In the same vein as my earlier post, on the Huffington Post Dr. Judith Rich goes deeper, and asks us a question:
Palin looks to me like the patriarchy in a skirt, a Helen of Troy. However, her skirts are not hiding the army that will deliver us from male dominance as much as to perpetuate it. She gets to do the dirty work of spouting vitriol while McCain gets to smile and make fake gestures about bi-partisanship. She's the court jester; calculated to distract us from noticing that the emperor himself, has no clothes. Palin hasn't triumphed over the good old boys. She's joined them. And now, she's being used to serve them by helping to create the illusion they actually care about what women care about. But be not fooled. This sorcerer's apprentice is no Hillary Clinton.Here's Sarah, "Miss Congeniality," the "pit bull in lipstick" jumping in line ahead of Hillary, the "Queen of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantsuits". In both women we see our collective shadow, but wearing different costumes. Hillary was undone by a lifetime of compromising her authentic idealism in order to play by the big boy's rules. If Sarah is Helen of Troy, Hillary is Joan of Arc. What got burned at the stake in Hillary is the truth of who she is; a true champion for human being that thought being tough was the only way to succeed. We knew she had mastery of the issues. What we wanted from Hillary was a glimpse of her heart. How sad for all of us she thought she had to wrap it in barbed wire. Hillary didn't get that she could be lovable, just as she is, even with her less than trim ankles and calves. We just wanted to see who she really is behind the costume.
So which of these two women represents the future of all women? Will we cast our votes for the starstruck "Geeze, I can't believe this is really happening to me?" part of ourselves? Will we vote for the part of ourselves that yearns for a short cut to nirvana or our fifteen minutes of fame? Will we vote for "I'm getting to my goal no matter what the cost is to my life and my family or who I have to step on to get there" voice in us?
Indeed.
The "Change We Can Believe In" mantra of Obama's is really about the undoing of the old patriarchal system and the unfolding of a new paradigm, based on mutual respect and partnership. This is the true expression of the principles of the Sacred Feminine. How stunning to watch the way She works.
Stunning indeed. And look at the right-wing patriarchs go after Obama. They obviously don't use the blatantly misogynistic attacks they used against Hillary (and some lefty boyos are using against Palin). But it's every bit as dark-hearted, every bit as hateful.
It's nice that Sarah Palin can machine-gun a moose and abuse power like the big boys (albeit on a smaller scale -- Alaska is only so big, you know). But who's the candidate that truly challenges the system?
