When Sisterhood Is Suicide and Other Late Night Thoughts by Robin Morgan

October 1, 2008

Morgan—whose controversial essay for the Women’s Media Center on sexism in the primary race, “Goodbye To All That #2,” was reprinted on 3,000 sites around the world—expounds here on women’s stake in the general election and the vote that will “make history.”

I screwed up. I started writing this weeks ago as a Letter to Undecided Women Voters—especially those still scarred by the profound misogyny battering Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries. But headlines kept breaking and I kept adding stuff until the piece threatened to become the Black Hole that ate the Electoral College. By now, my short tolerance for willful ignorance is as spent as Wall Street while socialism-Republican-style tries to nationalize it. But it’s hard to know where to start. So many dolts and liars, so little time. So much to cover. This essay needs lists.

Since feminists are reluctant to criticize a woman (as much from a healthy fear of headlines screaming, “Catfight!” as from sisterly sanctity), I offer:

Ten Nice Things to Say About Sarah Palin:

1. She’s a lifelong NRA member and crack rifle-woman, but hasn’t yet shot a single person in the face.
2. She’s so unafraid of power that a majority-Republican legislative committee is investigating her abuse of it.
3. She’s broad-minded, willing to have evolution taught alongside creationism.
4. She gives “the personal is political” new meaning: Axing the public-safety commissioner for not firing her ex-brother-in-law (Trooper-gate); firing “foes” suspected of “disloyalty” (Library-gate).
5. She knows how to delegate, involving “First Dude” husband Todd in more governmental decisions than any male politician’s spouse has dared since Hillary tried to give us healthcare in 1993. (First Dude’s defying a subpoena from those meanies mentioned up in #2.)
6. She has executive experience: As mayor of Wasilla, then-constituency 5,000 souls, she presided over a population almost as vast as that of some urban high-schools.
7. She’s an existentialist: Bridge-to-Nowhere-gate, Highway-to-Nowhere-gate. She never “focused much on Iraq”—after all, “the war is part of God’s plan”—and she dismisses McCain’s reluctance to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as being like “Eastern politicians” about environment. (Check out Wasilla’s dead-Lake-Lucille-gate.)
8. She brings home the earmarked bacon—plus moose, caribou, wolf, and any other animal stumbling haplessly across her rifle-sight as she leans out of the ‘copter on another heli-hunt. But! Does she rely solely on godless government for her $500 million U.S.-subsidized natural-gas pipeline? No! Last June, at the Pentecostal Assembly of God Church, she declared, “God's will has to be done to get that gas line built!”
9. She displays refreshing curiosity, as when she asked, “What is it exactly the VP does?” (Don’t scoff: Are you smarter than a 5th grader?)
10. She’s multi-talented—studied journalism, tried sportscasting, can slickly scan a teleprompter (unlike her running-mate). She’s a jock (Sports-Complex-gate.) She was a beauty queen (as all of McCain’s wives were; how ‘bout that?) She’s patriotic—well, except for attending that secessionist Alaska Independent Party conference during the seven  years when First Dude was a party member pulling down DWI convictions on the side. Best of all, she’s a born-again feminist, a “feminist for life.” Which I guess makes me a feminist for death.

Oh,the irony of it all.

We’ve lurched through a surreal looking-glass. Cheney advisor Mary Matalin smirks “we feminists have fought thirty years for this moment.” GOP Committee Victory Chairman (sic) Carly Fiorina—who sneered, “The glass ceiling doesn't exist”—steals my words from “Goodbye To All That #2” to support McCain. Conservatives now complain about “misogynistic” coverage of continually emerging political misdeeds by Palin—who herself denounced as “whiners” those millions of us livid at media sexism and Democratic National Committee (DNC) indifference to it in their joint political gangbang of Hillary last spring. The gall is breathtaking.

Never before have the words “sexism” and “feminism” sputtered their way out of so many hypocritical right-wing jaws, appropriated overnight by people who for—excuse me, 40  years—denounced anyone working for women’s rights, including calling us “FemiNazis.”  Perversely, such outrageous annexation of our language means feminism is succeeding. These neo-cons need to claim it, to pretend they’re relevant. (Of course, the lack of respect shown by the DNC and the Left to those 18 million of us HRC voters helped facilitate the Right’s cynical appropriation.) Still, “thanks but no thanks.” The complexity and power of the global Women’s Movement is not interchangeable with Applehood and Mother Pie. You can’t have the rhetoric without the reality. Sarah Palin is to all women what Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is to African American women and men. With triumphs like these, who needs setbacks?

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis says this election is “about personalities, not issues.” But feminists don’t merely follow the person—we follow the politics. We’ve always been about supporting candidates who show commitment to the rights of all women.  I backed Hillary for her stand on issues, and because I felt she was best qualified of all the candidates. But Hillary’s not running now.

Nor can you just slot one (qualified) woman out and slot a different (unqualified) one in: women are not building-brick toys.  Regrettably, some of my colleagues in the media seem unable to grasp this. Having faced justifiable fury for their treatment of HRC, they now tiptoe crazily around Palin for fear that to criticize her at all will be—whoops!—“sexist.” Which brings us to:

Ten Blunt-Crayon Hints for the Media

1. Do investigate Palin’s opposition to listing polar bears and other animals as endangered. Do not call her one: no chick, bird, kitten, bitch, hen, cow. Also no produce: tomato, peach, etc.
2. Do not give more credence to McCain’s “maverick” myth. (By the way, a “maverick” is not a rebel; it’s just an unbranded steer.) Do expose how the real McCain surfaces in racist, ethnic, homophobic, ageist, and sexist “humor.” Do remind us that 1998, when Chelsea Clinton was only 18, McCain asked a GOP fundraiser audience, “Why is Chelsea so ugly?" and answered himself:  "Because her father is Janet Reno."
3. Do follow up GOP accusations of media sexism regarding Palin. For instance, when Rush Limbaugh—who began pushing Palin for VP pick last February—exults, “She’s got nice-looking ankles . . . [plus] Guns! Babies! Jesus! And she's a babe!” do  suggest the GOP confront him.
4. When adopting a reverential tone about McCain’s stint as a tortured POW, do report that the largest single threat women in the military face is the torture of sexual assault and rape by their own male comrades and superiors—plus threats of ostracism and “friendly fire” if they report attacks. While on the military, if you report McCain minion Fiorina claiming he “was one of the first to condemn sexual misconduct at the Navy’s Tailhook Convention in 1991,” do expose the fact that McCain participated in Tailhook drunken bouts and sexual attacks on women in 1987 and 1990, while a sitting senator. (He was warned a day early that the scandal would go public, so carefully denounced it first, claiming the assaults began in 1991—a brazen lie.)
5. Do not ask if Palin can balance work and parenting, unless you ask if McCain, Obama, and Biden can. Do report quotes like this, from Cindy McCain: “When I was alone with all these babies . . . did I get angry? Sure, [I was] a single parent except on weekends.” Or this, from Michelle Obama, quoted by Barack: “‘You only think of yourself,’ she would tell me, ‘I never thought I’d have to raise a family alone.’” But do challenge Palin’s claim of relying solely on relatives for childcare, since she acknowledged (in her church speech last June) having a nanny.
6. Do not crucify Bristol Palin for being a pregnant, unwed teen. Do note the irony that her mother opposes sex ed and funding for pregnant teens. Do point out conservatives’ vile, racist, double standard on teen pregnancy (imagine if an Obama daughter were in Bristol’s situation).
7. Do not laugh away impregnator Levi Johnston’s having bragged on his (swiftly removed) Facebook page, “I’m a f***ing redneck . . . I like to hang out with the boys, shoot some s*** and f***in' chillin'." Do follow up: Just what did he mean by “shoot some s***”? Deer? “Horse”?
8. Do not present more all-pale-male panels shamelessly unfazed by pontificating on gender and race. Do be embarrassed that all three presidential debates are anchored by white men. Gwen Ifill, a two-fer—female and African American--landed the VP debate. She’s great. Two-fer’s not. Be ashamed. Be very ashamed.
9. Do not keep humoring the tiny minority of woman-hating, lesbian-and-gay “curing,” science-denouncing, religious-fanatic troglodytes in this country. Do not dignify them by “equal time” 50-50 coverage when the reality is 6 (them)-94 (the rest of us). Do not fear condescending to people who deserve not just condescension but ridicule, because they insist everyone share their certainty that our galactic quadrant of dimensional fabric in the multiverse was thrown together in six days by a vengeful authoritarian old prick with a beard; people who believe women were born to shut our mouths, spread our legs, obey men, and drop babies like litters of, uh, say, pit-bulls; people who don’t fear wars but are terrified of same-sex lovers; people who are blatantly bigoted, deliberately superstitious, and proudly ignorant. Do not facilitate the further takeover of our republic by Snopses—and if you don’t get that literary  reference, look it up  (try Faulkner).
10. Do expose lowest-common-denominator politics as toxic to the democratic process. Do  confront  accusations that any thoughtful person is “elitist.” Do remind viewers and readers that intelligence, skill, and excellence are desirable qualities in those who would be our leaders. Do  remind citizens that the Founders of this Republic were highly educated individuals who prized intellect, rationality, and science, who made damned sure religion and politics were firmly separated, who chose representative government over direct democracy because they believed that leaders should not be folks “to have a beer with” but people thoroughly educated on national and global issues and deeply prepared to deal with them. Despite corporate ownership of the media, do try to act like a free press.

Anyway, here’s where we are now.

Pollsters claim “disaffected white women,” including “unregenerate” HRC supporters,  will make the difference on November 4. In fact, groups like PUMA (Party Unity My Ass), though linguistically ripping off big cats and sneakers, may have tried to play a meaningful role pre-Democratic Convention, but at this point are boding to become 2008’s Naderites. (Oh wait! There still are actual Naderites out wandering the desert, sighted somewhere near Roswell.)

Heads up: if you’re disaffected and unregenerate, this part is specially for you.

I’m also unhappy that Obama endorsed Bush’s faith-based initiative (Jefferson and Madison would puke in their graves). I’m uneasy when Obama declares “I let Jesus Christ into my life”—and if that offends any Born Agains, they really shouldn’t read Robin Morgan. But remember: HRC also danced to the Christian tune. And yes, I was incensed when Obama said women shouldn’t be able to get a late-term abortion because of “just feeling blue”—crudely insensitive to what any woman feels at any stage of pregnancy termination. When he chuckles admiringly about his wife and daughters being “beautiful, graceful, [and] highly opinionated,” he shows a lack of understanding that that compliment strikes a feminist as offensively patronizing the same way “articulate” was offensively patronizing about him. Why should it be a matter of note that black people can be articulate or female people can have opinions?

Bottom line: Obama’s book title: Dreams from My Father. McCain’s book title: Faith of My Fathers. Patriarchy? You think?

Neither one gets it.  BUT. One doesn’t not get it much more than the other. So:

Ten Reasons You CANNOT Support  McCain-Palin

1. Yourself. Do not cut off your womb to spite the Democrats. (Also do not sit this election out or play write-in-vote games. And tempting though it may seem, do not blow a vote for the Green Party.)
2. Iraq. McCain’s been a hawk since evolution made raptors.
3. The Economy. For years McCain chaired the Senate Banking Committee that brought us the current financial meltdown. He opposed the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would have made it easier for women and other workers to pursue pay-discrimination claims. (Come to think of it, why the focus solely on equal pay for equal work? Whatever happened to equal pay for comparable worth?)
4. The Supreme Court. McCain vows to stack the court with “clones of Alito and Roberts.”  There goes . . . well, everything.
5. Choice. McCain has lodged 125 anti-choice votes.  He boasts he’ll overturn Roe v. Wade. And as for the claim that if Roe is overturned it will “merely” throw reproductive rights back to the states, understand that McCain supports a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion outright, nationwide.
6. Realism.  If you’re a young feminist, do not get disillusioned by Obama’s drift to the middle—depressing but standard for winning. Do consider running for office—politics is not a spectator sport. And if you still can’t grasp why older feminists zealously backed HRC, please read Susan Faludi‘s brilliant “Second Place Citizens” for context. It’s crucial.
7. Old Wounds. Remember that McCain’s answer to a supporter asking him about Hillary, “How do we beat the bitch?” was “Good question!” Remember that at the Sturgis motorcycle rally, McCain mortified his wife by saying she should enter the Topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest. Remember that, responding to a comment Cindy made about his thinning hair, he guffawed, “At least I don’t plaster on makeup like a trollop, you c**t.”
8. Palin. McCain’s pick of Palin demonstrates contempt for American women and insults the intelligence of anyone who supported Hillary, since Palin is her (melting) polar opposite. It denigrates qualified Republican women (Senators Snow, Collins, Dole, and Hutchinson must be suffering silent apoplexy). It’s actually abuse of Palin herself, a sacrifice tossed to the ravenous fundamentalist base, now the butt of public humiliation for her abysmal lack of qualifications.
9. Feminism—remember that? McCain-Palin politics are antithetical to every feminist policy most U.S. women support. Palin is an anti-abortion-rights, pro-“abstinence only” enemy of sex education and stem-cell research who denounced as “outrageous” the state supreme court’s decision to strike down Alaska’s parental-consent statute; who believes survivors of sexual assault and incest should be forced to bear the attackers’ fetuses to term; who let Wasilla charge survivors for rape kits and forensic exams; who cut funding for teen-pregnancy services; who stated she’d oppose abortion for her daughters even if they’d been raped; who’s against same-sex marriage (because such love is “curable”) and against gun control—but apparently all for shotgun weddings (poor Bristol’s gonna marry that dork, like it or not).
10. Settling for Greatness. Sure, we wanted to vote for the right woman. Sure, we’ll have to wait a bit longer for her.  Meanwhile, in Obama we can have a chief executive who reflects our politics, and who—especially since he may have both houses of Congress behind him—just might turn out to be one hell of a great president.

Finally, for those many of us still so hurt that we came this far (and this close) only to be told yet again: Sorry, you won’t make history this time—here are:

Five Ways To Still Make History

1. Do get involved in electoral reform. Have a real effect on the Democrats by working to end the unrepresentative caucus system in some state primaries. Because caucuses are held only at certain hours (usually night-time) in a few venues, they discriminate against lots of voters—late-shift workers, parents with young kids, older voters, and people without cars in areas lacking mass transit. A caucus vote is public, thus puts unfair pressure on some voters—wives voting differently from husbands, students vulnerable to peer pressure. It’s no coincidence that Hillary lost in caucus states: many of her backers were women, working-class folks, older people. This system, that supposedly “builds the party,” disenfranchises voters. Let’s change it.
2. Do not just inveigh against sexism in the media. Growling at your TV set is fun; action is better. Target sponsors of shows that offend, organize email blizzards and boycotts of their products.  Join the anti-sexist, anti-racist media campaigns of The Women’s Media Center and NOW. 
3. Do let’s learn from the primaries. HRC campaigned intrepidly. But her campaign was unworthy of her—and that’s her fault. Enough with listening to Mark Penn-type advisors and “Beltway feminist” gatekeepers who told her not to give “women’s issue speeches.” Whatever her future holds, it will be interesting, and I’m proud she’s my senator. Meanwhile, do let’s take advantage of the fire her candidacy rekindled in women. Do let’s start rebuilding the Women’s Movement with more audacious activism.
4. Do let’s take responsibility for what we ourselves failed to make happen in the primaries. The Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Netroots (via the Daily Kos), and the faith-based community (via Rick Warren’s event) all sponsored debates, so candidates had to address those communities’ concerns, and just as crucially, those constituencies educated the public about their issues. Where were women? The Congressional Women’s Caucus, the National Women’s Political Caucus? An ad hoc consortium of NOW, Feminist Majority, CODE PINK, BISA, NCRW, NCNW, NWSA, WEDO, and the other initials? Why didn’t women—the majority of the population—hold a debate, make the candidates answer to us, and in the process, inform the electorate that our issues are not reducible to “the glass ceiling,” which sounds as if all we want are more CEO jobs? Our agenda is vast, including national health insurance, the HIV epidemic among young black women, legislation and funding to address disability rights, sexual abuse, domestic violence, prostitution, and sex trafficking. Our global issues range from poverty and bride burnings to child marriage and protein denial, from female infanticide to forced illiteracy, from refugee suffering and genital mutilation to environmental destruction. Women, the majority of humanity, are the first affected by world crises and the last consulted about solutions. The glass ceiling?  We must never again collaborate in our own invisibility.
5. Simple: Do not throw away your chance to help elect this nation’s first African American president. Savor that. That vote makes history.

Last, a purely personal note. Obama’s favorite authors are Graham Greene and Toni Morrison. McCain’s are James Fenimore Cooper and Hemingway.  For me, as a writer? Honest-to-god, that alone does it.

Besides, I like arugula.  I’ve even grown some.