In response to Kristin Wall's Oct. 9 article:
I would have made the claim that Sarah Palin could not be considered a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but since Kristin Wall clearly has one heck of a creative mind, I can't make that claim. I will, however, flat-out disagree with Wall: Sarah Palin is NOT a feminist, and to call her one is embarrassing to anyone with a genuine grasp of what feminism is.
You cannot be a feminist if you look the other way as rape survivors are forced to pay for their own rape kits.
You cannot be a feminist if you only support (and with Palin, I use that term loosely) equal rights for heterosexual women.
You cannot be a feminist if you do not believe in another woman's right to choose under almost any circumstances, regardless of your own personal opinions of abortion.
You cannot be a feminist if you do not believe in the free, unabridged access of accurate information regarding one's own sexual health.
The far right and even the near right have hurled the term feminist,"" (along with its lovely cousin, ""feminazi,"" as Wall points out) as an insult for years at any woman or man who dared hint at the existence of sexism in American culture. And now Kristin Wall is upset because feminists aren't ""dancing in the streets"" over the nomination of this ""true feminist"" to a major party ticket?
Yes, clearly the problem is that we long-time feminists just don't understand what feminism is.
- Erica Andrist
Communication Arts: Rhetoric, Biology, and Spanish
UW-Madison Student
