Apparently, there is a wrong kind of feminist, and by both sides of the political spectrum, I am considered IT.
Last fall after the general election, I started a group for pro-choice women who wanted to find common ground for women’s issues with feminist-identified pro-life conservatives on the Sarah Palin supporters forum “TeamSarah”. Because I dared to admire Sarah Palin for her feminist qualities despite disagreeing with many of her political views, I was told by liberal women that I couldn’t call myself a feminist.
It’s been a couple of months since I checked in with my group there while I’ve been immersed in writing my latest novel. Today, a friend in the TeamSarah Hillary Clinton Supporters group posted something interesting about Republicans for Single Payer Healthcare. Intrigued, I clicked on the post, only to find out that I have been summarily banned from the forum.
I can only assume that someone simply could not bear the idea of a self-identified pro-choice liberal pagan queer who admired Sarah Palin being part of their little world.
The last time I checked in, we had about 25 or 30 members of Pro-Choice, Pro-Sarah. Unfortunately, I can’t contact any of them to tell them what’s happened. Then again, in all likelihood, those women (and a few men) were banned just for joining my group. To those few open-minded conservatives: I am truly sorry.
To the rest of the uptight, passive aggressive women out there on the intertubes (and this includes the liberal women who ran me out of their virtual town on a rail as well), thank you ever so for making women’s issues petty and irrelevant with your inability to think of the bigger picture. We had a chance here for women to come together after this giant slap in the face from the Democrats that (temporarily) woke a bunch of us up to the institutionalized hatred for women on both sides of the aisle. But it’s more important for you to hang on to your own hatred of people who think differently from you.
By all means, cling to those penised-Americans who keep doing SO much for you, as long as they have the right letter after their name, and just keep on spitting in your sisters’ faces.
It always pisses me off when women say “we’re our own worst enemies” when it comes to the question of why women, who make up the majority of people on this planet, still face so much oppression in this world. This always seemed to me to be a blame-the-victim mentality, putting the responsibility for oppression on the oppressed. I’m finally being persuaded that it’s actually true.
If we’re all so damn concerned that there’s a “wrong” kind of woman out there that we don’t want to support, then we don’t deserve equality.
Seraphic Light 