Courtney Martin presents some lessons feminists can learn from Sarah Palin’s rise and fall:
I almost heard the crinoline and ruffles crunching as Alice Paul turned over in her grave when Sarah Palin jubilantly shouted, “Life is about choices!” during her resignation speech a couple of weeks ago. It’s not that “choice” was a framing device embraced by the suffragists — really, it was more of a second-wave buzz word — it’s that the feminism Paul propelled with her starvation campaign and years on the picket line seems to have been reincarnated in a very strange form.
Now that the dust has settled from her oh-so-sudden resignation, it’s time for feminists (the alive kind, of course) to pick our jaws up off the floor, take a deep breath and really think through what we’ve learned from her year or so in the spotlight. (Even though I’m under no delusion that Palin is truly retreating into the Alaskan wilderness.) After some wincing reflection, here are three key feminist lessons from Sarah Palin …
