Oh my god, y’all. Please pour yourself a drink, grab ahold of something steady (ideally something you won’t mind later throwing and/or breaking), and dive into today’s Radar feature. It’s an acid-tongued take down of Sarah Palin’s taking up of the feminist mantle as if it were an overlarge duffel made of carpet, and it’s amazing. However, the greatest thing about this piece is not Robert Lanham‘s critique of Palin as a person, her beliefs or her policies, but instead lies in the deft and skillful way in which Lanham manages to poke holes in the “ideology” of Third Wave Feminism. Check out the tastiest morsel of all after the jump:
“But more and more, the leaders of the third wave seem to keep saying the same thing. We get it: women enjoy sex just as much as men. Isn’t there something more profound you’d like to promote?
For all of their flaws (and, in the case of PUMAs, their stubbornness this election season) at least the second-wavers fought hard for equality in the workplace. But when dealing with third-wavers, feminism is often relegated to the trite. Hookup culture. Candidly blogging about blow jobs. Isn’t joking about date rape fun?!?
I’m sorry, but fighting for the right to enjoy MILF porn with some dude you just picked up at a bar is hardly self-actualization. It’s not the stuff of which movements are made. And more often than not, it seems simply a ploy to get male attention.
And speaking of porn, I’ll admit it, I like watching it. But at least I recognize porn for what it is: a guilty pleasure. Downloading “Teen Bukake Tryouts” isn’t furthering the plight of women. Let’s make a deal; if you ladies agree to stop saying porn is liberating, I’ll agree to stop watching it. (Uh … or at least cut back). As Female Chauvinist Pigs author Ariel Levy points out, “raunch culture is not essentially progressive; it is essentially commercial.”
Fuck. Yeah. Basically, Lanham is saying everything about Today’s Feminism for Aimless, Fame-Whoring, Self-Serving, Woman-Hating, Non-Feminists that I’ve always wanted to say. Seriously. You could use Paglia’s pelt for a fucking gravy sieve by the end of this tome. Oh, and, in case you’ve really forgotten why Paglia is a vile, moronic excuse for a feminist, please read her Salon piece about Palin (this is the part where you throw things, BTW). Right Paglia, because comparing Palin to Madonna is: a.) not a complete and total stretch when talking about a creationist, evangelical Pentecostal woman? b.) really useful in cementing Palin’s status as a feminist? c.) totally NOT confirming that the state of pop feminism today is a vapid, non-intellectual, male-pandering wasteland full of sad Carrie Bradshaws? Huh? What is the basis for comparison here, because I think I’m totally missing it? Ugh. I could go on, but I won’t. Let’s just fume a little in the comments and be generally happy that SOMEBODY out there gets it.
ButtercupPunch - "La clique, c’est chic!" 
October 2, 2008 at 3:40 pm
thanks for posting – i never read Radar so would have missed this.
Muscular feminism? Please no.
October 2, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Ha. Jez has an entirely different take on this: http://jezebel.com/5058174/radar-writer-palin-is-popular-because-young-feminists-dropped-the-torch
They’re all indignant, b/c I think it hits a little too close to home.
Shockingly enough, they left out the “joking about date rape” part in their post.
October 2, 2008 at 3:47 pm
People don’t understand why I, as a non-American, get worked up about an American politician like Sarah Palin. It’s not just about empathy with the fellow Americans who are scared out of their minds that an incompetent asshole like that might rule them. It’s not just that her opinions, as a woman, make me, as a woman, want to strangle random strangers. It’s not just that her nomination is a slap in the face to competent, hardworking women everywhere.
It’s that feminism is as much about playing along with the guys while looking hot and acting cute as it is about being a ball-busting feminazi. Which is to say, it’s not really about that at all.
This makes me want to long for the days when we could say “I am called a feminist whenever I express views that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” (paraphrased)
October 2, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Wow. This was sort of what I once tried to say, said so much better than I did.
GET OUT OF MY BRAIN!
October 2, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Man, I wish people like Robert Lanham would quit repeating the rape kit nonsense, leave gun ownership out of the equation (still legal, last time I checked), and not equate my religion with low IQ.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to disagre with Palin’s policies and not vote her ticket. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to tell her she can’t play in our feminist clubhouse. It wouldn’t kill us to stick to those instead of whipping ourselves into a frenzy.
October 2, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Myrtlebeachbum, take me with you to your bunker. I am so bloody tired of the Palin bashing that I have become apolitical. I am not even going to watch the debate tonight.
October 2, 2008 at 5:16 pm
@MBB: What do you mean, “rape kit nonsense”? I find it deeply troubling that under Palin’s administration, the Wasilla police were able to receive funds while violating the Violence Against Women Act. The issue there is that they broke federal law. Plain and simple. And that’s not even taking into account how horrific it is to make a victim pay. Blah.
Anyway, I dod not post this to rag on Palin, gun ownership, or anybody’s religion. I just thought it was a very apt takedown of the Third-Wave vapidity. Just for laffs, such as.
October 2, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I didn’t even get to that. It was his rant on third-wave feminism that I liked.
October 2, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I meant this:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/09/26/debunk-a-bunk.aspx
From that crazy, right-wing news source…Slate.
October 2, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I know you weren’t slagging on me and mine, BDJ. I just didn’t like the tone of Lanham’s article. I wrote about my distaste for that level of nastiness today, and I continue to think we Dems are better than all that.
October 2, 2008 at 9:34 pm
How odd that Lanham would rag on Third-Wave feminism, and then quote a prominent Third-Waver (Levy) to back up his snark.
October 2, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Not that there’s any excuse for trying to use feminism to excuse gross, self-involved behavior but because of the differences between women (class, race, age, whatnot) isn’t someone always left out or behind? There’s been a attention shift from more issue focused group approaches to individual actions. At best it can be putting yourself first (and yes that may mean sexually) and setting some new precedent in your personal/work life. And at worst do harm. I would love for more of my peers to take up actions that fall under an umbrella of what I deem feminist progress, but I also have to recognize that some people are sadly complacent. I can’t help but make the correlations to what I see in certain pockets of the black community, and my own family.
It was an interesting read, but given my own background and the overall tone of the piece he should have sussed out more about how young women are living beyond the bedroom that hinders feminism. Based on my age (25) I may chronologically be a third wave feminist, but my thinking extends much beyond my cunt.
/babbling done
October 3, 2008 at 6:51 am
@MBB- Wordy McWord. He did get a bit unnecessarily nasty. I do find that when certain liberals brutally talk down to southerners, gun owners, etc, it just makes me want to scream, “THIS is it! You’re doing it again! Your off-pitting elitism is showing!”