The Guardian piece, by Homa Khaleeli, Martha Gill and Hazelann Williams, says that Atwood "caused consternation when she admitted, 'I don't know if I am a feminist.'" The authors seem to be referring to a September 4 interview with the Independent, in which Atwood has a lot more to say. She thinks women are hardwired to tidy up things like socks, "because we were the gatherers; [men] were the hunters." Of her most famous novel, The Handmaid's Tale, often read as a polemic in favor of women's reproductive rights, she says,

You could tell The Handmaid's Tale from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.

And on feminism specifically, she tells the Independent,

It's not picking up socks that's the issue. Who is the 'we' that we are talking about [in feminism]? Are we talking about the children who are involved in sex trafficking, or the women in Bangladesh? Are we talking about the Eastern European women who are promised a place in the West and end up as sex slaves? Feminism is a big term. If we are asking 'Are women human beings?' we don't need to vote on that. But where do we go from there? Are women better than men? No. Are they different? Yes. How are they different? We're still trying to figure that out.

It's interesting that she brings up the issue of sex differences, because I've come to see that as something of a red herring. Just this weekend, a friend asked me what it meant that I considered myself a feminist. He wanted to know if I thought men and women were "the same." I don't. Sex and gender aren't as binary as we sometimes assume, but most women do have different bodies from most men. Does that matter?

It's not the job of feminism to figure out "how men and women are different" — or to assert that they are not. Feminism should be about making sure men and women have the same opportunities, and combating the institutional sexism that sometimes keeps women from taking advantage of these opportunities. It may be interesting to debate whether women are hardwired to pick up socks (I'm skeptical), but the real task of feminism is to make sure we're not forced to pick them up. The confusion comes because a lot of the rhetoric of sex difference is aimed at convincing us we're meant for sock duty. But the enemy of feminism is that rhetoric — not sex difference itself. That's for science to figure out.

Of course, Atwood's words are far too complicated to constitute the death knell of feminism. But they are an interesting jumping-off point for Khaleeli, Gill, and Williams to ask a variety of women the question, "Are you a feminist?"

Shami Chakrabarti tackles the "humorless feminist" archetype:

I am more than happy to call myself a feminist; I am a woman and I'm not on my knees. I passionately, profoundly believe in gender equality as much as I do race equality. Feminism has come to be seen as uncool and unfunny. But you can laugh at yourself, be a feminist and have broad horizons.

But Deborah Meaden offers what may, unfortunately, be a more common position:

I'm not a feminist. I consider my position in the business world not as a woman but as a person. And don't think, "Did that happen because I'm a woman?" Feminism doesn't have a particularly constructive image, although I think there was time when it was relevant. But I think we are more sophisticated now and we no longer have to batter people over the head with it.

I hear this argument a lot — that there was a time for feminism, and now that time has passed. So after I finished telling my friend that I didn't necessarily think men and women were the same, I told him that to me, being a feminist means believing that women today still face obstacles to total equality. And it means working to remove those obstacles. Both of which I can do regardless of whether my foremothers were gatherers.

Are You A Feminist? [Guardian]
Margaret Atwood: 'People Should Live Joyfully' [Independent]

• Less than 50% of female residents of Ontario who had abnormal pap smears received follow-up care, a new study says. Unsurprisingly, many of the untreated women were from lower-income communities. • AdAge breaks down what we can learn from online dating. Among the bullet-point nuggets of wisdom: "the vast majority of people out there are hurting, confused, bitter, uncertain, cynical and, yes, crazy" and "We are all biologically programmed to be 'about the looks.' Apple has built a small empire based on its remarkable aesthetic." • Ever wondered what happens when you sneeze? This article will answer that question, and several others, like why does a sneeze sometimes feel so fucking good? • Margaret Atwood on the environmentalist message of her new novel, Year of the Flood: ‘‘We tend to pay attention to immediate needs and desires, but we are not so good at looking down the road, and it is really hard for us to look a hundred years down the road.'' Read the rest of the (awesome) interview here. •  A 14-year-old mixed race girl from the UK was driven to attempt suicide by the taunts of her racist 15-year-old classmate. Last month, the boy was convicted of racially aggravated harassment, but he was only sentenced to a six month supervision order and a fine. The victim said of the ruling: "That's pants." •  One Texas sheriff's deputy has been fired and four other deputies have been disciplined for asking a scantily-clad waitress named Bambi to pose on the back of their police cruiser holding a AR-15 rifle. • Controversy is brewing over a book on Frida Kahlo coming out this fall that the publishers say contains "an astonishing lost archive of one of the 20th century's most revered artists … full of ardent desires, seething fury, and outrageous humour." Unfortunately, Kahlo scholars say the items are fake and are pushing Mexican art institutions to step in and "put a stop to this type of fraud." • Director Kathryn Bigelow says she filmed The Hurt Locker, her critically-acclaimed film about the Iraq War, in Jordan because, "It's a movie about the Middle East and, call me crazy, I wanted to shoot it in the Middle East. I don't think Arizona would have been quite right... The nature of this film was so reportorial – if you don't immerse yourself, how are you going to tell the story responsibly?" • A federal judge ruled today in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota challenging informed consent laws that South Dakota abortion doctors must tell pregnant women the procedure terminates the life of a human being. However, she ruled that pregnant women don't have to be told abortion increases the likelihood of suicide or that they have an existing relationship with the fetus. • A British man who had a cornea transplant says he must have received the "cornea of a woman". His wife used to have to pester him to do housework but he says, "Because of my new eyesight I now notice every speck of dust and dirt and immediately want to clean it up... There is a reason why men don't clean normally and I think it's because we just don't see the dirt. But since the transplant I now see it wherever I go."

• In attempts to curb prostitution, Las Vegas police have published a list of the 50 "most prolific prostitutes." Opponents of the list worry that it will lead to arrests without probable cause. • Faculty and students at UC San Diego are protesting what they believe is an unsafe environment in the school's literature building. High rates of breast cancer among those working in the building has lead many to believe that the electrical equipment, and possibly the elevator, is to blame. • The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a billboard advertising "longer lasting sex" is crass and unsubtle, and must be taken down. • Malaysian assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong has been asked to resign from her position after nude pictures of her sleeping were circulated on the internet. Because Wong did not break any law, and was obviously the victim in this crime, many have (rightly) questioned her punishment. • An infant boy from a village in eastern India has been married off to his neighbor's dog. His parents believe that this will ward off wild animals, and protect their young son. • The Pennsylvanian "Gothic Kitten" woman is going to stand trial on animal cruelty charges. The judge called the issue a gray area that needs to be decided by a jury. • This is amazing: A Utah woman named Yvonne Morris chased a man who she believed broke into her car and brought him to justice with a headlock and a wedgie. Let's hope it wasn't an atomic one. • Margaret Atwood has pulled out of inaugural Emirates Airline international festival of literature in response to the censorship of "blacklisted" novelist Geraldine Bedell. • Six new studies from Cornell indicate that eating vegetables and fruits - especially apples - can reduce the risk of breast cancer. • New research shows that very few women of childbearing age are following lifestyle recommendations, or preparing in any way, for the possibility of becoming pregnant. Apparently, regardless of whether or not you want a baby, if you are of childbearing age you should be taking folic acid and drinking less. Ugh. • A new device that promises to unmask the identity of even blocked callers is causing a good amount of disquiet among advocates for domestic violence victims. They fear that the service would make it easier for abusive partners to locate their victims, and make it more difficult for women to successfully leave their abusers. • Awww: zoo keeper Alex Larenty is so close to Jamu, an eight-year-old male lion, that the two are able to safely cuddle and play. • "Cranial billboards" are the hot new thing in advertising, and they are just what they sound like: human heads, decorated with temporary tattoos, used as billboards. • A 34-year-old man allegedly kidnapped a woman, dressed her in an adult diaper, and held her captive for three days while he read Bible passages aloud to her. • Researchers, addressing the sexism in evolutionary studies, have begun to focus on the process of childbirth and mothering as a subject of inquiry. • And now for the most adorable thing you'll read all day: an abandoned fox cub has been domesticated by a pet store owner. Miss Snooks now refuses to return to the wild, and is perfectly happy sleeping with the family cats. • 

• We've gotten a lot of emails this week whining about the excess of Palin coverage. But you know what Palin hates more than anything — whiners! If you whine, the terrorists win…Or something. Anyway, check out what Judge Judy thinks about Sarah Palin.
• Also check out what American Wife author Curtis Sittenfeld thinks about Sarah Palin!
• Don't forget about comparing her future potential reign to Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale!
• With all of this nonsense, we almost forgot it was FASHION WEEK! Check out Dodai's Project Runway Bryant Park show live blog and the rest of our fashion week posts.

• And now for something completely different! Our ANTM girlcrush, Sheena.
• Check it: The 8 Worst Hairdos A Man Can Have.
• Are those more, or less offensive than the worst of the fall magazine ads?
• The worst of all: Teen Vogue's awesome new eating disorder.
• But you guys. It's Friday. So rock out those bad hairdos, shut off the CNN, and don't let anyone spike your drink with sexactivator.

One nice thing about The Handmaid's Tale is, like Sarah Palin's resume, it's a pretty quick read. Basically the US has become a Christian theocracy where piety is required and women are chattel. They can't have property or jobs, and they are forced into arranged marriages or disturbing functional roles. A few become whores, and get to hang out at a brothel called Jezebel's. Others are Handmaids, so called because of a story in Genesis. Pollution has made most people sterile, but Handmaids are still believed to be fertile. Their job is to live with rich couples and have sex with the husbands — while the wives lie on the bed with them — in hopes of conceiving a child. The narrator, Offred, is one such Handmaid, and her description of the "fertilization" process ("My red skirt is hitched up to my waist. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body") probably stuck with you if you read the novel in high school, for its sheer awful dehumanization of sex. The Handmaids are told they are better off than women before the theocracy, who were "dying of too much choice."

So, is this the kind of world Sarah Palin wants to usher us into? Well, sort of. The Christian Heritage Week she signed into law in Alaska sounds like a far milder version of the state-sanctioned Prayvaganzas. When a group of Handmaids-to-be chants "her fault, her fault, her fault" at a rape victim, I thought of women in Wasilla paying for their own rape kits on Palin's watch. And of course there's the reverence for childbearing that permeates the culture of The Handmaid's Tale, from the gruesome displays of executed abortionists to the arranged marriages of girls as young as fourteen in order to "start them soon." All this is reminiscent of Palin's avowed pro-life stance, a stance so unswerving it's hard to imagine her daughter could have gone against it.

But does Sarah Palin actually want the US to turn into a Handmaid's-Tale-style police state? No more than any of us. She's not against women holding jobs — she's a working mother of five. Nor would she, if elected, force us all to attend Prayvaganzas or have sex with other people's husbands.

However, a character named Serena Joy should offer a chilling cautionary tale to Palin and her ilk. Before the theocracy, Serena Joy was a popular televangelist, preaching about the need for women to return to the home. Afterwards, she does just that, and she is trapped in an arranged marriage with knitting and gardening as her only occupations. Atwood writes:

She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesn't seem to agree with her. How furious she must be, now that she's been taken at her word.

Sarah Palin hasn't been as anti-woman as someone like Ann Coulter, whose persistence in asking people to listen to her while telling them women are stupid is a mind-boggling exercise in doublethink. But Palin does want to deprive women of the right to decide what we do with our bodies. And as The Handmaid's Tale shows, women who want to take power away from women should be careful what they wish for.

The Handmaid's Tale [Amazon]

Earlier:
Patriotism Is Not A Cultural Pissing Contest
Palin Gives Thumbs Up To Financial Bailouts, Down To Rape Victims