Wendy Davis Losing In Texas Is A Win, Or Something

Today on Slate’s feminist XX blog, there was a headline that read: Even if She Loses in Texas, Wendy Davis Is a Win for America. Seriously? So, a Texas State Senator, who filibustered a bill that would ban abortions twenty-weeks into a pregnancy last summer, is a “win for America?” Jessica Grose, who wrote the article, added:

Now, for all the support Davis’ campaign has received from fellow Democrats in Washington and elsewhere—former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm called her “Joan of Arc, standing up there for women all across the country”—she’s still running for governor of a deeply red state. That means that the issue that made her a national star—abortion—is one she can’t really touch back at home. As NPR’s Wade Goodwin explains, “Her claim to fame is her filibuster against abortion restrictions, but in 2014, most Texas voters favor such legislation. So the candidate has mostly avoided talking about her signature issue.” On Sunday, the New York Times published a big article outlining Davis’ campaign missteps. Initial poll numbers don’t look good. But whether she wins in Texas is somewhat beside the point, at least as far as her status as a national icon is concerned. As we head down the long road to the 2016 elections, Wendy Davis’ campaign serves as proof that a lot of people across the country can get fired up about women’s health and that hashtag activism can have concrete results.

Well, it isn’t just voters from Texas who support the ban on abortions twenty-weeks into a pregnancy. It’s pretty much everyone. In fact, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 60% of women support the ban. Quinnipiac’s poll had the same result.

Jessica Gross

"Why Sarah Palin Incites Near-Violent Rage In Normally Reasonable Women"

I don't like Sarah Palin. Maybe you noticed already! But I don't like any politician who is diabolically anti-choice, who chases wolves down in aircraft only to shoot them when they tire, who supports tearing up the environment and increasingly privatized health care. What I've written on this site about Palin so far has been pretty restrained, considering what I feel for her privately could be described as violent, nay, murderous, rage. When Palin spoke on Wednesday night, my head almost exploded from the incandescent anger boiling in my skull. And I'm not the only one! I had simultaneous IM conversations with many friends, who said things like, "she seems like a fucking monster" and "this feminist wants to murk that idiotic cunt."The tone of the comments on our Palin acceptance speech live blog was pretty similar; in fact, this comment says it all: "I want to punch her in the face and ruin her shit. Fuck her for ruining this historic moment. THANKS SARAH, THE HOTTEST VP." And the question now is why? Why does this particular pitbull in lipstick infuriate — and scare us — so viscerally? Why does her very existence make us feel - and act - so ugly? New York Times columnist Judith Warner calls Palin's nomination a "thoroughgoing humiliation for America's women," because "Palin's not intimidating, and makes it clear that she's subordinate to a great man." Palin, who obviously is incredibly ambitious, masks that ambition behind her PTA placard and "folksy" talk. In the oft-replayed tape from earlier this summer, when asked about the Vice Presidency, Palin notoriously said, '"I'm used to bein' very productive and workin' real hard in an administration and we want to make sure that that ‘V.P.' slot would be a fruitful type of position." I think what Ms. Warner is dancing around, but not saying outright, is that for a certain kind of feminist, Palin is a symbol for everything we hoped was not true in the world anymore. We hoped that we didn't have to hide our ambition or pretend that our goals were effortlessly achieved ("I never really set out to be in public affairs, much less to run for this office," the Governor has said.) We hoped that we could be mothers without having our motherhood be our defining characteristic, as it seems to be for Palin. We hoped that we did not have to be perfect beauty queens to get to where we wanted to be in life, that our looks, good or bad, wouldn't matter. Whether or not you think it's appropriate to comment on Palin's appearance, the fact of her attractiveness exists, and is being used to her advantage by Republican sloganeers ("the hottest Governor in the coldest state," et. al). Keith Olbermann called Sarah Palin "Tracy Flick" after her speech on Wednesday, and I think that's not a perfect parallel. Tracy, while completely ruthless (as Palin has shown herself to be so far with that nasty community organizer comment), never hid her ambition behind a polished veneer — it was as plain as the bows in her hair. No, I think the correct high school stereotype is of the homecoming queen. For many of us looking back at high school, we can now feel a smug superiority towards the homecoming queen. Sure, she was pretty and popular in high school, catering to the whims of boys and cheering on their hockey games, but what happened to her after high school? Often, she popped out some kids and ended up toiling in some not particularly impressive job. We can look back and say, we might have been ambitious nerds in high school, but it ultimately paid off. What's infuriating, and perhaps rage-inducing, about Palin, is that she has always embodied that perfectly pleasing female archetype, playing by the boys' game with her big guns and moose-murdering, and that she keeps being rewarded for it. Our schadenfreude for the homecoming queen's mediocrity has turned into white hot anger at her continued dominance. The Mirrored Ceiling [NYT] Earlier: Sarah Palin's "Feminism" Is Irrelevant To Her Irresponsible Record Why Bristol Palin's Pregnancy Should Be Fair Game To Pundits, If Not Democrats Sarah Palin, The Life-iest Pro-Life Candidate Who Ever Scared The Crap Out Of Me

Jessica Grose, Michael Winton

The bride, 28, will continue to use her name professionally. She is an associate editor at Slate in New York, where she manages the women’s section Double X and writes for the arts and culture section. She is an author, with Doree Shafrir, of “Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home” (Hyperion, 2009). She graduated from Brown.

She is the daughter of Dr. Judith Ebenstein Grose and Dr. Richard M. Grose of Irvington, N.Y. Her father is a cardiologist in private practice in Scarsdale, N.Y., and a clinical professor of medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in Manhattan. Her mother is a psychiatrist in private practice in Irvington.

The bridegroom, 29, is a marketing manager at IFC Films in Manhattan, where he helps create promotional materials and trailers for the company’s films. He graduated from Williams College.

He is a son of Charlotte Vaughan Winton and David J. Winton of San Francisco. The bridegroom’s mother is on the board of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a nonprofit environmental organization in Bozeman, Mont. His father is a founder of and a partner in Winton/duPont Films, a television production company in San Francisco and Manhattan.

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