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Steinem on Palin: Feminists Don't Criminalize Abortion

June 22, 2010 1:46 PM

Responding to Sarah Palin calling herself a feminist, women's movement leader Gloria Steinem said "you can't be a feminist who says other women can't" have an abortion.

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by whatofit August 16, 2011 1:17 PM EDT
arktoris, what does "womanhood" entail and what exactly were women born to do? Humor me with YOUR PERSONAL DEFINITION. Or don't, because I'm not a reductionist essentialist. As for feminists, you can be a feminist and be pro-"life" and you can be a feminist and be pro-"choice." What is alarming is when one fraction keeps pushing their opinion down everybody else's throat as if it were a universal truth (which it isn't). For the record, I am a feminist and I (for myself) believe in the right to choose, but I will not deny another woman's right to have children or not have children or have an abortion or not have an abortion. What I do want is the right for women to a safe, legal abortion (at their own cost or otherwise), counseling for women who want to get/have gotten an abortion, etc. - i.e. humane treatment.

Unclemercer, which part of 'reproductive rights' (because that is what she stands for) makes Gloria Steinem sound old, frigid, frumpy or fractious? If anything, it's a progressive stance, which sort of undermines all of your slogan-"points". (And they are slogans without substance because that is how Conservatives often operate.) As for Sarah Palin, you're free to think she is all of those things, but give me some reasons if you want to engage in a dialogue. Otherwise, I'm inclined to believe she is a token right-wing "feminist" (she is not a feminist because she's clearly anti-woman) who looks like "us", but thinks like "them." Pro-"choice" and pro-"life" is a misleading terminology because for many Conservatives life begins at conception and ends at birth.
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by arktoris July 6, 2011 8:00 AM EDT
there's a difference between being a feminist and being a steinemist. Feminists believe in dignity for women and what women were born to do. steinemists believe in rejecting womanhood, imitating a man, and live selfishly at society's expense (especially at children's expense). Feminists, like human beings and other mammals, are pro-life. What they fight against, are society's factors that push women to want an abortion. conclusion: Palin is more feminist than Gloria Steinem.

"Guilty? Yes, no matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh! thrice guilty is he who, for selfish gratification, heedless of her prayers, indifferent to her fate, drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime." ~editor, Susan B Anthony
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by michelleeee1 July 6, 2010 1:41 PM EDT
I think you misheard...Sarah Palin is NOT a feminist. Just because you are a woman in politics doesn't mean you are a feminist. She supports policies that are anti-woman and anti-feminist. End of story.
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by Unclemercer June 23, 2010 8:31 AM EDT
Steinem is the old, frumpy, frigid, fractious feminist. Sarah Palin is the new, fair, fragrant, fashionable feminist. Sarah rules.
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