tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-965109745298543877.post-49290490607970656912009-01-14T10:23:00.005-05:002009-01-14T10:51:26.929-05:00Yes, I'm wading into the Ms. Magazine Super!Obama cover mess. I hate it. I'm not too impressed with the rather shallow analysis of feminists who approve, either. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eleanor-smeal/this-is-what-a-feminist-l_b_157531.html">Ellie Smeal's</a> reasoning is especially galling (h/t <a href="http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/01/14/is-this-what-a-feminist-looks-like/">Feministe</a>): <br /><blockquote>And better yet, he ran on the strongest platform for women’s rights of any major party in American history. Feminist Karen Kornbluh, the platform’s principle author, ensured women’s rights, opportunities, advancement, and issues were addressed throughout the historic document.</blockquote><br />Obama didn't run on a very strong platform for women's rights during the primary, despite the presence of Karen Kornbluh. On the contrary, he was weak in his support of many issues important to feminists, and used sexism to his advantage. The insistance that the strong women's rights positions in the Democratic platform in the presidential election is thanks to Obama is exactly why we absolutely cannot forget or get over the Democratic primaries. History is being rewritten, and the women who refused to simply give silent support to Obama have been forgotten. Hillary Clinton's role is being forgotten. <br /><br />To give Obama credit for the role of women in the Democratic platform and presidential campaign is to buy into the notion that while he has not played a leadership role in women's issues and did not give strong support to feminist issues in his primary campaign, he is secretly a feminist who is just hiding it for political purposes and he actually pushed for the "strongest platform for women's rights of any major party in America's history."<br /><br />It boils down to one more man given credit for the work of thousands of women, and women's leadership being undervalued. A man can be a feminist superhero just for saying in private to feminists that he is a feminist. Meanwhile, he leaves all the actual work of supporting women's issues and leading the fight against misogynist policies to the women.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/965109745298543877-4929049060797065691?l=astraeasscales.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Astraeahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06929381770484776441noreply@blogger.com1