You don't get to do this.

It wasn't hard for me to pin down my biggest problem with the whole Sarah Palin situation. I have any number of issues with the woman herself, as a candidate. Hopelessly unqualified, anti-choice, anti-gay, engaging in abuses of power, and a liar. But the biggest problem I have is with the way the Republicans are handling it.

From Politico:

Said McCain adviser Carly Fiorina: “Because of Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms. They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Gov. Palin.”

Also, Lindsey Graham:

“Would a man be asked this question? Probably not,” the South Carolina Republican said in an interview with Politico.

“Did anybody ask [Democratic vice presidential nominee] Joe Biden [similar questions] when his tragedy hit him?”

No. The Republican party has spent years - decades - making sexist attacks on Democratic women and calling it good politics, calling us whiners when we object to it. They do not get to suddenly decide to use this for themselves. They don't get to appropriate the language of choice and feminism when they're the ones who fight the hardest against us.

I would love it if this were a genuine change. If, overnight, the Republicans did a 180 and realised that sexism is real, that women can be judged on more than the state of their family, and that we really do have the right to decide what to do with every part of our own bodies, that would be amazing. But that's not what's happening here. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised at it - that they're turning our language back on us when it's politically expedient - but just because I'm not surprised doesn't mean I'm any less angry.