PUMA vs. Feminism

The wonderful Dahlia Lithwick explains how the media gets juice out of PUMA:

The media have been complicit in lapping up the tales of bitter old women. Any story erected around a pre-literary archetype of the destructive power of a woman scorned is destined to be hit candy, whether or not it represents any statistical reality. It's hardly clear that Team Hillary is as vast or as powerful as it claims. Polls suggest there isn't a deep pool of Obama-hating women who could derail his election.

These disgruntled women--whether they plan to vote for John McCain, sit out the election, or simply gobble up airtime--are tacitly working toward electing McCain; a candidate who claimed last week at a presidential forum at Saddleback Church that life begins "at the moment of conception" and who voted against legislation ensuring equal pay for women. These women must be well aware that a vote for McCain is a vote to overturn Roe. I assume they don't care. But my real problem with the Hillary Harridans--and the media's relentless focus on them--is that they give new life to Paleozoic stereotypes about irrationally destructive older women.

I don't think anyone needs PUMA to flatten women into caricatures. Not to be cynical, but that's part of the business of media. Still, I think it's wrong, at this point, to draw any real connections between what are basically conspiracy nuts, a step removed from Lyndon Larouche, and the broad swath of women voters.