Sexism Against Conservative Women is Still Sexism!
June 9, 2009
by Amy Siskind
|(Cross posted at The Huffington Post.)
When is sexism acceptable? The answer should be never. Yet for many feminists in our country, only certain types of women have been worth defending. When a conservative woman is the target of an attack, many so-called feminists stay silent. This “selective sexism”, or speaking out against sexism on a case by case basis, does not advance our national dialogue on women’s issues. Rather, selective sexism allows a dangerous level of permissible sexism to live and breed in our country. The only way for the women of this country to truly move forward is to unite and speak out against all forms of sexism regardless of party or the source of the attack.
When Playboy publishes a piece titled So Right It’s Wrong which is a “hate rape” fantasy of Guy Cambalo targeting ten conservative women, all women (and like-minded men) should be outraged and renounce this immediately. The identity and party affiliation of the 10 women is not of consequence – this is simply a despicable act.
Or when Ms. California, Carrie Prejean, voices her point of view on gay marriage and then becomes the target of an objectifying sexist rant by Keith Olbermann, where’s the outrage? Carrie is entitled to her point of view, and if you don’t agree explain why – don’t diminish her opinion by turning her into a sexual object.
Or when Governor Sarah Palin’s 14 year-old daughter is the subject of a degrading and humiliating joke by David Letterman, how can we let this be part of our culture? How would any one of us feel if this comment were directed at our daughter? And if Governor Palin were Governor “Sam” Palin, would Letterman dare to make that joke?
Or, on the other side of the spectrum, when Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi is compared to the James Bond villainess “Pussy Galore” in a RNC Video – is that acceptable? Even if we do not agree with Rep Pelosi on policy or think she has been a mentor to other women, we should still defend her from a sexist attack. Issues are fair game, sexist treatment should not be.
And frankly our country deserves better. In 2008, we passed a major milestone in electing our country’s first African American president. And now suddenly comes an awareness that, yes, our country can take great pride in our advances against racism; but at the same time comes a realization that perhaps we have not yet come so far in our battle against sexism.
But times they are a changing and one can see, that ever so slowly, the country is having some “wait-a-minute-that’s-not-right” moments. To realize, yes, we have a come a long way baby – but we still need to travel that last mile. And that last mile is eradicating the roots of sexism and misogyny, deeply buried in darkness, ignorance and bias. And this realization has produced agents of change: new women’s groups birthed out of the 2008 election to speak out against sexism such as The New Agenda, WomenCount and Campaign for Gender Equality; as well as countless blogs forming an internet presence.
We see the successes of our collective actions. We see how The New Agenda can issue an action alert about the RNC “Pussy Galore” video and have our members write to Michael Steele and within 24 hours, the video is pulled. Or where Twitter and countless blogs condemned the Playboy article and shortly thereafter it disappeared. Because frankly these attackers know better – they are aware that this is not for the good of our country. They just need that gentle nudge of enlightenment.
But with these small victories, we must keep our eye on the prize. The real challenge for our country is to not selective actions, but rather collective action. We need to roll up our sleeves and do some digging together. To get down deep below the surface and work on eradicating those stubborn roots which have been flourishing for decades in the fertile soil of ignorance and hatred.
And we need to do this excavation as a team. All women and like-minded men must band together and unite in this crucial undertaking. We must put aside our political party, and even some issues that are divisive to women. We must instead choose to focus on what unites us, and what unites us is this: we want to make this country better for future generations. We want our daughters and granddaughters to grow up in a country where they are safe and have opportunity. That, we can all agree on.
Doesn’t your organization have a mailing list of all TV, radio, and newspapers when something happens like this Palin insult by Letterman happens that you can immediately send out an official protest letter???
Don’t you have women ready, willing, an able to go on TV, radio and
be interviewed to express their contempt for this type of thing??
If you don’t have this readily available, I think you need to or you will never be effective in protesting this type of treatment.
David Letterman is a pathetic PIG. He never showed any respect for the mother of his own child, and often made disparaging remarks about her on his show.
Now his comments made about Governor Palin, who was involved and participating in various noble causes in N.Y. state this week, reached a level of anti-women bigotry that is becoming way too popular among the far left Obamacultists.
Perhaps David Lettermen can have Ludacrios produce a rap song for him in which he spews all of his hatred toward Palin, his own wife and any other women by whom he feels threatened, to a hip funky beat.
Wow, I am sure Obama would think that it’s true genious.
Since when is the thought of the teen age daughter of a U.S. Governor being ‘knocked up” by a pro-baseball player comedy matterial. Oh yes, thats right, since SNL had a skit about Todd Palin being the true father of Bristol Palin’s child all is cool in the bizzaro world of the hip new urban democrats.
God, it makes me sick to call myself a liberal these days!
http://www.lonelyconservative......rah-palin/
Action alert? How about one to get Letterman off the air?
JBritto,
We do speak out – check out our media section – press releases – appearances – even on from the Fall to speak about the sexism against Gov Palin.
We are a group of volunteers who do this because we want to end sexism. We are trying now to build the structure of an organization, and as such, We NEED DONATIONS!!! If we had employees, we would do much more – there is so much to speak out about each and every day and we seem to be one of the few doing it – so we do what we can.
Don’t you have women ready, willing, an able to go on TV, radio and
be interviewed to express their contempt for this type of thing??
You still need news programs willing to do the interviews. The media is selective in what it covers and who it interviews.
Seriously, something has to be done about the Letterman comments, and soon. PIcketing in front of the studios?? Email blast??
What now!
I am sorry if this is some what off the topic, but I think SOS Clinton might need to hear from her former volunteers.
Hillary Clinton invites Esam Omeish in on State Department conference call conference call.
Did someone poor the Kool-Aide down Madame Secretary’s throat?
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....onference/
JBritto
cbsmailbag@aol.com
I’ll being emailing them a bit of whoop ass about David Letterman.
I’ll also be calling SOS Clinton to ask her what on earth has gotten in to her regarding her conference call for which she invited Esam Omeish .
Things are getting really scary. Is this really my country?
Shit!
We need our voices to be louder. WE need to protest in front of the white house and anywhere else. This is not right what is going on when it comes to women. If anyone were to speak about my daughter that way, I can’t even imagine what I would do. I am a true believer in what comes around goes around.
I agree with JBritto that you need essentially two things:
A person who can go through the media and report about all the sexism for action. And a person in charge of spreading the word about TNA.
With all the meet-ups going on, it looks to me that you have a great number of people from which to select volunteers/employees for important tasks and to build up your infrastructure. I think that rather than asking solely for donations at this point, which I know you need and is vital, you should work on doing what you can both to combat sexism and to spread the word about TNA. The more people know about TNA, the more donations you will receive. From all your meet-ups and people truly interested in TNA, I believe you do have a number of people who can add to/paticipate in your infrastructure at least as far as JBritto’s advice.
HILLBUZZ has done an excellent job of rallying the troops against Letterman:
http://hillbuzz.org/2009/06/09/not-on-our-watch/
If anyone needs guidance… as to where to send letters, or what to say… they are off to an excellent start.
The word is out… among PUMAs, and Conservatives.
This is going to get very ugly before it is resolved.
Bill O’Reilly’s exec producers are pitching this piece to Bill today – let’s all keep our fingers crossed. I’ll have something to say if we can find a network to cover this story!
Letterman did it again last night. He compared Willow to a prostitute in that former Gov. Spitzer was trying to get to her. They have the video at http://www.conservatives4palin.com/
Hillbuzz is organizing an effort to contact all sponsors. This is way overboard. I called CBS and talked to someone who answered the phone for the Late Show and he said he would pass the complaint on…and I filled out the feedback form on the website for the Late Show. I think the New Agenda needs to speak out on this.
[...] New Agenda is responding. Last night, our president, Amy Siskind, spoke out with a piece entitled, “Sexism Against Conservative Women is Still Sexism!”This morning, that piece is being referenced at Conservatives 4 Palin, and we are working on [...]
Letterman has jumped the shark with this latest. Rape is never something to joke about. The “knocked up” reference is repugnant in both its allusion to teenage pregnancy and violence/rape. Disgusting. TNA needs to be on the forefront of the counter-attack! This one isn’t going away any time soon.
Puma for Life,
We are hoping that a network will let me on to speak – please ask around the blogosphere for folks to reach out to the networks. I will have something to say!
From Conservatives4Palin:
UPDATE by RAM: The following statements were issued by Gov. Palin and Alaska’s First Gentleman about Letterman’s treatment of their 14-year-old daughter:
“Any ‘jokes’ about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too.”
- Todd Palin
“Concerning Letterman’s comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he’d ever dare make such comments about anyone else’s daughter): ‘Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/NY entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands – that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone’s daughter, contribute to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.’”
- Governor Sarah Palin
Amy, try Sean Hannigan…..he was just talking about the women’s groups not being nowhere around when it comes to Palin.
We do not have contacts at that show. If you know someone who does, please reach out to Hannity on our behalf.
I too e-mailed Orielly. He is definitly someone who will get our word out. Our only hope in the news will be Fox news.
[...] The New Agenda sums up the problem against any woman, regardless of party affliation, quite neatly: We must put aside our political party, and even some issues that are divisive to women. We must instead choose to focus on what unites us, and what unites us is this: we want to make this country better for future generations. We want our daughters and granddaughters to grow up in a country where they are safe and have opportunity. That, we can all agree on. Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized [...]
[...] The Huffington Post has just picked up our Sexism Against Conservative Women is Still Sexism. [...]
I absolutely agree that all women should be safeguarded from sexism. However, when Hillary Clinton was making a statement about the sexism that she was facing during her campaign, Sarah Palin (pre-VP nomination) was videotaped saying that Clinton needed to get over it, and accept that she will be treated that way instead of complaining about it. Then, the second she became the VP nominee, Palin began to cry out against the sexist media, and demanded our sympathy. That’s hypocrisy, right there, and because of this and other instances where Palin went against her word, I feel very little sympathy for her.
Letterman should not have said what he did, granted. It’s despicable, yes, but it’s not surprising, seeing as he’s on a LATE night talk show and his entire show survives on media attention like this. The Palin’s just used this as an opportunity to get more media attention themselves.
Amy, PLEASE be careful who you get in bed with. O’Reilly and Hannity are not credible media people to be associated with. Getting your message out to their audiences will do nothing to curb sexism in this country – it will only serve to continue to polarize liberal and conservative elements by making conservatives smug that liberals are hateful people. O’Reilly and Hannity themselves have spread the word of hate, the former to the tragic end of Dr. Tiller.
PLEASE PLEASE don’t go that way!
Yelena,
Firstly, when a man promotes the sexual objectification and abuse of a girl, it hurts all women and girls, not just the child’s mother. There is deep misogyny in the idea that a pregnant unmarried girl, or any girl, is fair game for sexual abuse. There is deep misogyny in the idea that a powerful woman’s girl children are fair game for sexual abuse. So, you are just shooting yourself in the foot by trying to justify this as something that Gov. Palin asked for or something that she deserves. A rape joke about any woman or girl is a rape joke about all women and girls.
Secondly, Palin did not say that Clinton needs to “get over it”. (However, Obama did say that the Hillary supporters need to “get over it” when they complained about the sexism and cheating in his campaign.) Palin did say that if Clinton complains about sexism, the public’s response will be to say that she needs to just get over it and stop complaining. Palin accurately noted that the public would not be sympathetic to complaints about sexism. She was not justifying that attitude, she was just noting it.
Yelena – No one likes hypocrisy, but we can’t always choose the examples who are perfectly in line in every respect. We have to call out against it whenever we perceive it. Remember, we’re defending women, not just one or two women. David Letterman cannot be allowed to slur women in general by picking on one target whom liberals don’t mind seeing ridiculed.
And PLEASE, Amy, don’t get in bed with O’Reilly and Hannity. They are not sympathetic to our cause and will only use you to further their cause.
I beg to differ with Yelena that the sexist attacks on Hillary were comparable to the type of assault on Sarah Palin. The assault on Palin was not primarily sexist, but a mutifaceted distortion of every facet of her beliefs and her career and political accomplishments. For example, she has never appealed only to a fringe on the Right or to religious conservatives. In fact, her bitterest opponents in Alaska were on the Right of the GOP, and in her legislative initiatives, she reached accross the isle and sought and secured Democratic support. She risked the wrath of religious conservatives to protect the rights od same-sex couples in Alaska ,and she constructed the most ambitious ‘green energy’ among any of the states of the Union. All these and many other facets of Palin’s career were simply buried in a torrent of lies. If Palin has struck back at media it was because, among other things, they deliberately set out to infflict pain on her family, obviously to force her to withdraw for ‘the sake of her family’. Just like a Chicago-style ‘protection racket’. All aspiring politicians are expected to ‘put their families out there’, so that is no excuse. I don’t buy the ‘sexist’ comparison with Hillary.
I second what Marylin said:
“Amy, PLEASE be careful who you get in bed with. O’Reilly and Hannity are not credible media people to be associated with.”
One of the reasons I’ve never joined any movement is because movements are full of people who can’t keep their facts straight.
David Letterman was not referring to Palin’s 14 year old kid. Even as sleepy as I was when I saw that bit, I understood him to be referring to the ubiquitous Bristol, who is famous for her out-of-wedlock baby and her “I HAD SEX AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED” Tour. Was the joke stupid? Yeah. Is it an indication that Letterman has suddenly sprouted horns and is now a mysogynistic devil? Uh…no.
Keith Olbermann’s commentary was not a sexist rant, for god’s sake. Please. If someone enters a contest where one’s LOOKS are judged, then their looks are fair game. K? That goes for male models, too. She’s a farking BEAUTY QUEEN contestant, for the love of Pete—not a nuclear physicist. I was as sickened as you were when I heard Nancy Pelosi referred to as “Pussy Galore”, but that’s because Nancy Pelosi is not an empty-headed, silicone-injected, whiny little bitch from a beauty contest who thinks that every time she opens her mouth, the world should listen intently. Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, is an actual role model for women—and I say that even though I don’t like her. Carrie Prejean enters beauty contests and she wants us to respect her for her opinions and her mind? Give me a freakin’ break.
Here’s another curiosity: Although your organization is billed as “non-partisan”, the blog above is really partisan. Lots of references to the sins of a few on the Left, complete with names—but only one lonely mention of the RNC. Didja forget John McCain’s joke about Chelsea Clinton? “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Her father is Janet Reno.” That fell out of Grampy’s mouth during his presidential campaign. Guess you must have missed that one.
I’m a flaming feminist from the 70s, and I have the scars to prove it. I marched for the ERA. I spoke out against inequality. I endured abusive behavior from men until I became empowered enough to tell them to fuck off, and in a couple of cases, to punch them in the mouth to make my point. I am not afraid to stand up for women, but DON’T think I’m going to get my panties in a wad over Sarah Palin or Carrie Prejean—women who have become media whores based on stupidity, hatred, whining, and wearing victimhood like crowns. Perhaps there should be a Whiny Women Beauty Contest.
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