Is NOW Going To Take Back My Membership Card?

I can't remember a time when I wasn't a feminist. I remember my first political act in the name of feminism, though. I was in first grade.

Since this was back in the dark ages, we actually had free play time in my first grade classroom (yet we still managed to learn to read, write, spell, add and subtract. . .amazing). Every day the boys played with the blocks. Every day the girls created puppet shows or drew pictures. Until one day, when  I we thought that the blocks looked awfully fun. So we went to the block area. And the boys told us that we couldn't play. Completely offended, I marched over to the decrepit substitute teacher. Who told me that girls didn't need to play with blocks.

I don't remember what I actually said to her, but I remember my initial feeling of disbelief. She must not have understood me. I patiently explained to her that we girls WANTED to play with the blocks and that the boys wouldn't let us. She not so patiently replied that blocks were for boys and that I should go do another puppet show. Realizing that I would have no help from the authorities, I decided on a different tactic: Violence.

Dragging the braver girls with me, I marched over to the block area and began kicking down buildings. The boys were stunned. And then angry. Flushed with the thrill of power, I didn't care that every boy in my class was ready to hit me. I told them that I would keep knocking down their buildings until they let me play with the blocks too. Being nice, smart little boys they took me at my word. Blocks were for everyone then on.

Thirty years later, I still believe I am a feminist. I still believe everyone should get to play with the blocks. And yet I judge Sarah Palin. Not simply because I see most of her political views as abhorrent (no abortion for rape and incest victims? no sex ed? letting the business model take care of health care when they've done such a stunning job with mortgages?), but because I don't think much of her mothering skills.

It's not because her children - for the most part - are quite young. It's not because her infant has Down's Syndrome. I'm sure she has lots of wonderful nannies and older siblings to take care of the little ones. While I personally can't imagine being away from my kids that much, that's her business. What I can't stomach is her decision to thrust herself onto the national scene while her seventeen year old daughter is pregnant. Either she's so naive that she really believes the press will leave the poor girl alone (I guess she missed how cruel they were to Chelsea Clinton during her awkward years- not that it seems to have hurt the pretty Stanford and Oxford graduate) or she doesn't care.

And even if the press does leave Bristol alone, she's still going to have to go through the whole thing without her mother. I taught an awful lot of children of teen moms and all the ones who were happy and had great kids also had very involved parents. And there's no way you can tell me that Sarah - or her husband - is going to have a lot of time for Bristol right now. And if she wins, she's not exactly going to be able to help with babysitting. Hell, she probably won't even have much time and energy for emotional support. And while all new mothers need lots of emotional support, I think young ones need more.

As I watched Palin talk about how Bristol and Levi were going to take on all of these adult responsibilities, I couldn't help but think of how cold she sounded. Very "you decided to go against our beliefs by having sex, suffer the consequences, you're an adult now and I'm done." And I think that's shitty - especially since this possibly could have been avoided if she'd been taught about birth control. But anyway, I think this is a lousy time to drag your family into the national spotlight.

And while as a feminist I feel like I shouldn't care about Palin's family, and that I should cheer that even nightmarishly reactionary women are breaking glass ceilings, I just can't.