feminist for obama

This post will not be about why I support Barack Obama for president, but rather, why I (and other feminists) should be "allowed" to do so. Though it's a couple months old now, I found this article interesting:

Anti-Hillary Sentiment On The Rise Among Leading Feminists

I especially like this quote:

Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," and Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia, declared that the pro-Clinton feminists "interrogate, chastise, second-guess and even denounce those who escape their encampment and find themselves on Obama terrain. In their hands feminism, like patriotism, is the all-encompassing prism that eliminates discussion, doubt and difference about whom to vote for and why."

I would be happy if either Clinton or Obama were elected; I think both are good candidates. And I am disgusted by the often deplorably sexist treatment of Senator Clinton. But it angers me when I am told I'm "not a good feminist" because I support Obama, as if feminism is this monolithic thing that requires I vote for the female candidate. (That's why in general I prefer "feminism(s)" rather than "feminism," but mainstream media outlets don't have the time, I suppose, to detail all the different kinds of feminisms that exist: radical, Marxist, poststructural, etc.)

Here's the original Ensler/Crenshaw post:

Feminist Ultimatums: Not In Our Name

The feminism we fought so hard for and benefited from was not to make us blind to the complexity, but to help us see beyond simple formulas and body politics.

Ok: now I really need to get back to doing some work.