Carly Fiorina Is The Ideal Feminist. And That Scares The Crap Out Of Liberals.

I am COMPLETELY in love with this Politico column by Christina Hoff Sommers and Christine Rosen titled “How Carly Fiorina Is Redefining Feminism.” When you’ve got Hillary Clinton running around proclaiming that she is going to be the “First Woman President”(tm) and liberal feminists shouting that Hillary is the standard bearer for women everywhere and if you don’t agree, then you’re a dirty rotten misogynist – it’s awesome to have someone like Carly Fiorina to point to and say “I like her brand of feminism.”

First off – what I love about the Politico column is the definition of “equity feminism” that Sommers and Rosen give. This is what I think feminism started out as, before it devolved into the massive social justice War Between the Sexes that we have now –

Equity feminism stands for the moral, social and legal equality of the sexes—and the freedom of women (and men) to employ their equal status to pursue happiness as they define it. It’s the feminism of anyone who has said, “I’m not a feminist, but ….” Equity feminism does not view men and women as opposing tribes. Theories of patriarchal oppression are not among its founding tablets. Put simply, equity feminism affirms for women what it affirms for everyone: dignity, opportunity and personal liberty.

Isn’t that better than the constant display of ladyparts and live-tweeting your period and feminist protesters shouting about yeast infections?

The thing is – Carly didn’t just sit around and say “I’m a poor, defenseless, victimized woman and therefore I’m better than you.” She doesn’t constantly remind people that she’s a woman and you have to vote for her in order to be a part of history. She reminds people of the things she’s accomplished and her skills and her principles – which would be awesome whether they belonged to a man or a woman. She’s not making gender an issue in her campaign and she’s not trying to pander to certain demographics just to get votes. Principles and values don’t belong to just one census group – you can certainly be a woman or a minority or whatever else and still be conservative (trust me – it’s not that difficult) –

[…] Fiorina-style feminism is focused on opportunity rather than grievance, and Fiorina’s own optimism about women’s progress fits well with it. Unlike previous female Republican presidential candidates like Elizabeth Dole, whose campaign slogan was “Let’s Make History” and who emphasized her experience not just as a senator but as a senator’s wife, Fiorina refuses to play either the traditionally conservative “wife-and-mother” card or the gender card. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton relentlessly references how she is poised to make history and can’t seem to stop reminding us that she is a grandmother.

Fiorina refuses to pander. When asked during the last debate which woman she would choose to put on the 10-dollar bill she politely refused to answer the question, noting, correctly, “It’s a gesture.” The subtext was classic equity feminism: Aren’t there more important things we should be discussing than a token female face on our currency?

Of course, the fact that someone like Carly Fiorina exists scares liberal women to death. She’s been able to articulate the message of personal liberty and individual choice that conservative women have been saying for years, but has gotten lost in the mess of liberals insisting we’re just a bunch of doormats that are enslaved by our oppressive white male patriarchal masters (HA! I’d love for someone to say that to my mother’s face. I’d pop popcorn and sell tickets).

Decades of squabbling over who is and isn’t a feminist, ideological policing by activist groups and demands for litmus tests on issues like abortion have created a collective cultural exhaustion around this particular f-word. Fiorina captured that divisiveness in one deft sentence: “Over the years feminism has devolved into a left-leaning political ideology where women are pitted against men and used as a political weapon to win elections.”

By contrast, Fiorina recently describes a feminist as “a woman who lives the life she chooses. … A woman may choose to have five children and home-school them. She may choose to become a CEO, or run for president.”

In fact, liberal women are actually CONFUSED by the fact that someone like Carly Fiorina actually exists (ladies, step out of your East Coast or West Coast liberal bubbles and you might actually learn something) –

But she’s convinced even strong skeptics. “I never took Carly Fiorina seriously until I heard her on radio interviews over the summer,” prominent academic and social critic Camille Paglia told us. “Her quick, precise command of international and military affairs was eye-opening. It’s about time that women politicians get out of the pink ghetto of soft-focus social-welfare issues and tackle the high-testosterone arena of strategic geopolitics.” Paglia predicts: “Even if her presidential bid fails, Fiorina will surely play a leadership role in this long overdue gender shift.”

[…]

Fiorina has confused critics and a large swath of the Democratic left. “Carly Fiorina is an ice cold shade queen debate princess and I’m in love with and terrified of her,” tweeted Jezebel managing editor Erin Gloria Ryan. Elite liberal women found it easy to dismiss Republican candidates like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann—it’s hard to imagine either giving a TED lecture or moderating a panel at Davos. Fiorina is another matter. “It’s so weird,” the activist novelist Jennifer Weiner told the New York Times. “She looks like one of us, but she’s not.”

Again, I’d encourage you to read the whole column (and give it to your liberal feminist friends). This isn’t necessarily about getting out my “Carly 2016!” pom-poms and waving them around (though that certainly doesn’t hurt) – it’s also about showing conservatives (and conservative women in particular) that we CAN take our principles and stand toe-to-toe against the poisonous liberal feminism that tells us that we’re victims and, unless we wave around used tampons and scream about non-existent rape culture, we don’t have a voice in society. That is utter bullcrap. Carly Fiorina would be the first (and has been among the first) to say so.