The XX Factor: What women really think.

Lying Is Not a Feminist Principle, Is It?

Emily, I think you are right that it’s always going to be a huge mistake to attack Sarah Palin for personal or family decisions—even if she is relentlessly cashing in on them. Images like this one don’t help, either. As Melinda observes, any references at all to Palin’s gender will net out to her benefit, even when the underlying criticism is valid. Let's not judge lest we be judged. So how do we thread this needle? What can we fairly scrutinize? Turns out that discussing her managerial mistakes and inexperience is going to be equally fraught; it’s patronizing to suggest she's unprepared. Perhaps the best place to focus, then, is on her fabrications—like the disproved claim that she opposed the “Bridge to Nowhere”—which the mainstream media now appears to understand despite its continued deployment by the McCain campaign.

The “new feminism” may include uncritical support for women who oppose teen pregnancy programs and for women who force rape victims to pay for their own rape kits. But I just don’t see where support for women who persist in fabricating their own records is a feminist principle.