The Stepford Wives is a 1972 satirical thriller novel about a photographer and young mother who begins to suspect that the frighteningly submissive housewives in her new idyllic Connecticut neighborhood may be robots created by their husbands.
The label “Stepford wife” is usually applied to a woman who seems to conform blindly to an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband, compared to other, presumably more independent and vivacious women. The word “Stepford” can also be used as an adjective denoting servility or blind conformity.
When Sarah Palin was first selected as John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 US Presidential elections, some naïve media pushed the idea that independent women who couldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton might back the Republican ticket in order to support a female Vice Presidential candidate.
CNN, September 9, 2008: “Commentators missed the mark when they speculated ad nauseam that Sen. John McCain chose a woman mostly to appeal to Clinton voters. Having Palin on the ticket is not just about seeking supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton — it is about energizing Republican women and bringing undecided women who like the way conservative women speak to them into McCain’s camp….Playing “femball” means taking a page from feminist activists by talking about conservative issues from the perspective of women and having women make political claims. And “femball” may well work for conservatives in this election.”
The notion that Sarah Palin is a feminist any where close to the way progressives have traditionally defined feminists was immediately refuted or, as Mrs. Palin would say, “refudiated.” The smack down came from the Grand Dame of feminism, Gloria Steinem.
The Los Angeles Times, September 4, 2008: “[Palin] opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves “abstinence-only” programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions…she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act…She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.”
If we look at Mrs. Palin’s actions rather than her words we see a woman who appears to operate on her own terms, of her own volition, driven by great ambition and without a strong husband pulling her strings. Have you seen Todd Palin around at all since she quit her job as Governor of Alaska?
Many have also condemned her apparent contradictory stance regarding her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy. Although it seemed at first that a marriage between young Bristol and her baby’s father was Palin’s preference in compliance with her traditional Christian beliefs, she’s now taking a more practical approach. Rather than push her daughter into a bad marriage – she disapproved of their recent reconciliation – Palin supports Bristol’s go-it-alone approach, including pursuing her own career at 20 via an appearance on TV’s “Dancing With The Stars,” in spite of being a single mother.
Given a weaker or undesirable male partner, Palin is certainly an advocate for female ambition, your own career and self-sufficiency. Although her fundamentalist Christian, traditionalist views on abortion, birth control and sex education in the schools paint Palin as anti- women’s rights in the eyes of liberals or progressives, these beliefs may not be the same strict “feminist” litmus test for Conservative and traditional-minded politically independent women. Palin’s views on gun control, global warming, regulation and taxes may be more important to these women in this economic environment.
That’s not to say we’ve put to bed the potential for Palin to be, more likely, a creation of the right. The Republican strategists have successfully engineered a “Stepford-like” robot candidate intended to appeal to men of all political persuasions who are excited by the sexy schoolteacher, kitten with a whip persona she’s so good at promoting. That segment of the voting population – men between the ages of 18-98 who are not die-hard liberals – doesn’t care if she makes up words.
In fact, they’d like her even more if she didn’t talk at all.
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Francine McKenna (@retheauditors on Twitter) has more than twenty-five years of experience in a range of industries in the consulting and professional services environment. She is the Managing Editor of the specialized news site, re: The Auditors, that focuses on the business of the Big 4 audit firms. This site provides essential updates on accounting regulation, auditing, and strategy combined with high- quality, independent, original reporting on the accounting industry. She is a freelance writer with credits in the Financial Times, Accountancy Age, Accountancy Magazine, Internal Auditor Magazine and various financial, media, and technology blogs and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Times of London and Chicago Tribune, amongst others. She also blogs at The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by accounting and social marketing/media sites. Her public speaking credits include private training, university teaching, and speeches for the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the Maryland Association of CPAs.
Tagged in: conservative feminism, refudiate, Sarah Palin
