Sarah Palin Is No Feminist

Sarah Palin sure sounds like a feminist these days, using the words "feminism" and "feminist" a dozen-plus times at a recent speech, along with choice phrases like "pro-woman sisterhood." But "Palin isn't a feminist," writes Jessica Valenti, "not in the slightest." She and her so-called conservative feminists "don't support women's rights," like access to abortion and emergency contraception. And they get away with it "by aligning themselves with a history that most women are proud of—the fight for suffrage."

"By tying their 'feminism' to the suffragists, whose goal was realized nearly 100 years ago, they're not-so-subtly saying that women in America have achieved equality," writes Valenti in the Washington Post. "If you believe women have made it, you're not going to fight very hard on their behalf. But it's difficult to rally women's support behind a message of inaction, so Palin is doing her best to frame this nonmovement as proactive and, of course, 'empowering.'" So attention, real feminists! It's time to band together and stop her from turning a true movement into "yet another empty slogan." (More Sarah Palin stories.)