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Rachel Campos-Duffy: Sarah Palin Redefines (Straw) Feminism

Fri, 2009-11-27 22:06 — figleaf

Summary: If feminism was what Campos-Duffy imagines it is she’d be right about Sarah Palin.

The Twittersphere was all lit up today over a post in Anderson Cooper’s corner of CNN.com saying former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is “redefining feminism.” The Twittersphere being what it is most of the chatter was retweets of people saying no she’s not and who does Cooper think he is.

I followed the link and… it looks like it’s actually an excerpt of a post by Rachel Campos-Duffy, described as “a mother of six, author, blogger, and conservative pundit” and author of “Stay Home, Stay Happy: 10 Secrets to Loving At-home Motherhood,” on the website Americano.

Campos-Duffy, who describes herself as a Hispanic stay-at-home mom, says Palin won her heart and mind by, I guess, admitting she was once herself a stay-at-home mom.

Near the end of the interview, in a gracious moment of praise and admiration for her host, Sarah recalled the days when she watched the Oprah Show more regularly, “back when I was a stay-at-home mom in the 90s”. That’s right, back when I was a stay-at-home-mom. When have we ever heard those words come out of the mouth of a female politician, much less one who is a possible contender for the highest office in the land?

In that one innocent phrase, Sarah did more than endear herself to Oprah or to stay-at-home-moms across the country; together with her husband Todd, Sarah Palin, is radically, and perhaps irrevocably redefining feminism. Sarah’s biography is the very public proof of what many women have already confirmed in their own lives: that success and female empowerment are not necessarily incompatible with early marriage, unplanned pregnancies, stay-at-home motherhood, or a large family.

She said it here.

Which means, I guess, that the (hyphenated!?) Campos-Duffy believes means you can’t be a feminist and a stay-at-home mom. Which means, I guess, she doesn’t believe Betty Friedan was a feminist either since, like Palin, at one point she too was a stay-at-home mom.

Presumably she wouldn’t call me a feminist either. But not so much because I’m a stay-at-home dad as because she’s got this really, really nearsighted idea of what actual feminism really is.

Fri, 2009-11-27 23:49 — Holly Pervocracy (not verified) #permalink

I wouldn’t mind “being a stay-at-home mom is feminist too!” rhetoric so much if the same people were quicker to acknowledge that just because it can be feminist, doesn’t mean that the entire pseudo-50’s family model is vindicated. Just because choosing to focus on motherhood can be feminist, choosing to focus on career or art or politics can also be feminist, and I think this kind of rhetoric tries to sweep that under the rug.

[”...if the same people were quicker to acknowledge that just because it can be feminist, doesn’t mean that the entire pseudo-50’s family model is vindicated.” Exactly, Holly. The obvious bottom of the slippery slope would be to say opposing gender equality and women’s right to vote, as, say, Ann Coulter does, is totally feminist. —fl]

Sat, 2009-11-28 02:34 — nekobawt (not verified) #permalink

i noticed you pointed out campos-duffy’s hyphenated name, but i don’t think that’s relevant to feminism, necessarily, since people in hispanic cultures often hyphenate their names when they marry. i believe it emphasizes the joining of two families, but it’s been over 10 years since my high school spanish classes, so someone else is going to have to back me up with details on the cultural reasons behind it.

Sat, 2009-11-28 10:05 — chingona (not verified) #permalink

The traditional Spanish naming custom is for the woman to keep her last name and indicate her husband’s identity by adding “de (of – or, alternately, belonging to) husband’s name.”

So Maria Velasco marries Diego Martinez and she becomes Maria Velasco de Martinez.

Children have the father’s and the mother’s last name, so they become, say, Juan Ignacio Martinez Velasco – abbreviated to Juan I. Martinez V. if it’s not, say, an official ID. People vary quite a bit in whether they use just their father’s last name or both all the time. Often, it depends on who their mother’s family is and how important is that people know they are of that family.

Obviously, none of that works particularly well with our standardized forms, so you do see more hyphenating in the Hispanic community as a way to translate these norms into English. But you also see very widespread adoption of American naming norms.

I suspect she’s hyphenating for the same reason most women who hyphenate do – she doesn’t want to lose her last name but she also wants people to know she’s connected to her husband. Depending on the part of the country she lives in, she might want people to know she’s Hispanic, even though she married a man named Duffy.

But yeah. If she really a good anti-feminist, she wouldn’t care about her pre-married identity.

Sat, 2009-11-28 17:23 — figleaf #permalink

@nekobawt and chingona: I was aware of the way Spanish and Mexican nationals join names in marriage from my work with international versions of software but not how American Hispanics handle it. Thanks for the clue.

—fl

Thu, 2009-12-03 03:43 — Anonymous (not verified) #permalink

!? is an awesome punctuation mark. I'm going to have to steal it.

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