By Guest Writer Manuel Rosado at Sammy's Good Eye
Where were the accolades from feminists for Condoleeza Rice? Did NOW stand behind President Bush when he liberated the women of Afghanistan from the most oppressive misogynist regime in history? The cold shoulder given to Secretary Rice by feminists and President Bush’s un-credited historic act of literal women’s liberation were mostly sins of omission. Silence, however, is not the hard and fast rule when it comes to feminist hypocrisy. Most recently an odd yet obvious phenomena has occurred since Sarah Palin took the national stage which is that among her hateful detractors it is women most of all who seem to be falling all over themselves to see who can spew the most venom against arguably the most prolific renaissance woman of our time. The most recent shrew to add her shrill voice to the rabid pack of anti-Palin women is the usually soft spoken, multi-millionaire, ex-con hypocrite Martha Stewart. I’ll make a confession right up front: it was not my intention to write about Sarah Palin again so soon, but coming right on the heels of my unfortunate experience listening to NPR stoke the flames of anti-Palin hysteria last week I could not remain silent when I once again heard such absurdist hatred coming from yet another feminine voice.
“To me (She’s) kind of a dangerous person. I mean, to, uh, she’s dangerous.” Asked to clarify the loquacious Stewart explained “She speaks. She’s so confused, and anyone like that in government is a real problem.” The interviewer, obviously finding Sarah Palin more interesting than the woman who rode her ex-husband’s coattails to fame and fortune, pressed ahead wondering if Stewart had caught any of Governor Palin’s interviews on television. Stewart, who had only seconds before claimed she found Sarah Palin so “very boring” responded “I wouldn’t watch her if you paid me!” As a simple human being I was not aware that blue blood gifted people with such transcendental powers as being able to be bored by someone I supposedly pay no attention to, not to mention find them dangerous! So which is it, Martha? Do you pay her attention and hence become bored and frightened or are you pulling all this out of your oven mitts?
Stepping away from my sarcastic fury for a moment let me leave you with this thought: we are not even one hundred years from the day women won the right to vote in this country and yet we are on the very cusp of seeing a woman become President of the United States (whoever she may finally be). What service does it provide women or humanity itself to deride, mock, and make non-substantive fear mongering attacks on a self made, American success story such as Sarah Palin? One does not need to walk lock step politically with Governor Palin to recognize that her accomplishments have indeed made her perhaps the greatest renaissance woman of our time. Consider that whether you agree with her politics or not her story can prove to be an inspiration for millions of our daughters who daily have to struggle with the poisonous pop culture, hip hop generation, music video message that they are only worth as much as their sex appeal.
Martha Stewart is today worth $638 million and would have you believe she is a self made woman; yet she owes it all to the doors her ex-husband first opened for her three decades ago. Sarah Palin may very well become President of the United States and she owes all her success to the doors she kicked open on her own, never forgetting that her husband and family were and are by her side. That is the American woman who embodies the Spirit of this nation. Martha, keep walking the red carpets and stay in your kitchen because out in the real world you can’t take the heat from a rising sun like Sarah Palin.
6 comments:
Excellent post Amarissa, as usual. I've been trying in vain to figure out why Sarah Palin evokes such foaming at the mouth hatred in some women.
Perhaps Ms. Martha would like the same kind of boycott that Oprah received?? You know... the one where the largest percentage of her audience (white women) start to ignore her??
It worked wonders for Oprah's ratings, you know.
A comment from Smart Blonde:
The link to Wikipedia's article about Martha Stewart doesn't show that her former husband made her career for her. It shows that she was from a middle-class family, began a modeling career in high school and graduated with a straight A average, went to Barnard on a partial scholarship, majoring in art history. I don't see that her future husband played any part in that or in the sewing and cooking skills she learned from her mother.
She left Barnard for a time after her marriage, returning to modeling while her husband finished law school, then finishing her degree, going on to success as a caterer, cookbook author, stockbroker, and eventually becoming the head of a vast corporation. In the midst of all that, she had a daughter and her marriage ended. Apart from the fact that she has been extremely successful in her career and is extremely rich, her life isn't so different from many other women's.
It's certainly possible that her former husband's social connections contributed to her success, as I think I have read before that he came from a wealthy family, and built a career of his own, but I think Martha Kostyra would have been a success without a husband. To say she owes her success to her former husband is like saying Hillary Rodham Clinton owes her success to her husband. Hillary Rodham would be a success today if she'd never met Bill Clinton. I don't think Todd Palin made Sarah Palin who she is today, either. We know she was "Sarah Barracuda" on the basketball court, won a scholarship through a beauty pageant, for which she's been criticized by people who won't acknowledge that she didn't have the opportunities for a sports scholarship that a boy would have had. She has been a television sports announcer, a mayor, a governor, and the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee, besides having run a fishing business with her husband and having five children. All three of these women should be respected for the cracks they’ve made in the glass ceiling, as should all of us who have had smaller successes that demonstrated that a woman can do a job as well as or better than a man.
I've never been a Martha Stewart devotee but I think it's very disappointing that other women tear her down. I know a lot of women who rejoiced when she went to prison, saying she deserved it for being uppity, that "everyone" who ever knew her says she is a bitch, that she is cold and overly perfectionistic. It's the old "I'm assertive, you're aggressive, she's a bitch" logic, and it needs to stop. I have no idea whether I would want to spend any time with Martha and I find many of her projects overly complicated but she has filled a niche and been quite a success and I admire that.
That said, I'm equally disappointed that Martha Stewart chose to tear Sarah Palin down, though I know Martha is a Democrat and that is likely part of her disdain for Sarah. However, her attitude does smack of the Queen Bee Syndrome. I'm not surprised that she has that attitude, though, because it is a common problem among successful women. It's a hard slog to succeed as a woman and tempting not to want to share your success with other women, to think that you are special.
Bottom line: women need to stop being enemies of other women. We can disagree about issues but we should all be committed to greater opportunities for all women. When we tear each other down, we simply patch the cracks in the glass ceiling and make it harder for the next woman.
I'll add that I supported Martha through her financial indiscretions. Even defended her when she went to jail. I'm not a super homemaker or anything.... but I've enjoyed her magazines about the Holidays.
But this is a bridge too far.
From here forward... no magazine or television program featuring Martha Stewart will darken my door. Until I hear an apology.
SYD
What does secy rice need defending from?
Smart Blonde, as the author of this opinion let me respond to your comment about the what the Wikipedia article says about Martha's success. Notice that it is quite explicit that it was her publisher ex-husband's connections that allowed her to publish her first cook book which catapulted her to fame and personal fortune. Beforehand she had indeed had some level of success as a caterer, but it was only once she catered a party at her husband's office at a time when he was a rising start at his publishing house that she was introduced to the powers that be which made her book a reality; it all flowed from there.
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