Just a few Fridays ago I got the good news about the addition of Sarah Palin to the 2008 Republican ticket. I was so excited I fired off a few rounds from my assault rifle and then hopped in the car and drove back to my office at UNC-Wilmington. I wanted to talk to some of the feminists in my department about this great breakthrough in the struggle for gender equality.

Of course, none of the feminists were in the office in the hours after Sarah Palin’s introduction as John McCain’s running mate. Maybe they were off celebrating the great moment in women’s history. I think it’s more likely they were field dressing a moose. Regardless, I was just glad to spend an afternoon at the office without having to look at a feminist.

I guess in some ways the lack of feminist enthusiasm for Palin was to be expected. But I never could have expected the cumulative hostility feminists have already shown towards Palin. One of my students recently told me that his feminist professor – in the midst of a classroom lecture, no less – deemed Palin to be unqualified to serve as Vice President because she could not control her 17-year old daughter.

It is certainly interesting to hear feminists talking about the need to control other women’s bodies. But an even more interesting question arises in the context of the call for parental control over the body of Bristol Palin: How can parents possibly control the bodies of their teenaged daughters in light of feminist opposition to parental notification laws?

This situation with Bristol Palin and with Sarah Palin’s youngest son really seems to be a large part of the feminist hostility towards the Palin candidacy. The Palins are adamantly pro-life and they live lives in accordance with their pro-life views. Indeed, Bill O’Reilly suggested recently – to a nodding Laura Ingraham – that the feminist hatred of Sarah Palin was solely about the issue of abortion.

I disagree that this hostility is all about abortion. I think it also has a lot to do with Palin’s personality – specifically with her personal courage and ability to think and act independently.

Those who don’t work around feminists fail to realize fully their incapacity for independent thought and action. The feminist response to a recent controversy in my department (Sociology and Criminology) provides a good example of what I’m talking about.

Our recent decision to hire Brian Chapman as Provost at UNC-Wilmington has been, to say the least, a source of great controversy. Chapman is a very confident and assertive man who has little problem voicing his opinions. He also has no reservations about criticizing faculty members to their faces.

Provost Chapman severely ruffled the feathers of some Criminology professors when he began to insist on a fully online degree program in our department despite the complete lack of support of the faculty. Later, it was perceived by some that he was threatening to withdraw any funding of individual online courses if the department would not agree to a complete online program. Continued...