Ugly attacks on conservative women like Ann Romney are all too common
The hit-and-run job that Hillary Rosen did on Ann Romney is, unfortunately, all too common. Sexism and misogyny aren’t just for the boys, and it’s even more lamentable and ugly when they’re perpetrated by another woman. It’s the woman-on-woman crime that no one talks about.
There’s a sense amongst liberals — who read identity politics into most everything — that conservative women are somehow traitors to their gender (much the same way that black conservatives are traitors to their race and young conservatives are traitors to their generation). To be a conservative woman in the 21st century is to be, as Ann Romney found out, ripe for scorn and ridicule by the demonstrably intolerant left.
We’ve seen it before. Gloria Steinem is a repeat offender, having once referred to Kay Bailey Hutchison as a “female impersonator” and then later defaming Sarah Palin as “the wrong kind of woman.” Their fatal flaws, of course, were merely being Republicans. When women like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann are subjected to sexist and misogynist comments, by men or women, the women’s groups are noticeably silent. NOW, the National Organization for Women, only stands up for some women. Ann Romney should not expect their call.
The point of second-wave feminism was to give women more choices. When it turned out that some, like Phyllis Schlafly, chose conservatism, suddenly the women’s lib movement turned on women, and of all things, started criticizing their choices. It was as if they were saying that women could do anything they wanted, except vote Republican. That cannibalizing of the women’s movement, dividing them up along political lines and demonizing women who are pro-life or who stay home, like Ann Romney, is why in a 2005 CBS poll, only 24 percent of women said they considered themselves to be feminists, and 70 percent did not. Even more telling, only 12 percent said calling someone a feminist is a compliment.
When women turn on women, and take cheap shots at their decisions purely to score political points it serves as proof that feminism, as a movement, is dead and no longer relevant or credible. But that’s okay. Strong women like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Ann Romney don’t need anyone else’s help. And as long as women like Gloria Steinem and Hillary Rosen keep talking, the true face of feminism will remain well-represented.
Popular Stories
Obama Doesn’t Return Marine’s Salute, Shakes Hand Instead — Is This a Protocol Misstep? 429 Comments
Game-Changing Bombshell? There’s a Major Twist in the Story About a High School Student’s Lesbian Relationship With a Minor 376 Comments
Is the Boy Scouts’ Gay Amendment the ‘Beginning of the End’ for the Group? (Plus: Tell Us Where You Stand) 340 Comments
Church vs. State Complaint Leads City to Remove Christian Crosses on Water Tower — Now See What They’ve Been Replaced With 307 Comments
‘We Ain’t Scared of Nobody!’: New Documentary Claims to Show the KKK Thriving in Deep South 302 Comments
Faith
-
Priest Gunned Down by Italian Mobsters Now Beatified
Read More
-
Game-Changing Bombshell? There’s a Major Twist in the Story About a High School Student’s Lesbian Relationship With a Minor
376 Comments
- Is the Boy Scouts’ Gay Amendment the ‘Beginning of the End’ for the Group? (Plus: Tell Us Where You Stand) 340 Comments
-
MSNBC Hosts Martin Bashir and Chris Hayes Claim London Machete Killers Aren’t Terrorists: ‘These Are Just Murderers’
158 Comments
-
Did You Catch the Possibly Policy-Changing Ft. Hood Reference in Obama’s Terror Speech?
101 Comments
Business
-
Have You Had Scotch at a NJ TGI Friday’s Lately? You Might Have Been Drinking Rubbing Alcohol
Read More
-
Venezuelan President Blames Toilet Paper Shortage on the Rich
Read More
-
This Terrible Chart Shows the Change in Food Stamp Participation Over the Last 10 Years
Read More
- Disney Makes Absolutely Mortifying Photoshop Mistake Read More
-
Trey Gowdy at It Again — This Time with a Jack Bauer Reference!
118 Comments
Technology
-
LOOK: Woman Claims to Have Photographed UFO in California
107 Comments
-
Lion Named ‘Bonedigger’ and Small Dog Make Most Unlikely Companions
Read More
-
Rocket Bike Sets Land Speed Record — and Uses a Fuel You Wouldn’t Expect
Read More
-
How 3D Printing Technology Created a Special Part for Baby’s Windpipe and Saved His Life
Read More
-
6 Fascinating Spy Gadgets You’ll Probably Want (and Can Have) After Seeing
Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (58)
dnha14
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:40pmAll women work. It’s just that some of them bring their kids to work, every day.
Report this comment
searching for the Truth
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:44pmThat’s better !
Report this comment
dnha14
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:39pmCall me crazy, but isn’t one of the biggest platforms of the women’s movement to make sure that women have the “right to choose?” I guess some choices are just not “right” according to the feminazis.
Report this comment
CatB
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 2:00pmI was a stay at home mom .. after my son was in school .. I went back to school got a technical degree and set about having a “career” outside the home .. I was treated like a traitor by the feminazi types .. that I had dared to stay home I should be “punished” for that by not getting promotions and such. As my career went on I had headhunters seeking out my skills .. .I would not go on an interview if the job had a woman boss .. I never was treated badly or dismissively by the men .. only the women.
Report this comment
rghtwngcrzy
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 12:49amLike CATB, I went back to work after being a stay at home mom for 15 years. During interviews many of the HR women were very condescending to me, even for jobs where I was clearly over-qualified. Men were always polite and professional. There are women who say they believe a woman has the right to choose, but they only respect the decision if it is the one they agree with.
Report this comment
RIChris
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:20pm“It was as if they were saying that women could do anything they wanted, except vote Republican.”
That’s exactly what they are saying. All minorities and women who dare to leave the confines and dictates of the Democrat Party behind risk being shunned and/or vilified.
Report this comment
RamonPreston
Posted on April 28, 2012 at 11:28pmObama is scared. People are getting to know him too well.
Report this comment
SerikFox
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:18pmI fail to understand this mentality of these feminists that “women should be at work instead of at home”. Sorry, doesn’t someone have to raise the kids at home? Isn’t it just as sexist to assume that the men should be staying at home instead of the women according to their logic? ‘Cause someone’s gotta be there for the kids. Isn’t it up to the family to figure out who stays at home? Why is it “not work” for a mother to stay at home with her kids? If it wasn’t work, then there would be no reason that a woman couldn’t simply leave her kids at home and go to work. And why should a feminist organization be telling women what they should do? Isn’t that a bit self defeating to their own goals? In short – many feminists are not for women; they want to be the ones telling other women what to do. They are striving to be their definition of men. That seems a little odd to me because, using their terms, if being an “empowered woman” is being a woman who wants to be like a feminist definition of a man, then aren’t they depowered because the “bar” is already set for them and they aren’t driving their own future like they want to? It seems to me that an empowered woman would be one who finds someone they love, and lives like they wish to – not one who tries to set standards for “what a ‘good’ woman should do”.
Report this comment
SageInWaiting
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 2:11pmSimple:
1. The kids get indoctrinated by the childcare/Head Start community at the expense of the parents’ tuition.
2. The additional income pushes the family into a higher tax bracket, helping feed the government monster.
3. Increased government oversight of the children.
4. For the most extreme fems, children are a blight to be avoided; the employment environment places stresses on a woman that might limit procreation.
5. POWER
Report this comment
searching for the Truth
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:17pmI think it should be said for all women – one doesn’t have to be rich to be a work at home mom – but, it does take an enormous amount of self – sacrifice. Much, more so, for those that have to juggle another job as well.
Report this comment
markinhawaii
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:03pmShe was using a page out of the last election play book, like attacking Sarah Palin and others with kids.
This is the way they really do see it, it’s not about kids, it’s about attacking people who did well in their lives. The Romney’s, started out struggling like every one else. Wish I coulda found a $66.00 a month apartment when I was starting out.
Report this comment
searching for the Truth
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:03pmBoth sexes!
Report this comment
searching for the Truth
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:02pmNo. I think they all pretty much cower like a dog to money – unless they are grounded ( like electrical current ) to the Truth in Jesus Christ.
Report this comment
searching for the Truth
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:11pmJust an opinion though – but, I think S.E. Cupp is a worthy hire in her profession
Report this comment
Citizen_Joe
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:01pmIs it just me or are conservative women hotter than liberal woman… just saying… S.E. call me anytime… please
Report this comment
BellaMia7
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:52pmS.E., you are a asset to your gender and to all of humanity.
Report this comment
Just in time
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:27pmConservative women are can do women And liberal women do complain about it. If a conservative woman had a flat tire. They would be looking for tire iron. If a liberal woman had a flat tire. They would be looking for a man.
Report this comment
GaultTaggert2012
Posted on April 15, 2012 at 12:43amno they’d be looking for someone to blame for their flat tire! ;)
Report this comment
NEVER.GIVE.IN
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:24pmI am a mom of 4 and I stay home. I grew up with my brothers and NEVER understood the feminist movement as anything but emotional irrationality
If I want something, I earn it. I respect individuals, not classes of people. If I need to prove myself, I do so.
I like men.
How do you get so warped that you believe Men are out to get you —–except for the men in your life? How do you believe the same “system” with the power to “oppress” you allows you to whine unceasingly about it? How do you choose anger and ‘helplessness’ over making the life you want? Feminism is ugly.
Report this comment
Anse
Posted on April 14, 2012 at 1:09amwell at least you’re aware that you don’t understand it
Report this comment
Intense66
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:21pmI’m a college educated, conservative, gun-totin’ woman from Oklahoma and I own a business in the predominately male field of oilfield services. I am happily hetero & pro-life and if having babies had ever been possible for me, I would have been a stay at home mom as well. Hey liberals…stick that in your pipe and smoke it because you have nothing that compares to what we can do!
Report this comment
sbenard
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:05pmI think LIBERAL women are the “traitors”, and I’m right!
Report this comment
Doc Hickory
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:05pmS. E. Cupp said it all. The soul of wit is brevity, and in a few short paragraphs she exposes the blatant hypocrisy of the so-called feminists/leftists. The liberal left will tolerate anything but a differing opinion. They demand a lockstep conformity to their own ideology and woe unto the woman who chooses conservatism. Ann Romney made her choices, accepted whatever the consequences of those choices were, and didn’t whine. Libs might draw a lesson from her example.
Report this comment
SavvyCowboy
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:03pmMy Conservative wife has great shot groupings as do my Conservative daughters. They’re hot-packin’ Mamas, that’s for sure. Don’t screw with them or you’ll wind up dinner for our hungry coyotes! :)
Live FREE or Die.
Report this comment
love the kids
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 12:01pmLiberals are all for womens choices, that is until their choice is to stay at home with the kids, or they choose to support or be person who thinks they should spend less than they bring in, or they want a child that would live outside of the womb a chance to live.
Who really is at war with women, is it liberals???
Report this comment
littlefish
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:58amLiberals are always right . . .how ironic is that ?
Report this comment
AnAmericanToo
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:56amI attended a graduate school program that had numerous lesbian professors and several homosexual males. One of the lesbian professors hated married women and so expressed it in class to the entire class. She was emotionally unbalanced. She had serious problems which included but was not limited to arriving to class weeping. The students were shoring up their emotional distraught professor. Yet, she continued in her job because the university was in awe that she came from an Ivy League university. I would suggest that Hillary Rosen’s bitter and judgmental statements about Mrs. Mitt Romney might just have a similar thread of contempt of married heterosexual women running through it as my former professor.
Report this comment
smartiepants
Posted on April 17, 2012 at 11:44amSpot on SE Cupp!! “There’s a sense amongst liberals — who read identity politics into most everything..” There is a US law school that dismisses every conservative/republican female in the student body they discover. (Hitler is back!) The threats of educating these women are so high, that law professors are willing to cheat, lie, and steal just to weed them out. The liberal professors have a hard time watching these women juggle family, religion, and education successfully. The dean of the law school rewards the professors that intentionally failed them. I know because I worked there. Every year this school profiles the graduating class but only allows half of them to take the bar, thus creating a fake bar passage rate for the public. Where’s the ABA???? When this was reported to the former dean, he silently resigned. I think the traitor is the new dean, because the integrity of the law is at issue. Each year liberals attend this school for FREE on the backs of conservative/republican women. @ANAMERICANTOO, the unbalanced emotional state of liberal professors is created by the rude awakening that “they were handed a degree they didn’t earn and someone caught them” I can’t imagine spending my life with my hand in a cookie jar, no thanks I’ll make my own from scratch.
Report this comment
USACommoner
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:50amI have SO much respect for Conservative women. It takes so much strength and courage today to stand up for what you believe in and still be able to withstand the onslaught of nastiness you get because of it. Sure, it would be an easier route to just go along to get along, but those women who have the strength of conviction to stand their ground are to be admired and greatly respected. Stand strong, ladies. You are Aces in my book.
Report this comment
oswell
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:50amYeah liberals love women, but only women who depend on government welfare, not strong independent women, but what do you expect from Marxists?
Report this comment
Wakeup Maggie
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:44amShameful, these are angry and delusional poor excuses for women
Report this comment
monkeyoffmyback
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:34amI guess Rosen could be called a “strap-on” mom (or dad), Right? Not a stay-at-home———-
Report this comment
bigpew
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:33amAmen
Report this comment
T Mark Gray
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 11:27amThe problem is that we have believed that “women’s lib” meant “women’s liberation” when it actually stands for “women’s liberalization”.
Report this comment
Channel3
Posted on April 13, 2012 at 1:44pmBrillant!
Report this comment