How right-wingers turned into pseudo-feminists

Do Sarah Palin’s conservative supporters realize they’ve become her worst nightmare?
Palin said in January, in a comment on Sen. Clinton, that she can’t stand women politicians talking about sexism: “When I hear a statement like that coming from a woman candidate with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism, or maybe a sharper microscope put on her, I think, ‘Man, that doesn’t do us any good, women in politics, or women in general, trying to progress this country.”
With an attitude like that, think how awful Palin must feel now that the right wing is screaming that every criticism of her is part of a vast campaign of left-wing sexism:
 •Rush Limbaugh said that investigations into Gov. Palin’s “Troopergate” scandal are “pure sexism in Alaska on the part of these old boys trying to get rid of Sarah Palin.”
•After an ABC reporter suggested that Obama’s reference to McCain’s policies as putting “lipstick on a pig” was a shot at Palin (based on no evidence), right-wingers claimed this as proof Obama is “a chauvinist pig,” in the words of radio host Rose Tennent.
•Associated Press reporter Tom Raum has claimed that “many liberals” were “belittling” Palin on the grounds a mother of five couldn’t function as vice president (the only example Raum found was non-liberal John Roberts of CNN), and included criticism of Palin’s inexperience in his list of sexist remarks about her.
•Several columnists, such as David Brooks, have asserted that feminists are only criticizing Palin because she “doesn’t hew to their rigid categories” of acceptable female behavior.
Despite Palin’s dismissal of sexism earlier this year, she doesn’t seem at all bothered to be the one playing the victim card. No angry denunciations of Limbaugh, no protests about how they’re hurting women — why, it’s like her statement about Clinton was politics rather than principle.
OK, no surprise there: Palin’s a politician, the Republicans are a political party, so playing politics is what they do. Applying a double standard is par for the course: Conservatives who think it’s fine to mock a liberal woman’s looks, sexuality and family are clearly willing to do a 180 for a conservative woman who can advance their own agenda.
And in fairness, Palin has been hit with sexist criticism. There’s John Roberts’ comment; Dr. Laura Schlesinger saying that a mother of five shouldn’t be vice president; multiple men who’ve said they’ll vote for Palin because they think she’s hot; and one online columnist who said Palin’s right-wing views prove she’s not “a real woman.”
The attacks haven’t been as bad as Clinton took during the primaries, but that doesn’t make them acceptable. Nor does the fact that Republicans and right-wing pundits routinely dish out the same treatment to liberal women justify it.
But Raum’s claim that conservatives are supporting women’s independence by sticking up for Palin doesn’t hold water: Republicans aren’t supporting women’s rights, they’re supporting a candidate they want to see in the White House. There’s a difference.
The feminist “Shakespeare’s sister” and “feministing” blogs both oppose Palin’s politics, but both have condemned sexist remarks and criticism of her; that’s because they’re concerned about the rights of women, even the ones they disagree with. Palin’s supporters, for the most part, not only didn’t object to sexist criticism of Clinton, they were quite happy to join in (Limbaugh discussing how America shouldn’t have to see her grow old in office, for instance).
Palin is just the latest in a long line of conservative women — Phyliss Schaffly, Beverly LaHaye, Anne Coulter — who get an exemption from conservative sexism because they support applying it to the rest of womankind (Schaffly and LaHaye have built careers as right-wing activists out of telling other women their place is in the home). Like I said, this kind of hypocrisy is old news.
But being old hat doesn’t mean it should get a free pass. Sexist attacks on Palin are as objectionable as sexist attacks on any woman, but people who defend her while employing the same attacks on other women should be ashamed of themselves.
Unfortunately, I’m sure they aren’t.