Predictably, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker went after Jessica Valenti for explaining why Sarah Palin and conservative women like her can't call themselves feminists -- even if they employ some feminist language to promote their conservative values.
Parker says Valenti's argument shows that today's feminists enforce a sort of orthodoxy that doesn't let women reach their own conclusions on feminist topics even while, practically, the successes of the feminist movement mean many women with divergent views are able to rise to prominence. (She also, in a strange aside, argues that being pro-choice is no longer a feminist requirement because a transgendered man gave birth and there might be fake wombs someday, making pregnancy less a woman's concern.)
Of course women can have divergent views. But it's not true that this makes every woman in power a feminist. Palin's argument is that abortion hurts women, and Parker thinks there's room for a pro-woman argument against abortion. And surely, plenty of women are anti-abortion and would approve of an anti-abortion message from a woman in power.
But Palin would, given the opportunity, institute actual policies that prohibit other women from exercising their own choice. Those who would curb abortion rights praise those who make a choice to carry a troubled or unexpected pregnancy to term, but in their world this is the only "choice" that exists. Palin would make her argument against abortion in a world that disallowed it. This isn't a choice, and it doesn't trust women to make their own. Palin isn't a feminist because feminist orthodoxy is so strong, but because hers is.
-- Monica Potts
