Source: http://www.newssun.com/opinion/col-0919-o-leary
published: Thursday, September 18, 2008
Why angry, radical feminists hate Palin
The media seemed genuinely surprised by the raw, visceral hatred that spewed out of the self-proclaimed defenders of women's rights toward Sarah Palin. This can only mean that they hadn't been listening to what the radical end of the feminist movement had been saying for decades.
I for one was not the least bit surprised. In the late 1980's I had a number of confrontations with radical feminists and had found them surprisingly unsympathetic to the concerns of real women. I had done some writing on the negative emotional and physical effects of abortion on women and was surprised at how many women regretted their decision. Many mourned and grieved over the loss of their babies. Many felt they had been deserted in their hour of need by the father of their baby and by their family. Many felt unduly pressured into the decision by clinic workers.
Those fighting abortion believed that all they needed to do was to convince people that the contents of the uterus was not just "tissue" but a living baby, but I discovered that many of those supporting abortion, doing abortions, and having abortions knew that it was a baby. I was confused. The radical feminists I debated explained to me that it wasn't about the babies, it was about women.
The radical feminists rejected the liberal feminist agenda of equal treatment for women and men in education and in the workplace. The radical feminist goal was a total social revolution in which all societal recognition of the differences between men and women was banned. According to them, women needed to be liberated from babies, from marriage, from the demands of their families, from their own biology. The radical feminists were particularly upset about the fact that only women get pregnant. Only an absolute right to abortion on demand would even the playing field. Abortion was the sine qua non of their revolution. Abortion was absolutely necessary for the complete liberation of women because it would make women the same as men - not pregnant.
I pointed out all the negative consequences of abortion for women, but the radical feminists didn't care. They were willing to sacrifice these women and their babies for their "revolution."
In 1995 I attended the UN's Conference on Women in Beijing, China. Women from all over the world had come together to work on the real problems facing real women. Unfortunately, the Conference was completely controlled by radical feminists from the developed world, who were determined not to let the real women get a word in edgewise.
These radical feminists put forward a document that had not one positive word to say about motherhood or marriage. They tried to force acceptance of abortion on demand and same-sex marriage as human rights on the whole world. Fortunately, delegates from the developing world knew that they couldn't go home with such an extreme agenda. The radical feminists and their supporters lost. They were furious. They were not through, however. Over the years they have continued to try to force their extreme agenda on developing countries through the UN and by using aid programs to pressure poor countries.
The media has allowed these radical feminists, who hate everything that makes a woman a woman, to claim to be the spokeswomen for women. The radical feminist agenda was presented as the political position of women, when in fact the world's women are overwhelmingly pro-life, pro-family, pro-marriage, and pro-real womanhood.
Sarah Palin is the radical feminist's worst nightmare - a woman who has everything that the radical feminists told women they didn't want, didn't need and couldn't get. It is not surprising they hate her. If Sarah Palin can rise to the position of governor or perhaps even higher without sacrificing her womanhood, then the radical feminists have been wrong. Many of them threw away their chances for real happiness, for the love of a good man, for family, for babies. They are now middle-aged and all they have is their dream of revolution. What is worse for them, young women see their revolution as a nightmare that takes and doesn't give.
On the other hand, when real ordinary women see Sarah Palin with her supportive husband, her children, her confidence, they rejoice because this really is the change we have been waiting for.
Dale O'Leary of Avon Park is a writer and lecturer and author of "The Gender Agenda: Redefining Equality and One Man, One Woman."