Rosebud #340
No offense to Ms. Palin, but isn't this whole thing a little offensive to women?
A lot of young women these days are weirdly ambivalent about feminism. They seem to be almost ashamed by the notion, to have no idea of what it even means. I think slut culture has engendered in them a great deal of self-loathing, as has the 20-year backlash against the women's movement (arguably the genesis of slut culture—the backlash, that is). I was talking with some young women I know who consider themselves, I think, to be very hip and with-it young ladies. They were saying, yeah, yeah, Palin, she's a Republican, but isn't it great that she had that Down's Syndrome baby when she didn't have to, and didn't that make you like her a little bit? Yes, that was a very heart-warming choice. But it was a Choice. Hers. Will they think it so wonderful when they get pregnant with a Down's Syndrome baby—or any baby—and President Palin (yikes!) insists that they have to have it, whether or not they're able to? (And by the way, at the risk of sounding like a reactionary myself, shouldn't a woman with a Down's Syndrome infant be at home caring for that special needs infant, not running for Vice President of the United States? I never liked John Edwards either after he said he was staying in the Presidential race after his wife got cancer...) Today the media is comparing Palin to Dan Quayle; but a more apt comparison might be Clarence Thomas...
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