re: Sorry, Scanner Emily, But We Gotta Hate On Emily's List

LydiaSarah — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:54:13 GMT

Thanks for the great post, Brian.

As a guy, maybe you don't feel comfortable saying this (and that's actually nice) but I'm not a guy and I do: I don't really think Emily's List is really helping women or the cause of feminism. I think feminism would be better off without the attitude, which has been disturbingly prevalent this primary season, that feminists owe their support to women simply because they are women. It doesn't make sense to support a female candidate simply because she is a woman, even though she engages in exactly the kind of hawkish chest-thumping (see "totally obliterate Iran") that is responsible both for much suffering in the world AND for the marginalizing of women's voices in politics by priveleging macho, domination-oriented rhetoric. It makes feminism petty and trivial, focused on identity politics instead of true reform. We don't need any more of that.

NARAL made the right choice by realizing that it's first responsibility is to protect all womens' rights, not one women's "right" to be the president, and that it must fulfill that responsibility by doing all it can to make sure that the next president is one who will be sympathetic to those rights. Bravo to NARAL for having its priorities straight.