My point has nothing to do with Sen. Obama per se. My point is: whatever else the current generation of feminists – and particularly the Third Wave feminists – have accomplished, the battle to diminish the cultural acceptability of sexism and misogyny is being lost. Lighten up is not a successful strategy. Lighten up is no strategy at all.
When I objected to the decidedly not-impressed employee at the airport store selling the nutcrackers, I was told “well, people are buying them.” When I subsequently tried to voice my outrage, I was flummoxed. This wasn’t about writing a Congressman, or calling for something to be banned, or calling for a boycott (which can backfire spectacularly). Writing comments on various blogs felt, at best, inconsequential. There was no vehicle to do anything about this.
The day will come when racist expression is vociferously and sincerely condemned in every corner of this country. Norms have changed, and they continue to change. Even the most entrenched stereotypes and assumptions can be uprooted. In some ways, this is the kind of improvement that is the most meaningful, because it demonstrates that the way people think about race as a concept has evolved.
The dumbest response to this phenomenon would be to resent organized anti-racism interest groups (which include many, many feminists), the millions of individuals who have bravely spoken out on their own, or the beneficiaries of their efforts, such as Sen. Obama. This is a success-in-progress that should be celebrated and emulated.
Feminists can make this happen with regard to sexist and misogynistic expression. Around the world one can identify cultures where such expression is more common than in others. Given that such differences exist, we know that at a minimum it is possible to move our culture along the spectrum, in the right direction.
We must commit ourselves to an innovative and energetic campaign to change our culture. The way things look now, we’re not just losing a battle about sexism in this election – we’re losing the whole damn war.
MSM made fun of Hilary’s national security experience and now Sarah Palin’s experience. What about Obama’s national security experience? He is for the number 1 spot, the Presidency! Where is the fairness here? Do they think that women can’t do the job?
When Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Tories in 1975, she hadn’t had much experience, and incidentally, NO foreign policy experience, but Thatcher was a great minister.
Illinois Democratic governor and Barack Obama supporter Rod Blagojevich is taking his own party to task for belittling Sarah Palin’s experience. Blagojevich said on a Chicago radio station Thursday, “Governors every day have to make decisions for better or for worse. That’s part of the job. It’s an executive position… I think it’s a tactical mistake for the Democrats to question Governor Palin’s experience when she’s been governor of a state.”
Blagojevich added that criticizing the size of Governor Palin’s electorate is also a mistake. “I don’t think the size of the state is relevant. It’s the kinds of decisions you have to make as governor,” he said.
You are so right.
If we don’t stick together, we will as women get nowhere in this country.
I agree. It seems the most honest political commentary available these days is found in comedy programming (The Daily Show, etc.). The SNL sketch featuring the press conference with Palin and Clinton nailed the issues. It’s here:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotr.....night.html
Lighten up. Get over it. Quit whining.
The more I hear that, the more savage I become. I do not whine. I bellow. I shriek. I menace. Whining’s for babies. I have become a beast.
Bravo! What a fantastic post. I agree that modern feminism lacks an infrastructure, and that the reason for success against racism is that the civil rights movement was successful in building that infrastructure.
It’s not like women didn’t try, though. I spend a fair amount of my time on my blog trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. At a certain point in the early 70s, feminism was ascending while civil rights had peaked, but was still a strong movement. Something more than backlash happened there. It is related to education, with it’s months-long focus in every grade on black history, and the lack of any history on women. It also has to do with abortion and the ERA. There are many elements to the failure of the 2nd wave, but it’s been really difficult to piece it all together from the perspective of a now 37 year old woman, born in 1971, just as that ascension was happening.
I hear Obama supporters yelling “racism” at every turn — yet not once, did I hear anyone tell them to stop whining. Need I say more — Yet, the stop whining meme keeps coming from other women This is what enrages me. Just as so many women are demeaning Sarah Palin in he most vicious ways. This is happening even among my friends — I’m about to pull my hair out, when they say “oh you don’t want HER……”
Stay strong, Maggie! I was with some friends last night who actually attend workshops where they are taught how to write letters to the editors of newspapers protesting Sarah Palin!!! I asked them “and are you actually paying for this?”. Unbelievable. But when I asked them why they liked Obama they just gushed that he was “so well spoken”, so “inspirational”, so “cool” – but they couldn’t really mention any reason why, as women, we should support him. And the funniest bit was the issues they had with Sarah (“she’s religious!”, she bans books!”, “inexperienced”, “talks too much”) were either rumors spread by the MSM or the exact problem I have with Obama. They could not, however, see the irony. I had to feed them more martini’s before they exploded.
I hate it when women prove men’s old joke about being their own worst enemy……..
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