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Why We Desperately Need an Independent Feminist MovementSeptember 05, 2008 Note: I posted this elsewhere in May and have been looking for an excuse to "reprint" it here. The nomination of Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket is as good an excuse as any. This piece was written when Barack Obama was pulling away from Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination but he hadn't completely clinched it. At the time I was thoroughly disgusted by the appalling sexism of the attacks on Clinton, especially those from the male left-of-center. Now similar bile is being directed against Palin, who's an easier target, but any left-of-center woman who doesn't realize those attacks are also directed against her is self-deluded to a dangerous degree. Maybe this would be a good time for left-of-center women to discover Andrea Dworkin's Right-Wing Women. I read it 25 years ago but I still think about it a lot. So how does a woman get within striking distance of the top without proving her loyalty to (overwhelmingly non-feminist) men over and over again? Where is the independent feminist, or at least feminist-friendly, movement or coalition or community that can support such women when (as will almost certainly happen) they start angering or scaring the men in power? It's worth pondering the reasons why in 2008 a black man is edging out a white woman as Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency. Plenty of the reasons have to do with personalities and personal and political histories, but some of the reasons are structural. No man of color could have gotten to where Barack Obama is without major support from powerful white men, but Obama has something else behind him: the community of people of color and others whose interests are at odds with those of the powerful white guys. True, this "community" is diverse, amorphous, and not tightly organized, but it has been able to come across with votes and campaign contributions and other forms of grass-roots support for the Obama campaign. And it offers, at least in potential, a place for Obama to stand when he contradicts the powerful white guys. Does Hillary Clinton have anything comparable? No, she doesn't. How likely is it that any woman who gets within striking distance of the top will have anything comparable? Not very. This white feminist counts herself in the Obama camp these days. Before that, I was for John Edwards. Supporting Clinton was never a serious option. It's not that I wouldn't love to see a woman president in my lifetime -- but I can't get enthusiastic about a woman whose loyalty is to the white male power structure, and with good reason: that's where her base is. There's good reason for that, too: there's no "women's community" comparable to the "black community" that can guard her back when she goes up against the big guys. The fact that "women's community" is a euphemism for "lesbian community" provides an important clue. Women as a class are fragmented. Our primary loyalties are often to men, on the political as well as the personal level. Any woman whose primary loyalty is to other women is going to get called a lesbian. Count on it. How likely is it that any woman who is, or might be, or was ever accused of being, a lesbian is going to get within striking distance of the top? Not very.
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