 |
The GOP's Sudden Female Candidate Syndrome
by LeanneB, SheKos editor
Something rather strange is happening in the Republican party this year. Andrew Sullivan referred to it (with, importantly, a question mark) as "a shot of estrogen." In the coming mid-term elections, the party that previously couldn't really be bothered to even pay lip service to women as serious players in their sandbox has suddenly shown a change of heart, fielding 14 female candidates for the Senate and a whopping 97 Republican women running for the House.
And there are similarly lots of women running for local and state offices all over the country.
On the face of it, this might seem to signal a sea change in the GOP, a recognition of the fact that by focusing mostly on male candidates, they have ignored a rich field of experience and potential and a valuable perspective. Back in November, Politico identified The GOP's women problem, using the Republican sabotage of Dede Scozzafava's campaign for re-election to the New York House as an example.
But the growing schism between the Republican Party’s ascendant right wing and its shrinking moderate core has clear gender undertones — and Scozzafava’s departure raises fresh questions about the GOP’s ability to recruit, elect and even tolerate the sort of moderate women who used to be part of its ruling mainstream.
...
"Women tend to have a more practical, less ideological way of approaching life and, therefore, approaching politics, and our party doesn’t always take kindly to that," said former Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference from 2003 to 2007.
So is the sudden influx of women candidates with R's next to their names a sign that this is changing? Well... not exactly. To understand why not, you have to look at who these female candidates are and, more importantly, how they found their way onto the ballot.
Consider, for example, Tennessee Congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik.
In a different political season, Lou Ann Zelenik would be too much an outsider to run for a congressional seat in Tennessee. A single mother, she owned a heavy construction company until she retired in 2007. She likes to remind people that she's a "licensed blaster," which refers both to her technical skills and her Rosie the Riveter attitude. "She's bucked every trend, and if there's ever an obstacle put in her way she breaks right through it," says her spokesman, Jay Heine. Zelenik only really broke through in electoral politics, however, when she got involved with the local Tea Party. She put together a rally in Murfreesboro, and 3,000 people showed up. She hooked into a network of activist local moms who agreed to volunteer on her campaign. "A lot of the tea party women are inspired by seeing a strong woman run for office," adds Heine.
I added boldface to the most instructive sentence in the paragraph - the one that identifies the Tea Party as the engine that has propelled Zelenik, and many other women, onto Republican ballots this fall.
In an article hilariously titled Is the Tea Party a Feminist Movement?, writer Hanna Rosin examines the Tea Party phenomenon (sorry, it's too half-baked to be considered a "movement," unless we are talking about... well, never mind) and finds that it is dominated by women. Women make up 55% of the membership, and what nationwide leadership the Tea Party can be said to have is similarly estrogen-heavy. Conservative women have found the Tea Party to be a networking fast-track to a political relevance previously out of reach.
And while no movement that uses Michelle Malkin as a poster girl could fairly be described as feminist, the party has become an insta-network for ambitious women like Zelenik. Some are aspiring candidates who could never get traction within the tight, local Republican Party networks. Some are angry-mom-activist types who, like their heroine Sarah Palin, outgrew the PTA.
...
One of the three main sponsors of the Tax Day Tea Party that launched the movement is a group called Smart Girl Politics. The site started out as a mommy blog and has turned into a mobilizing campaign that trains future activists and candidates. Despite its explosive growth over the last year, it is still operated like a feminist cooperative, with three stay-at-home moms taking turns raising babies and answering e-mails and phone calls. Spokeswoman Rebecca Wales describes it as a group made up of "a lot of mama bears worried about their families." The Tea Party, she says, is a natural home for women because "for a long time people have seen the parties as good-ole'-boy, male-run institutions. In the Tea Party, women have finally found their voice."
But while the Tea Party has given some conservative women a voice and a place in the spotlight, there is one thing it hasn't been able to confer upon them: namely, intellectual rigor and logical positions. Let's face it - the "party" whose magic bullet is the tax cut, who believes that government should stay out of their lives but force its way into the lives of people they don't identify with, and that produces masterpieces of reasoning like this...
... isn't going to be fielding a lot of Rhodes Scholars as candidates for office, male or female. So there's no reason to think that women who ride the Tea Party Express into the political spotlight are the crème de la crème of conservative thinkers.
Still, these candidates are benefiting from growing anti-incumbent sentiment this election cycle and more than a little bigotry in the subtext of their discourse. If I had to pick just two negative things that heavily influence the voting American public, I would have to go with be intellectual laziness and an embarrassingly short attention span; so it is that we are treated to polls showing that a majority of Americans want to see Arizona SB 1070-style immigration laws in every state, despite the fact that there's no money to pay for them and with no recognition of the complex impact wiping out the undocumented population would have on the economy. If there is electoral hope for Tea Party candidates, this is where it is bred.
So if you are one of the disenchanted who are threatening to stay home this November, I leave you with this frightening quote:
For the last few years Anna Barone, a Tea Party leader from Mount Vernon, N.Y., has used the e-mail handle annaforhillary.com: "The way they treated Hillary is unforgiveable, and then they did it to Sarah Palin," she said. "I've been to 15 Tea Party meetings and never heard a woman called a name just because she's powerful. I guess you could say the Tea Party is where I truly became a feminist."
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
THIS WEEK IN WOMEN'S HISTORY: Pioneers and Pathfinders
by joedemocrat, SheKos contributor
- This week in 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged. She was a devout christian, Quaker martyr, and follower of the religious teachings of Anne Hutchinson who was also executed. In 1638, she was banished from Massachusetts colony for her support of Anne Hutchinson's religious teachings which questioned the subordinate role of women. She traveled to England and attended some Quaker worship services. She felt the Quaker teachings were consistent with her own faith, and became a Quaker. She ultimately returned to Massachusetts colony, and was then sentenced to death and hanged for her Quaker faith.
- This week in 1731, Martha Washington was born. She was the first, First Lady of the United States and the wife of our first President, George Washington. She was unhappy as First Lady, but considered it her duty to the country. She is the first woman to have a naval ship, the USS Lady Washington, named after her. She was also the first woman to be honored on a U.S postage stamp (1902).
- This week in 1849, Anne Bronte passed away at the young age of 29. She was an English writer and poet. Her most famous novel was The Tenant of Wildfell Hall published in 1848 and sold out in 6 weeks. The novel was controversial because of the way it portrayed alcoholism and domestic abuse. The novel showed women speaking frankly to men, and slamming doors in their face in response to abuse. This lead some to say the book was "unfit in the hands of girls" while others considered it to be the best novel they had ever read. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is sometimes considered the first feminist novel ever written. In December 1848, she became tragically ill with influenza and she ultimately died in February 1849.
- This week in 1968, Helen Keller passed away. She was born deaf and blind, but teacher Anne Sullivan was able to teach her to communicate. Helen eventually became a political activist and speaker. She was a member of the Socialist Party and supported Eugene Debs for President. She helped form progressive organizations such as Helen Keller International and The American Civil Liberties Union and was involved in the American Foundation for the Blind. Her life story was told in the 1984 movie The Miracle Continues. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson gave her The Presidential Medal of Freedom.
And now, in honor of Anne Bronte...
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE: Memorial Day Edition
by pat of butter in a sea of grits, SheKos contributor
Greetings SheKossacks. Memorial Day is an apropos time to learn a little more about women serving in our military.
A recent article reports that in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 600 women have been wounded in combat and over 120 have been killed. More than 240,000 female service members have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, with almost 28,000 currently serving.
The Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen project reports on deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Following are just a few descriptions of some of the most recent casualties among women soldiers.
On February 10th we lost Pfc. Adriana Alvarez, age only 20, a military police officer originally from San Benito, Texas, who died in Baghdad. "Dee" dreamed of being a law enforcement officer after high school and 
joined the military as a way to get there. She loved photography and classic rock music.
On November 4th, 29-year-old Amy Tirador of Albany, NY, died in Kirkush, Iraq; she was shot in the back of the head under mysterious circumstances and her death is under investigation.
Senior Airman Ashton Goodman, originally from Indianapolis but based in North Carolina, was killed by an IED a year ago, May 26, 2009, near Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. The link shows Goodman in a head scarf during a meeting with women and girls in Panjshir Province, Afghanistan, where she worked to help women and girls develop economically and socially via education. Only 21, she was a writer who had published news on the Air Force's website. Goodman also impacted the life of a professor at Arizona State, who visited her in Afghanistan while reporting on those working to advance the lives of Afghan women.
Lt. Florence Choe of El Cajon, CA, died in Afghanistan in March, 2009, along with two other service members. She was serving as a medical administration and logistics mentor for the Afghan army. When she died her daughter was only 3 years old. She was a graduate of UC San Diego and had a master's in public health from San Diego State University.
The first woman soldier to be killed in Iraq was SPC Lori Piestewa, of Tuba City, AZ, also the first Native American woman to be die while serving in the U.S. military. She was serving in a support unit that came under heavy fire in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23, 2003, and received the Purple Heart posthumously. Jessica Lynch was also part of the group.
Thank you to all the women who serve us now and in the past.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
SAGE AND SWEETGRASS: Two-Spirits: Coming Out of the Lodge
by Aji, SheKos contributor
Last week, an article announcing a film screening caught my eye. Nothing unusual there, unless you count the fact that the screening will be in San Francisco and I'm in New Mexico. But to me, this announcement was very unusual - and well worth celebrating.
Why? Because it honors women; more, because it honors women of color; most of all, because it honors the Two-Spirits.
From June 11 to June 13, San Francisco's Brava Theater will host the 8th Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival (Admission is free, so I'm hoping some San Francisco-area Kossacks will go in my place.)
This year's featured screening (on June 12) will be Reclaiming Remembrance, "which showcases films made by Native Two Spirit (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) filmmakers."
The screening includes an animated short entitled Two Embrace, by Carrie House (Diné/Oneida), which "illustrates the border tribes and Two Spirit peoples’ first contact with European Christians," and Two Spirits: Belonging, by Rope Wolf (Apache), which "examines the American Indian connection to the Bay Area urban reservation." That day's screening also includes seven additional films. Not all deal explicitly with Two-Spirit phenomena, but all are by LGBTQI women of color, and add these lives and experiences to the larger canon.
So what is a Two-Spirit?
The Two-Spirit is both person and concept, and is found in many of our Native traditions. My own takes credit for inventing the term, which in Anishinaabemowin (the Ojibwe language) is niizh manitouwag - literally, "two spirits." (Of course, we also take credit for having invented the dreamcatcher and the jingle dance - and so have many other tribes, so I'm reasonably sure that others likewise have their own Two-Spirit origin stories.)
Today, the term has been adapted to intertribal use, and is used generally to refer to members of the LGBTQI communities. Historically, however, Two-Spirits were not so clearly categorized. As Kossack Ojibwa notes in his diary, The Native American Berdache*: An Introduction:
Indian cultures in general did not view gender/sexuality as being restricted to just two categories. While some modern writers speak of the Indian berdache as a third gender, it’s not quite that simple. The berdache was not a third category, but a way of referring to a continuum of human behavior that doesn’t fit neatly into the European notions of male and female.
In some tribal cultures, "Two-Spirit" is simply a term for "gay" or "lesbian." In others, it refers to persons with physical, psychological, and/or spiritual characteristics of both sexes: in some instances, analogous to transpersons; in others, to intersex persons. In still others, they defy categorization, existing simply along a fluid continuum of identity. Perhaps most significantly, though, in many tribal traditions, Two-Spirits are explicitly regarded as spiritual leaders, even sacred. They may have specific duties and obligations within a tribe's spiritual traditions, and may also have special status within the cultural or spiritual hierarchy.
In discussing the role of female Two-Spirits among some of the Northern Plains tribes, Ojibwa notes:
Some of these women married other women, some were warriors, and some were chiefs. Among the Blackfoot, women who took on the aggressive roles of men were referred as "manly hearted women." They would usually begin to take on these roles as teenagers when they would join war parties. They would wear male dress, marry women, and often obtain leadership positions as warriors and/or spiritual leaders.
We find similar practices among the history of the Anishinaabe. In a bit 
humorous irony no doubt lost on European invaders, our word ogichidaakwe (literally, a contraction of ogichidaa, or warrior, and ikwe, or woman) translates in multiple ways: as the wife of a warrior or headman; as a female warrior; and as a lesbian.
Unfortunately, for some tribes, half a millennium of contact has nearly eradicated traditional beliefs and practices regarding Two-Spirits. Far from being regarded as spiritual leaders, warriors, or other persons of high status within the community, they are often marginalized and subject to the same sorts of bigotry and discrimination found in American society as a whole. Some of this is no doubt due simply to contact with dominant cultural mores, but some of it equally undoubtedly stems directly from outside efforts to "Christianize" the tribes and eradicate their own spiritual practices.
Another Kind of Two-Spirit Film
Unfortunately, not all of the new Two-Spirit films are so uplifting. Kossack seeta08 also alerted me a few days ago to the recent release of a new documentary entitled simply Two Spirits. It has already won honors at the 2009 Starz Denver Film Festival, the 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the 2010 Durango Independent Film Festival, and the 2010 BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. The film is an outgrowth of the Fred Martinez Project, created in memory of a 16-year-old nádleehí, a Diné Two-Spirit, who was brutally murdered in an act of homophobic violence. According to the Project's Web site:
Fred Martinez was nádleehí — someone who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits — a special gift according to his traditional Navajo culture. But his determination to express his truest identity tragically cost him his life. At age sixteen, he was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was murdered in Cortez, Colorado.
I urge you to visit the site, but be warned: The text, images, and trailers are extremely affecting.
Additional Reading
For additional information on Two-Spirits, and on gender identity and sexual orientation in Native cultures, I also highly recommend reading Ojibwa's diaries on these subjects, found here and/or at Street Prophets:
The Native American Berdache: An IntroductionThe Native American Berdache: A Zuni ExampleGone-to-the-Spirits: A Kootenai Berdache
I also echo seeta08's recommendation for further reading at the Web site of the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society, based in New York. The site contains valuable history, statistical and demographic data, outreach and educational information, and listings of social and cultural events.
* Author's Note: Last weekend, Kossack rserven informed us of the roots of the word "berdache," which carries negative connotations and can be used and interpreted as a slur. Unfortunately, the word has gained traction through consistent use in both tribal and academic communities. The word appears here for citation purposes.
Miigwech.