On the Daily Beast today, Amy Siskind decries Nancy Pelosi as a “feminist nightmare.” Why so serious? Because “the House Speaker pushed the Stupak amendment through—then moved to block the woman bidding for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.”

That first point makes sense—feminist women were thrown under the bus in order to pass the health care bill, and they’re right to be pissed about it. But what’s this business about forcing us to vote for lady politicians? “A major element in our battle for equality is getting women into positions of power,” Siskind explains. “The hope is that these leaders, once in place, would promote women’s issues and encourage the next generation of women leaders. Speaker Pelosi reveals a flaw in feminist thinking: There are exceptions. A powerful woman can in fact be an enemy to women.”

Speaker Pelosi has taught Siskind a very important lesson: Supporting female politicians is not the same as supporting women. If only Siskind had figured that out sooner, before she wrote a big ‘ol article entitled “Should Women Back Palin in 2012?”

Read More “Why Sarah Palin Is A Better Feminist Than Nancy Pelosi” »

This week’s Newsweek cover story, which details all the ways that Sarah Palin is “bad for the GOP—and for everybody else,” is accompanied by a compelling stock photo: Palin striking a sassy pose in a pair of well-fitting shorts, courtesy of the former Alaska Governor’s August Runner’s World photo shoot (thanks to thinkpinkradio for the tip).

How condescending is this photo? It’s not the fabled (and fake) American-flag-wearin’, gun-totin’  bikini photo that surfaced on the Internet shortly after Palin reached national fame, but it’s about as close as Newsweek could get to the real thing.

Read More “Sarah Palin’s Entire Existence Is Sexist” »

When Laura Ingraham covered hosting duties for Bill O’Reilly on the O’Reilly Factor last week, she sought out to answer the age-old question: Why do feminists hate Sarah Palin so much? Hmm—I can think of a few reasons. The resulting discussion between Ingraham, Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, and Republican pollster KellyAnne Conway produced some pretty interesting theories. Let’s check them out:

Theory #1: We hate her because we’re childless spinsters.

Read More “Feminists Hate Sarah Palin Because She Lost Her Baby Weight” »

Still looking for that sexy Halloween costume? If you’ve been dreaming of dressing as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, except naked and horny for other high-profile female politicians, you are so in luck!

Read More “Will Your Boyfriend Slap A Porny Sarah Palin Mask On You Tonight?” »

Listen up, teens: Guess what happens when you get teen pregnant, you’re not allowed to have a smushmortion, and you can’t figure out how to secretly swap your fetus into your mother’s aging but willing womb. Umm . . . you get rewarded with an eccentric celebrity handler and sexy undies shots in Vanity Fair? Oh ho no, honey, that’s what’s happens to the dude. What happens to you is you get to hold the dang thing throughout a couple of tortured appearances on a crazy middle-aged lady’s FOX News program, and then everyone makes fun of you for being a hypocrite because GOD, YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER EVEN HAD SEX. And then you have to raise it.

Did I mention your babby’s daddy got to do Tyra?

In this edition of Sexist Beatdown: Why Sady of Tiger Beatdown and I think that’s kind of fucked up, actually? BONUS: what to expect next in the SARAH PALYN SNOMOBLOWJOB TODD PALYN BAREBACK LEVI JOHNSON porn saga of the Palin family story, after the jump.

Read More “Sexist Beatdown: Palin Family Anecdote or “Paylin” Porn Plot? Edition” »

In an American Prospect piece titled “Lessons For Feminists From Sarah Palin,” Courtney E. Martin lists the political lessons that feminists can take away from the case of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Martin, to her credit, stays pretty upbeat on Palin’s aftermath, striking three positive notes on Palin’s political ascension: she’s taught us that “women across the country are hungry for their strength to be acknowledged, without sacrificing their femininity”; that “defending women against sexism means defending all women against sexism”; and that “we’ve succeeded in so many ways!”

I, too, believe that feminists have learned a lot from the rise of Palin. But since I’m kind of a downer, I think it’s important to point out the less-than-positive flip-sides of Palin’s Feminist Primer:

Read More “Sarah Palin’s Other Lessons For Feminists” »

As much as it pains me to see the following byline pop up in the Washington Post:

. . . at least people are reading the goddamn thing:

Why pay journalists to write about Sarah Palin when Sarah Palin is perfectly willing to pay people to write as if they were Sarah Palin? It’s almost too easy.

Hopefully the above photo, published on the cover of the New York Times today, has some sort of innocuous explanation whereby Sarah Palin has not kicked off her resignation victory tour with a bizarre twist on the sexy rock star pastime: Signing the chest of a crying child, what the fuck. Okay, she actually appears to be signing the area of the onesie covering the child’s chest. Better?

On July 3, Alaska Gov. Sara Palin announced her impending resignation from the Governor’s seat, citing “a higher calling.” In the wake of the announcement, Palin hasn’t demonstrated much interest in unsolicited advice from newspapers, bloggers, and Tweeters. But with all of the contiguous United States now at her fingertips, Palin could use our help more than ever. As Anne Applebaum wrote in today’s Washington Post: “what is that higher calling? If you don’t tell us, we have to guess—or make jokes about it.”

Weighing the pros, cons, and probabilities of our best guesses for Palin’s next steps, after the jump.

Read More “Sarah Palin’s Next Move” »

Yesterday, DoubleX tweeted the following teaser to a story on Sarah Palin’s recent profile in “Runner’s World”:

“Sarah Palin, in spandex, discusses her ‘throbbing thighs,’” is the classic ladymag linkbait-and-switch:

Read More “Click Here For (A Feminist Critique Of) Sarah Palin’s Throbbing Thighs!” »