One Giant Step Backwards For Womankind
Jenna OrkinWhether to cry or vomit, that is the question that so readily and so often pops into mind these days. Any woman, possibly disgruntled at the defeat of Hillary, who cheers the choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate for a Presidential candidate needs to stop and think ahead a step or two: Say McCain, who, whatever theoretical good qualities he may have, has rarely been accused of youth, becomes indisposed to the point of no longer being able to govern. We now have our first female President. Wow. Inexperienced and, in a party not short on machismo, anxious to prove herself one of the boys, Palin is a tad overzealous in an era that calls for depth of thought and understanding.
As the world is on the brink of disaster anyway, her mistakes are magnified and the results, calamitous.
The country, or whatever is left of it, says, "You see? We had a woman President and what happened?"
It will be the end of female power for aeons; again, if there are any.
If Obama wins, he too, will be biting off more than he can chew (since it's more than anybody can chew) and will be destined to fail. But he does not face the same fate as far as history goes. He will be blamed for what happens but only as an individual and not, I think, because of his race (except among racists who were against him anyway.) In other words, racism is alive and well but it is not so pervasive as anti-feminism. It's not politically correct to be a racist and there has been a sea change in progress over the last fifty years.
Feminism has seen progress in tangible areas such as admission to medical school and token CEOs but less in intangibles such as attitudes, assumptions and beliefs. The supposed differences between men and women are still the stuff of arguments and sitcoms. Nobody would ever write a book saying that one race is from Mars and another, from Venus.
So if the moment the wrecking ball strikes, McCain steps out of the way (possibly via a heart attack) and Palin is poised to catch it, then like Eve, she will earn her honorary male status as the fall guy.
--JO