I often read Rebecca Traister at Salon.com. She’s really able to articulate what I sometimes cannot, and then I find myself saying, “Yeah. That. What you said.”

Today, she has written a thought-provoking article about the “new feminism.” You can read it here: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/11/zombie_feminism/?source=newsletter

Here is a pull quote from the article:

“In this ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-inflected universe, in which femininity is worshipped but females will be denied rights, CNBC pundit Donny Deutsch tells us that we’re witnessing ‘a new creation … of the feminist ideal,’ the feminism being so ideal because instead of being voiced by hairy old bats with unattractive ideas about intellect and economy and politics and power, it’s now embodied by a woman who, according to Deutsch, does what Hillary Clinton did not: ‘put a skirt on.’ ‘I want her watching my kids,’ says Deutsch. ‘I want her laying next to me in bed.’

Welcome to 2008, the year a tough, wonky woman won a primary (lots of them, actually), an inspiring black man secured his party’s nomination for the presidency, and a television talking head felt free to opine that a woman is qualified for executive office because he wants to bed her and have her watch his kids! Stop the election; I want to get off.

What Palin so seductively represents, not only to Donny Deutsch but to the general populace, is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It’s like some dystopian future … feminism without any feminists.”

This is a man whose show is called “The Big Idea.” I have a big idea that he is a tool of the lowest order.

Anyway. Read. Digest. And let’s discuss.