Some women groups and advocates are screaming that media bashing of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is sexism.

In truth, their call for media and the rest of the public to go slow in critiquing Sarah Palin is driven by real sexism. They are virtually saying: She’s a woman, who have been oppressed, and so don’t bash her, don’t allow the media and the public to grill her and criticize her sharply, like they do the male candidates. Actually, this kind of thinking smacks of a medieval male chauvinist, sexist mentality that said: Women are weak and fragile, so they should be protected, and put on a pedestal.

What this call to coddle Palin sets back the drive for women’s equality by the real women’s liberation movement. That movement fought for the right for women to enter the political fray and fight for progressive change on equal terms with men. Those so-called pro-women who are seeking to coddle Palin are really false feminists, who are betraying the ideals of women’s liberation. These false feminists are really closet sexists and feminists.

What the Bush people and the Republicans want to do is create a right-wing media icon out of Palin in the mold of Margaret Thatcher, a right-wing “Iron Lady”. And the mainstream, right-wing media rides on this by having her pose with a shotgun. And like Thatcher, the right-wingers want her to be their poster child for right-wing policies such as neo-liberalism {let the market and Wall Street take care of the economy, but let the working taxpayers bail out Wall Street, let Big Oil jack up gas prices and rip off the public), anti-science (stop stem-cell research, this might slash the profits of the drug companies) and anti-environment (drill, drill and drill even in the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge and to hell with the environment; global warming, what me worry? I’m worried about the welfare of Big Oil).

But the real story here is that like the old master Thatcher, the new American right-wing protégé Palin will work against the welfare of the working women of America, who make up the majority of American women. She is at bottom anti-feminist and anti-women. We don’t need an American Thatcher, a female poster child and icon for right-wing, anti-women policies! Time to expose Palin for what she really is! Time to get real!