Depoliticizing Feminism: Frontier Mythology and Sarah Palin's “The Rise of The Mama Grizzlies”

Abstract

This essay analyzes a chapter from Sarah Palin's best-selling book America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag. We argue that Sarah Palin draws upon the mythology of the American frontier in “The Rise of the Mama Grizzlies” in order to legitimate a conservative feminism. Our analysis demonstrates how Palin appropriates the history of the women's rights movement and the symbols and language of feminism to position her audience of contemporary conservative women as the rightful heirs of a distinctly American frontier feminism. Ultimately, we expose Palin's narrative of frontier feminism as a pseudo feminist rhetoric that functions to bolster conservative and masculinist logics while undermining core tenets of feminism. While very few rhetorical studies examine women speaking frontier rhetoric, our analysis helps to fill this void by demonstrating how Sarah Palin reinterprets the frontier myth to insert conservative women at its center and by exploring the consequences of framing feminism through a masculinist myth. Our essay also extends the effort to understand the rhetorical appeal and presentation of post-feminism. Importantly, we argue that the myth of the American frontier operates as a post-feminist script to define the mama grizzly as an exclusionary construct and to depoliticize the very core of Palin's frontier feminism. Our essay lends insight into the growing trend of appropriation by conservative women of feminist rhetoric and considers the consequences of such appropriation.

Keywords:

• Feminist Criticism
• Frontier Mythology
• Post-Feminism
• Sarah Palin

Notes

For a recent debate centering on individualism and the possibilities and limitation of “Power Feminism,” see Foss and Foss; for a contrasting view, see Chávez and Griffin. Works central to feminist discussions of essentialism and anti-essentialism include Gilligan; Spelman; and Heyes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katie L. Gibson

Katie L. Gibson (PhD, The Pennsylvania State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University.

Amy L. Heyse

Amy L. Heyse (PhD, University of Maryland, College Park) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, California State University, Long Beach.