Comment (44)
Email
Print
del.icio.us
TechnoratiI am woman; I am strong
And you know what? I like Sarah Palin. She's a better role model for my daughters than Gloria Steinem.
I am trying to figure out when I stopped being a “real” woman. For the last week, every newspaper, blog and television newscast I have seen or heard has blathered on and on about John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate for the US Presidential elections. In that short period of time, there seems to be a vast divide between two camps: those who support McCain's decision and those who think that Barack Obama now has the presidency sown up and placed in his back pocket. Much of the commentary has been an outright attack on Sarah Palin; the vitriol has come from left-wing feminist stalwarts, like Gloria Steinem, Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington, who seem to think that John McCain and Sarah Palin are trying to send women backwards a few hundred years in terms of equality. The fact that Sarah Palin does not support abortion and is open about her love for her husband seems to be at the heart of these venomous statements.
The thing is this, I consider myself to be a modern woman. I vote in every election. I have no problem speaking my mind. I teach my daughters that they need to “find their power” (usually when one of their brothers has done something they don't like and I tell them to deal with the situation themselves). I tell all four of my children that girls and boys can do almost anything. I do not feel that I am somehow less worthy than any man simply because I carry two X chromosomes. I believe that women have the right to vote, to work outside the home and to accomplish as much as they can in this world.
But I do not support abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia, cloning or embryonic stem cell research. I feel that there are things that men can do that women simply cannot, and vice versa. The fact that I agree with many things that Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan and countless other women fought for seems to be completely discounted when I mention that I am also a firm believer in the teachings of my faith. And because of that, I am somehow considered to be less of a woman; no longer a “real” woman, because a “real” woman must believe in the right to choose, in assisted suicide, in condoms for every 14 year-old and that “intelligent design” is only for those poor saps not fortunate enough to know that we are all descended from a pile of goo.
For years, I have listened to, and sometimes engaged in, the debate between working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. I fall in the latter category. That I stay home with my four young children while my husband goes out to work has caused some consternation among family and friends over the years. I am, after all, a modern woman. I should want to contribute to our family income and to society. That says it all right there. Not working for a paycheque means that I am not a contributor to the world, and therefore, not a real woman.
Many times I have wondered how women can tear each other to shreds over the choices we make and still consider ourselves the gentler of the species. Now, once again, it is an us-versus-them showdown, and this time it is not just working mothers against the stay-homes, it is pro-choice (read: pro-abortion) in a knock-'em-down-drag-'em-through-the-mud slugfest with the pro-lifers.
As a woman born in 1968, I was raised in the late 1970s and the 1980s to believe that it is normal for young women to want to sleep with anyone and as many men as they can, to terminate unwanted pregnancies and to choose whether or not the baby I did decide to have deserved to live in the first place. In short, I was raised to believe that it was alright for me to play God with my body. Sarah Palin's decision to keep her unborn child does not signify to me that she is behind the times and less of a woman, and I fail to see how anyone could rationally take that point of view. The very essence of being a woman is our ability to bear children. As the mother of four myself, how could I look at my children and pick which one should not have lived? Should Sarah Palin now be asking that question? Does her youngest child deserve less than any other child because he was born with Down's Syndrome?
For those of us who believe that the Palins made the correct choice, Sarah Palin stands as a testimony to what a real woman looks like. One who is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in, one who is ready to take on the nay-sayers and prove that she does have the strength, courage and intelligence to play with the big boys. A woman who, at the end of the day, remains completely and wholly dedicated to her role as wife and mother. In short, Sarah Palin is a role model for all of us and the kind of real woman I want to be. And I'm a Canadian, not an American!
Barbara Lilley is a writer and mother of four living in Ottawa, Canada.
What do you mean “no one’s criticized her for keeping her baby”? I’ve heard it. My friend and a neighbor both heard it when they decided to keep their babies with down syndrome. The buzz I’m hearing is that she’s “a radical who wants to inflict unwanted - especially disabled babies - on women. Wake up! 80% of unborn babies with Down Syndrome are aborted in this country. (and I just chose the lower of the two statistics I’ve read!)
“I believe that women have the right to vote, to work outside the home and to accomplish as much as they can in this world.”
Yes I agree, the Bible does not teach that women should stay at home all their lives… but remember, a mother’s primary goal should be to bring up her children - jobs and accomplishments should come after this.
And men and women are in fact different, God created us male and female for different roles in family, Church and society.
I support McCain/Palin, though I do not think Palin should be in the position she is.
Regards.
The feminist concept of “real woman” falls into the same category as the “Canadian values” touted by the liberal inquisitors in the (not so) Great White North - pure propagandistic gobbledygook, meant to shame people into herdlike behavior by creating an illusion of general consensus on a given issue. Words are cheap, and there is absolutely no reason to buy them.
We can’t forget that Sarah Palin is a Creationist. If I was American I don’t think I’d feel comfortable with someone who can take such a very rich myth that is clearly an historical impossibility so literally so high up in government.
You can forgive someone who hasn’t been educated for believing it, but when I heard this about Sarah Palin, I started feeling very worried for the way American Politics is going…
Any man with his head screwed on would like to marry a woman like Sarah Palin!
I think the day Sarah Palin came to the convention with her entire family, she stole the heart of true Americans and of the whole world. She is an epitome of a real woman and what the modern world is yearning for. It was so refreshing to see her up there and speak so eloquently about real time issues. Thank you Barbara for bringing this up.
This is milk-and-water stuff. There is no point sainting Mrs Palin for taking decisions that could be taken by any woman, religious or not. And by the way, no one is criticising Mrs Palin for not aborting the child with Down’s Syndrome. Nor has there been any sustained criticism of her decision to let her daughter keep the pregnancy. This is not an article; it is bland hagiography.
Bravo, Barbara!!!!
Sarah Palin: what a gal!
Well said Barbara! As a Wellesley College alumna who has not been persuaded by an older alum seeking the White House, I share your concern for the media’s depiction of a “real woman”. I am convinced, however, that if more women like you voice their opinions with the confidence needed to go against the tide, the silent majority of “real women” will emerge and not only speak their mind but also vote their conscience.
Thanks for writing…
I absolutely agree with you. Sarah Palin is a great role model for our daughters and an example of who our sons should aspire to marry. At last people are speaking the truth out loud and this is exactly what the world, especially the youth need to hear!
Coming from a woman and a mother, I have to say that this article is a truly wonderful piece you have written on behalf of so many others who think and feel the same but nonetheless are often relegated to the wayside!
How I wish and pray that those “in the other side of the fence” realize that they are missing out a lot in perfecting what JPII calls the “feminine genius” as they insist on their mis-understood “feminism”. What greater dignity can a member of the gentler sex have and be proud of than being a mother.
Personally, I don’t like the oft-used binomial working mother/ housewife or stay-at-home mother: it is as if mothers who stay at home do not work at all. God knows how much they have to do!
I have nothing against mothers who have professions outside the home because most of the time, there is a real need for them to do so. In fact I laud them since often these mothers do both: work in and out side the home!
I think governments should pay salaries to those mothers who choose to raise their children instead of working someplace else: after all, their work directly benefits society, first and foremost. Long live all the mothers and home-makers!
I agree with the writer. thankyou for the article.
Barbara Lilley, I think your shadow boxing. I am as liberal as they come but I have heard no one criticize Sarah Palin for keeping a child with Down’s Syndrome. Could you direct me to one person or organization that did? There are plenty of things to criticize about Sarah Palin, but that isn’t one of them.
Page 3 of 3 : « First < 1 2 3