October 10, 2005
Feminism and the Right Wing
filed under: Idle ChatterI followed a link from Kevin Drum to The Corner - the National Review's group blog. The National Review and the bloggers of The Corner are what my lefty blogroll would call "Wingnuts." I don't read them enough to know to what level of general offensiveness they usually take things, but in my quick perusal today there was nothing terribly inflammatory - just snarky, witty thoughtbites from clearly smart people who seem to believe the diametric opposite of most of what I believe.
I was startled to note, however, the level of offhand vitriol they have for feminists and feminism. It's clear in every word written about Harriet Miers' sponsorship of a feminist lecture series - to these right-wingers, feminists and feminism are The Enemy. (Okay, maybe not THE Enemy, but certainly AN enemy).
It never occurred to me that, in 2005, there were still whole bastions of people who loathe feminists. I mean, sure, it's pretty well accepted that capital "F" Feminists can be overly intense, humorless, tiring to talk to and generally no fun at parties - but loathing? Spite? Outright animosity? I had no idea.
Here are some phrases snipped from a long post on the subject:
Who is Harriet Miers? ...First, have a look at this piece by Texas liberal, Molly Ivins... Ivins argues that Miers is strongly anti-abortion, yet otherwise more feminist than your typical Texas conservative......makes sense of the feminist lecture-series mystery. That series is named after Louise Raggio, a prominent feminist lawyer from Dallas. Raggio and her fellow Texas feminists supported Miers... sympathetic to liberal feminism... the most like-minded female president the feminists could get.
...payback to Louise Raggio and her feminist allies... By all accounts... Miers is sympathetic to at least some of what her feminist allies believe. Does this include sympathy with affirmative action? Probably. After all, Miers got elected by feminists, who supported her chiefly because she was a woman.
...doesn’t think twice about associating herself with a lecture series that invites the likes of Gloria Steinem, Pat Schroeder, and Susan Faludi.
...she is used to working in coalition with, making concessions to, and often sympathizing with, feminist liberals...
...Her election to the bar as the candidate of feminists... now it emerges that Condoleezza Rice, may have had a key role in backing the Miers nomination. Rice is also one of the administration’s key backers of affirmative action... ...her history is that of working with, and making concessions to, feminists to her left. ...history of building coalitions with liberal feminists...
When someone from the Right uses the term "sympathizing with" I assure you they don't just mean "feeling their pain." We're only a decade or so past the time when "Communist Symp" was the worst kneejerk insult a conservative could toss. The Left sympathise with people; the Right "sympathise" with the enemy.
Upstream a bit from the feminist discussion is a reader tip, sent in because they knew the Cornerists would enjoy it. From last week's SNL:
Anyway, the fun part for you is that the DeLay character says they can't go back to Washington because Bush named "that bra-burning women's libber" to the Supreme Court. "Was Jane Fonda busy?"
Fun fun fun.
Posted by rjt at October 10, 2005 03:11 PMLet's accept that feminism is dead, at least in the way the right-wing thinks of the movement. Like any movement, it has evolved, fractured, become more nuanced in some instances, and obtuse in other instances.
Feminists are political boogeymen. Women. Boogeywomyn.
They are a codeword for "communist bull-dykes who like to eat babies." And an effective one.
What I find most interesting about right-wing attacks on feminism is how it's one front in a war against academia. Feminism, extreme theoretical, and/or political and/or genuinely sincere feminism, exists on campus. Academia is one of the left's strongest social pillars and it drives right-wingers nutty. So they attack feminism. Diversity. American studies programs. Artists. Etc. It's an assault on that part of the world.
If only academia hadn't created the humorless groupthink paradigm "political correctness", then they'd be beyond reproach in my book.
But they will succeed over the medievalists. I hope. Otherwise, I need a skill, like metalsmithery.
It reminds me of Ann(e) Coulter's repeated use of the word Liberal. She's clearly using it as a substitute for "annoying assholes" and she's not shy about it. She's also, thankfully, a joke.
Rush Limbaugh(e) likes to say Feminazi. I admit I giggle.
Are they really referring to feminsts or are they just using it as a substitute for "uppity bitches" or some other such thing?
And is putting one in league with Feminists or Liberals all it takes to get these people to stop thinking for themselves? Jeez that's easy!
Posted by: perj at October 11, 2005 09:52 AM