Palin’s women problem
Sarah Palin is a woman, in case you hadn’t noticed. But she’s got a special problem with women—at, rather, many women appear to have a special problem with her.
I noticed it almost immediately after her nomination, when Palin-bashing became commonplace among my female friends and acquaintances, even those who usually don’t talk about politics. And they weren’t just expressing disagreement with her positions, either. That would hardly explain the intensely personal nature of the remarks I’ve heard, and their quality of hissing contempt (yes, I’m purposely using a cat reference; it’s almost unavoidable).
What’s going on? It’s partly, as this piece from Time by Belinda Luscombe points out, the result of resentment of the popular pretty girl (Palin’s short stint in a beauty contest feeds into this). It’s also partly a class issue, as I wrote here. Some of it focuses on things like personal style and diction.
But a big part of this seems to be the result of a very successful smear campaign that has been spread through both the official MSM and forwarded woman-to-woman emails, misrepresentating things Palin has supposedly done or positions she has taken that are alleged to lessen women’s rights (the debunked “Palin made women pay for their own rape kit” story appears even in the Luscombe piece). In other words, they disseminate the meme that Palin is a woman who is working to undermine the welfare of women as a whole.
The fact that the MSM continues to publish the lie about Palin’s stance on matters such as the rape kit is unlikely to be due to either stupidity or ignorance. The rape kit allegation has been mentioned to me quite prominently by the women I know; it seems to strike a special chord and to provoke tremendous outrage. Even if the MSM knows it’s a lie, it’s just too valuable a lie for the MSM to give up. And it seems to be working quite effectively; I’ve even had some women tell me they were thinking of voting for McCain until they learned all these awful things about Palin.
Never underestimate the ability of the MSM to be both stupid and ignorant. Especially when combined with a willingness to believe in what fits their preconceived view of the world.
Agitprop, I keep tellin’ ya!
Catseye.
The MSM passed stupid and ignorant long ago.
Now the’re corrupt.
Strikes me that the women who believe all this awful stuff want to believe it and debunking won’t make any difference at all.
Question: I note the youngest candidate of the four–Palin–wears glasses all the time. She does not need to. All you have to do is be able to figure out which way the audience is. That’s all you need to see.
The other guys get away with lasik surgery, contacts, or whatever acuity age has left them.
I looked at her beauty contest picture. Is it possible she wears glasses to mitigate the effect of her eyes?
Large, dark, wide-set eyes can be distracting. I don’t mean that merely as a sexual issue. It can be visceral. Or both.
“Sarah Palin is a woman, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
I noticed. You bet I noticed.
As to the reaction of the sisters, could it be envy ?
Richard Aubrey: I believe she wears the glasses purposely to mitigate some of the effect of her beauty and make her seem more businesslike. It doesn’t quite work, though.
Aren’t the pretty girls and beauty pageant types supposed to have morphed into fat failures in a muumuu with a front tooth chipped on one too many frozen SNICKERS bars? Palin hasn’t cooperated with the stereotype, not only still looking good but having accomplished things even the smart girls never dreamed of.
I knew a girl when I was in college who was spectacularly beautiful. She went out of her way to dress so as to mitigate the effect of her figure. She mentioned, indirectly, from time to time, that some of the results of her looks were tiresome.
She later got an English MA, and an Ivy MBA. So, presumably, somebody had to start taking her seriously.
Oddly, she married some jerk who was cheating from the get-go (WHAAAT?), divorced within a year, and never remarried. Had a couple of long-term relationships but is now alone.
Hard to say what her bad luck had to do with fabulous looks. But you’t think she’d have had her choice.
I think Palin is just a bit too good-looking to be taken seriously by some, especially with her accent; the hardest “r”s I’ve ever heard.
But, it sometimes pay to be underestimated.
If you are female, it doesn’t take long for the sharp observer to notice how many girls and women are threatened by female strength. If you are literally, physically strong, that isn’t an asset to you with other women except with the handful of them that also value that and try to cultivate it.
Likewise, which is more common in sympathetic female romantic leads in movies: no-nonsense women who know what they want and go after it, or neurotic ditherers? The no-nonsense and levelheaded woman is almost always portrayed as the “sensible friend”- who is either with someone boring or single.
Delicacy has been synonomous with femininity for a lot longer than feminism has supposedly replaced that ideal with strength, and it shows.
“Even if the MSM knows it’s a lie, it’s just too valuable a lie for the MSM to give up.”
Boy, that’s the truth. I think individuals in MSM also make certain to NOT KNOW it’s a lie. Their equation:
NYT never says it’s a lie = plausible deniability.
It pays better to be misunderestimated.
To Richard Aubrey’s point, it is possible to be too attractive (God knows I’m not speaking from first-hand experience!).
I call it the Nicole Brown effect, in honor of someone who would have been much better off if she’d been less attractive.
I think there’s a lot more than her looks feeding the frenzy. She’s accomplished quite a lot, while maintaining all those things we women have been told we’ll have to be willing to sacrifice in order to accomplish quite a lot – you know what I mean? She didn’t give up her apparently happy marriage to a handsome and masculine man in order to become a power in her own right; she didn’t give up her desire to have a passel of kids in order to be a career woman. She has it ALL, and I have to wonder whether some of the fury against her from some women is resentment rather than an explicit sense of threat.
I know if I didn’t want her ticket to win, I’d probably resent her! She’s done so much with what she has and is; I can’t help but feel (accurately) that I’m a big unambitious slug for not having run for some kind of office already.
When I’m not furious at those dissing her experience as mayor of little Wasilla (scoff) and governor of underpopulated Alaska (eye roll), I’m amused by them; how many of them are mayor or governor of anything? How many can legitimately claim any amount of real power or influence, gained and held on their own, without benefit even of a top-tier college?
Normally women having problem if one take the shoot with more attentions, this is some thing related to women things.
Sarah Palin has a good looking and also the way she talk /her accent all these works for her with other skill she had.
Watching Sarah Palin how she moved from the day introduced and now after few weeks she looks she is very smart to pick things fast, reshape herself for a new level of leadership position and she did well so far.
Jamie,
I have the feeling Sarah would like you even if you were a slug (my category as well, I might add.) The refreshing thing about her is that she doesn’t seem to demand that others model themselves on her. She seems happy in her skin, and that’s enough for her. After all these years of having womanhood defined for us, she is a relief.
The problem, as has been stated already, isn’t Sarah Palin at all. It’s all those other women. There seems to be a fine line between admiration and rabid jealousy.
I’m not a woman, but I admire all she has done. And while I do not hold it against her, I am also a bit jealous because I don’t think I could have pulled everything off she has pulled of – while still continuing to grow. And she is an attractive woman.
Without “the luv”, admiration is a kinder, gentler word for jealous, eh?
neo neocon, thanks for letting me pop in here and flap my jaws. If I have not said so before, this is a great blog. Lots of very bright people come in here. I am learning many things, and acquiring many new ways of thinking. Actually, many thanks to the commentors as well.
I will never underestimate the depths that females will sink to out of spite.
My daughter was beautiful, smart, a great athlete, and just fun to be around. She had lots of friends, male and female. But, obviously there were some jealous types lurking. She was blackballed in the high school Y Teen club. In college she was snubbed ( I don’t know if blackballed) by the sorority her mother belonged to, with an endosement from another Alum who was the Registrar of a major university.
I don’t how much those things hurt her. She would never show it. But, she had the last laugh. Married her dream guy, three kids and an Executive level position in a prestigous Rehab Center.
I suspect, at least I hope, that this all runs off Sarah Palin like water off the proverbial duck. The best revenge would be for all of those sophisticate “journalists” and other little people to have to call her Madame Vice-President next year; and Madame Prsident in 2013.
Oldflyer.
I think Palin is smart enough–she went through high school like everybody else–to know exactly what’s going on.
NeoNeo,
Don’t know if you saw it but I had a post that goes in a similar direction.I come out at a different end of the worm hole though. I came to the conclusion that the rage was all out of proportion for any of the sources deduced by what Rene Girard might call first appearances. It made me think that there was something much more fundamental at stake for the poor rage-filled Palin-o-cidal women and many of the most caustic and condescending Palinophobic men.
I made a long (and, I hope, interesting) discourse on it but what it boiled down to was that those folks are all people who have had to take on roles and put up facades to imitate an image of what (tempting the oxymoron now) an “intelligent” liberal “professional person” looks and acts like. They are women who are acting like men and men who are acting like women who are acting like men and they are (especially when they are at work) as stiff and unappealing as people can possibly be.
Now, here comes this woman who is attractive, natural, appealing and successful without swallowing all of the toxic liberal/progressive personality poison they have all dutifully swallowed. “Think of it,” they must be muttering to themselves, “she probably even has the gaul to laugh at a joke before she analyses it for racist, sexist or global warming content- The Bitch!” Wouldn’t you be pissed?
Here’s a link if you’re inclined: http://breathofthebeast.blogspot.com/2008/09/rage-sex-roles-elections-and-media.html
I’ve been watching the smearing of Palin and the outright lies being passed about her (the rape kit thing being the most prominent, but by no means the only one) with a combination of anger and despair. Anger because of the sheer volume and just flat-out outlandish characteristics of the smear campaign; despair because I know there’s nothing I can do about it. People believe this stuff. They *want* to believe it. They’re not interested in finding out the truth, heck, it doesn’t seem like they even care what the truth is.
I’m so utterly and thoroughly disgusted with the political scene right now that I don’t know what to do except just throw up my hands. And people wonder why ordinary people don’t go into politics anymore.
Let’s all hope that her magic can really activate voters on Nov. 4 to vote McCain-Palin. It’s hard to understand why all the loathing; in fact, it’s downright mystifying…. I think she’s fabulous. So there, those afflicted with the PDS.
If I had to choose between two alternatives as to why a lot of women hate her – political or psychological/spiritual – I would choose political. She’s from the wrong party, the wrong school, has the wrong views, and is working for the wrong candidate. I honestly don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. If Obama had selected her, everything would have been cool.
A lot of American women are really wedded to cultural Marxism and post-modern ethics of expediency.
I agree that it’s political (with perhaps a bit of the personal animus thrown in; her critics are people who believe that the personal is the political after all). One aspect of it, I think, is sheer fear on the part of the Dems. Palin was laready being discussed as a future Pack presidential candidate before McCain chose her, just as Jindal is. Now she has a higher profile, and is likely to retain that even if the ticket loses in November. But she now gives the Dems their first glimpse of the coming Pack bench of Presidential candidates, and it has scared them spitless. They can see coming up people of accomplishments and intgegrity, attractive to ordinary voters and unafraid to buck the political correctness liberals try to impose on all. The Dems are terrified, because they have no one to pit against such people, only time-serving, corrupt hacks like Obama. The MSM carrying water for them will only go so far. As the latter’s appeal declines so will the Dems’ free propaganda service. Palin scares the Dems, and they can react only by vicious, personal smears to destroy her before she can make a mark on national politics.
I’m going on the perfectly rational assumption that Obama will be four years and out and will be defeated by people like Palin or Jindal (or some other up and coming conservatives – I think Duncan Hunter deserves more of a look). You had better believe that the Big Media and their Leftist elite allies are frightened into a natural colonoscopy.
They will try various schemes to circumscribe the 1st Amendment like the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” in an attempt to hold on to their ability to hoodwink the public. But the more they attempt to censor dissident voices the more they dig their grave. And if he tries foisting a new Community Organizers’ army on the nation to make sure politically correct views are observed it will also blow up in their faces. They will try, but the depth of their stupidity will doom those aspirations.
neo-
I always bought the meme that the fairer sex were the kinder ones and the nurturers. Until daughter hit HS. OMG! Across the board women and girls are absolutely horrible to each other. Not to men or boys but to each other. When I expressed to Battle Command this revelation she looked at me like I was stupid and affirmed what I was observing. (BTW, she is non-standard issue and has few female friends.)
Women HATE Palin because she is what they have sold to the world as what they want to be seen as. BUT, what we see is the real reaction to women who really make it on their own merits. Jealousy and outright hatred are the fruits of success with her peers. That she does not match their world view and therefore must not be ‘genuine’ is apparent. And the liberal men are so gone in Kim du Toit’s meme of the pussification of the American man they just fall in line because they are too scared to wander out of the corral their women have placed them into. They are terrified little boys, not men.
Liberalism is truly a mental defect.
I hope McCain takes off the gloves tomorrow night and flays that metrosexual pretender Obama. I bet if he was faced with real trouble he would wet himself. I see no toughness in his character at all. Just expedience.
All of the arguments above apply equally to Hillary, right?
i.e., the hatred of her is totally irrational, driven by media lies and pent-up jealously.
Hello? Hello? (taps mike)
Is this thing on?
You heard it here first (or, at least I did- I haven’t heard it yet), this year’s “Swift Boat,” is Rape Kit.
Sarah Palin was “Rape Kitted,” by the media.
Even the conservative blogs couldn’t stem the tide of the rape kitting that happened between the announcement of Palin as the VP Nominee and her debate with Joe Biden.
Truly, in an election this close, I could feel the tide turn against MCPalin in the two weeks after the announcement with all of the rumors and untruths spread about her and her family. Rape Kit 2008.
I have to agree with the commenters above who thought that the hatred of Pailin is politically motivated.
Pailin does scare the democrats. Acting on this fear, the democrats are desperate to not only defeat her and McCain now, but to destroy her political viability and so neutralize her so she won’t be a threat in the future either. The politics of personal destruction in action.
Two other interesting aspects of all of this Pailin hatred, though tangential, is…
the revelation of the real feelings many democrats have for Alaskans in general. To them we’re yet more angry bitter losers clinging to our guns and religion. Hicks and oafs to be humored, but ultimately ignored and ofcourse unfit to govern ourselves. Funny, but I’ve met people in remote bush villages who are wittier and more urbane, not to mention tolerant than these progressive clods.
the reinforcement of an almost fanatically religious hatred of those who dare to have, let alone display their religion. By this litmus test the democrats have made for any public office, anybody who is an acting Christian is not fit to be trusted with public office.
Yet they have the gall to call those who disagree with them bigots and racists.
Oh well, I still think that McCain will win, regardless of what the polls say. If he doesn’t I’m certain that Obama will be a one term disaster like Carter. The challenge will be to limit the damage.
If Obama does win though, I am certain that we won’t hear the end of the MSM/progressive crowing for years. Maybe Obama can get them to change the national anthem to Filter’s “Hey Man Nice Shot.”
you fight and you were right,
but they were just too strong.
They stick it in your face
And let you smell,
What they consider wrong.
Change you can believe in.
kamper: I believe Hillary-hatred is equally irrational. However, it takes a very different form than Palin-hatred. It doesn’t seem to involve women as prominently as Palin-hatred does. And it’s not driven by jealousy, in my opinion. Hillary is less feminine and older, and she tends to remind people of a schoolmarm.
Some strong and beautiful women have no trouble capturing the unalloyed admiration of everyone. Dara Torres, for example. Sarah Palin is reviled because she represents the failed politics of the Republic Party and a disastrous administration bookended by catastrophes. Skin-deep cute can’t hide the bone-deep ugliness.
How on earth does she exude “bone deep ugliness?” Because she didn’t want to kill her DS child? Because she worked her way through school (hence the 5 schools or whatever it is)? Has she ever SAID anything that is ugly? If so, what it it that she said? All I’ve heard about are rumors.
Or, is it because she is religious and “dangerous” that she is ugly? Liberals (those like Hyman) are truly the most bigoted Americans in 2008. Hands down.
I know because, like NeoNeocon, I was one. Thank god I grew up. Good luck with your hatred.
I predict she will weather this storm and come out of it stronger than ever. The progressives will not destroy her or her political future.
For decades this country has been building up to this important referendum about the Left/Progressives/socialists in America. We are pretty much the last developed nation which has not repudiated socialist policies for the failures they are.
I would prefer that McCain win, but if he does not I hope we can survive and try to minimize the damage coming our way. I spent a lot of my younger adult life roaming around the intellectual nooks and crannies of Marxism, so I have a pretty good idea of how it has made inroads into our culture. The current problems in the sub prime mortgage lending market is one more example of socialist failure. We have more lessons coming during the next four years. And I believe most of the young people who vote for Obama will learn from that painful experience. The Older Cohort Boomers who have worked tirelessly for the advancement of socialism in America will enjoy their brief victory, and in the end see their vision engulfed in flames.
Signed,
A “bitter clinger to guns and religion” and a Younger Boomer.
I have to take issue with your usage of “swiftboating”. In 2004 some of John Kerry’s old Navy comrades went public and expressed their serious misgivings about his fitness to be Commander-in-Chief.
The media has neatly changed the definition of “swiftboating” to mean “unjustified smear campaign”. Sarah Palin has definitely been the target of unjustified smears, but that is not “swiftboating”.
Now this is what a real Swiftboat campaign against Palin would look like:
Now this is what a real Swiftboat campaign against Palin would look like:
Hockey Moms for Truth
Rickl,
I’m on your side, sir. Christmas in Cambodia and the Magic Hat and all. Never said the term term “Swiftboating” was fair. It’s just become part of the lexicon accepted by the masses. Like “Bush Lied, People Died,” “Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame are heroes,” and “Cheney is evil.”
Some day the media might play fair? I can only hope. The last straw in my “change” (as Neo-Neo puts it) was Rathergate.
Ever since that, I’ve become a bit jaded about the fairness, or lack of it, in the press.
Cheers,
Barry
That video is hilarious. I really miss, “Football Fans for Truth.” That was one of the funniest sites in 2004.
I thought there was an opening for them to start back up when Obama said, “Nittaly Lions,” but I guess they’re busy doing something else.
Barry:
Sorry I misunderstood you. It just gets my hackles up when I see “swiftboat” misused. It’s downright Orwellian the way the media has changed the usage of the term.
Do you have a link for the football video?
Anecdote: All the bien pensant hyperliberal Seattle women I know — many of them strong beautiful career women, including my wife — instantly hated Palin and said so on their livejournals the day of the announcement, long before the “rape kit” meme was current. I think “spitting fury” would be an appropriate descriptor for their reaction.
I think it’s because she’s a woman who dares to be a Republican, that’s all.
Rickl,
Site is down. Google it as there are some stories about it. It’s funny we have yet to see Obama throw a football or go hunting. I guess shooting hoops gives him his athlete cred. Man, without that he’d be 100% metro.
Palin is more man than Obama. That’s what angers them so much. Deep down they know being a liberal ain’t real masculine and a woman who hunts and can put a boat on a trailer in rough Alaskan water makes them feel inadequate. Heck, it makes me feel kind of like a girly man and I’m not a pinko anymore:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/01/AR2008100103437.html
Buenas,
Barry
Oh, and she’s hot, too.
Barry 12:54 & 12:56:
Ditto to both. 🙂
I’ve seen the same thing here in New York. It’s really ugly. And “hissing” and “spitting” and (I would add) venomous are the words for it. It’s visceral, and goes way beyond politics, although that’s part of it.
My sister, whom I’d describe as a moderate Democrat (she voted for Dole, for instance), said, “I just don’t like her. At all. Don’t know why.” And shut the door.
So, they’re reacting like vampires sighting a garlic bag. What’s the threat? Well, as an ex-Dem, I would guess that they see her as a much prettier Phyllis Schlafly type, who excited our rage because she had all the advantages that feminists had taken hits for, but scorned the sisterhood. But Palin isn’t scornful of feminists . . . and she graciously acknowledged Ferraro and H Clinton in her acceptance speech.
Hmm. Rape kits. Well, that’s another clue: she’s a Gender Traitor, supposedly, and has the temerity to be beautiful, successful, married to a HUNK who’s a real man, and worst of all, she’s so dadgummed CHEERFUL.
Mustn’t forget that she is a devout Christian, rock-ribbed Old Time Religion variety. To that, they react like vampires sighting a crucifix. Even mainline Protestants (like my sister). Lot of bigotry there, and some genuine fear.
She’s happy, she’s pretty, she’s successful — she’s a walking contradiction of the old school feminist belief that you really can’t have it all, because men are such bastards (see any novel by Nancy Friday or Erica Jong, et al.). Any truly self-actualized woman has to give up having a man and/or children, they say. And for Palin to come along, beneficiary of all OUR struggles, and cheerfully kick the can out of the road, is just Too Much to Bear.
Did I mention that she’s a knockout?
I, a “younger ‘boomer'” (God, I hate that term) instantly liked her. Because, as much as I’m grateful to women who broke trail for all of us, I’ve never wanted to be a part of the hairy armpits brigade of man-haters. Or even the milder group who were man-dislikers, with the exception of one etiolated boyfriend, a weedy type always. Instinctively shied away from them, and really liked men. But wanted, always, to be a free spirit. I love the idea of an empowered woman who’s free, and loves men, and is feminine. WHAT A RELIEF!
Of course, I’m a Carolina girl, and we do like being women. We like our men to know which end is up, too. 😉
I’m just hoping the Secret SErvice guys are on the ball. Wanna bet there are some crushes in the ranks on our beauteous Sarah? Heh.
Beverly,
“Lot of bigotry there, and some genuine fear.”
Isn’t irrational fear part of what makes one a bigot? After all, isn’t that why Obama’s grandmother was a “typical white person,” who was racist because a panhandler made her nervous?
I still can’t get over how it’s okay to be scornful of a Christian because they read and believe in the bible, but it’s not okay to say that not allowing women to drive and stoning women to death is wrong. We wouldn’t want to be culturally insensitive. I mean, to those other people. Them white rubes in Alaska and OK are just stupid. All others must be respected and tolerated for their differences. What?
Here’s a terrific, and illuminating, article about Palin’s childhood in Alaska:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/01/AR2008100103437.html
It’s an upbringing Jack London would have approved of.
The more I hear about this gal, the more I like her.
Beverly,
How could you like her? Did you know she made rape victims pay for their rape kits? I could never vote for someone like that. Plus, deregulation. Oh, and Haliburton while I’m at it.
Plus, you linked to a Wash Post article. We know they, like all of the other news outlets, are just part of the big corporate media conglomeration that only cares about money so they blindly toe the right wing line.
Did I mention that she doesn’t think that Global Warming is man made? I mean, every smart person who reads the papers, watches CBS and has seen Al’s movie knows that we are the cause of the looming world wide calamity that’s about to get back on track in about ten years after a short cooling period. She is just plain dumb.
Oh, and she likes Big Oil. I mean, she wants to tap our natural resources. Can you imagine that? I mean, every great civilization has sat on their gold, spices, minerals and such in order to feel better about themselves. Haven’t they?
Okay. Done.
Here’s what I’ve run into – Jane said…Palin is the opposite of what liberated women are working for….
So, I tried a response – Right. They’d rather be ugly, homeless, divorced, destitute, and out of work. And they’d NEVER aspire to higher office. Not to be Governor of a state. And especially they would never agree to be a vice-presidential running mate.
What a lovely world you live in.
Jane said…Plain Jane Says: Fuck off Rose you cretinous troll. You wouldn’t understand anything even if someone had a lifetime to devote to nothing but trying to educate you.
Tried asking – So what is it you don’t like about Palin. Jane?
Is it that she is married? So is Barack.
Has kids? So does Barack.
Has a job? So does Barack.
Is a politician? So is Barack.
Is pretty? So is Barack.
Goes to church? (So does Barack, btw)
Is it the REASON she goes to church? As opposed to the reason he does? You think she means it? And he doesn’t?
You don’t like her decision to keep a baby? If Barack’s Mom hadn’t made that exact same decision, he would not be here.
Or is it simply that she is a Republican?
Would you like her if she was a Democrat?
Or a “Progressssssive”?
Seriously.
They didn’t answer. Tried again –
Kate says, like Janie – that Palin does not represent any of the liberated women that I know, in fact the very reason that she has been chosen to run for VP is contrary to liberation…
Where does this incredible reasoning come from?
What liberated woman doesn’t want to see women elected to offices?
What liberated woman hasn’t been frustrated that there are so few women in higher offices?
What liberated woman doesn’t respect the women who have made it into higher office – even Hillary with all of her faults?
What liberated woman hasn’t been in favor of breaking the glass ceiling?
What liberated woman doesn’t want a happy marriage if she chooses to marry?
In short – ’cause I could go on – WHAT THE HELL IS IT THAT SENDS YOU GUYS OFF YOUR ROCKER ABOUT A WOMAN RUNNING FOR VP?
Better tell Diane Feinstein, Patty Berg. Barbara Boxer, and Hillary – HIllary especially. Now we know why she didn’t get the nod -It’s this latent sexism that’s coming from the WOMEN!
***
It deteriorated from there. 🙂
Wait, it deteriorated AFTER she told you to, “F-off, you cretinous troll”?
Sheesh.
One problem is that Palin is natural. There is an enormous amount of artifice in the theater involved in looking perfectly natural. With every other politician, the stage business is either obvious or at least discernible.
Palin is either the best actress working, or she’s completely natural. And being both natural and successful as she is is threatening.
The problem with feminists and Palin is that she made it without them, without bitching about men or the patriarchy. Without “programs”. Instead of bitching about the old boys’ network, she broke it up and jailed some of them. Probably smiling while she did it, too.
IOW, she made the feminist organizations and supporters irrelevant. Left them behind.
She’s a conservative republican, which is not to be stood by feminists and liberals, success as a woman aside.
It appears it was the dems who were being all nasty to Hillary. Republicans weren’t consulted on the dem nomination. But as a conservative, I would say I despise her policies and her character. As I do her husband’s.
It’s possible to dislike someone’s policies without being racist, etc. But the accusations of same still, apparently, seem useful to some. I doubt it, though. That horse died.
IMO, it’s political, and it’s all about abortion. If they lose the federal sanction for abortion their world will crumble around them. They can ignore any progress in the betterment of womens lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, (because of Bush), look the other way, and even smear women, (when it came to their hero Clinton). Sarah Palin embodies this threat.
Agreed, Adagny!
So, I’m asking – are there ANY points that will get through to them? Is there any rational argument they can hear? Does anyone have any tips?
The LA NOW President’s endorsement of Palin is encouraging – maybe a step towards ending the partisan divide. Can it be done? Is Sarah Palin’s very presence enough to jumpstart the process?
Rose.
The “them” can’t be gotten through to, if you’re referring to the hard-core activists. You should look at some of the femblogs. The vicious hate is sickening.
The process will be by paring off the more reasonable who, to this point, have seen only one game in town.
You’ll note that feminists want women eligible for combat roles.
But they do not celebrate success.
Leigh Ann Hester–google her or “Raven 42”–and Teresa Broadwell (google that or “little bitty teresa”) and see what women do.
There’s an on-line mag which, among other things, celebrates military women. “America’s North Shore Journal”.
But where is this among the feminists?
Success in combat is not what they’re looking for. Equality of something or other, and possibly martyresses.
No getting through to some people.
Nope. Palin will appeal to the more reasonable.
Couple points.
I think Hillary-hatred is quite distinct from Palin-hatred. Hillary irritated many (including me) because she struck the “I am woman, hear me roar” pose while shamelessly riding the coattails of her husband, without whom she would be writing wills somewhere for a living. Her campaign proved she has minimal political or organizational skills, and basically is a walking argument for the Peter Principle.
Palin-hatred I suspect is driven by the hard-core leftists, with liberals serving as the chorus, as evidenced by the blatant smears and scurrilous personal attacks that characterize Alinsky-style demonization of the opposition. Hard-core leftists apparently view her as a huge and growing impediment to their dreams of imposiing collectivism on us. Palin might get women off the leftists’ plantation, in which case the left will lose every election, and is too weak to accomplish anything by force. So, Palin has to go.
Agreed on both counts – success is not what they are looking for, on any level, victimization and the art of the downtrodden is who they are.
And, I agree – the trouble with Hillary was that she was too power hungry, willing to subjugate herself and her self respect in order to stay close to power. She had everything else, smart, hardworking, and yes, successful in her own right. But she shoulda 86’d Bill. 🙂
I’m stunned by the women reacting to Palin with such visceral hatred. That they feel she represents a threat to them. Insanity rules.
that Palin does not represent any of the liberated women that I know,
I’ve never seen a body of water that goes from horizon to horizon and none of my friends in my village has seen it either.
Therefore the ocean cannot exist. Right.
Richard Aubrey: I believe she wears the glasses purposely to mitigate some of the effect of her beauty and make her seem more businesslike. It doesn’t quite work, though.
Neo, you just reminded me of 11th Captain Zaraki of Bleach (Japanese anime)
Zaraki wears an eye patch purposefully to handicap himself since it decreases his overall strength. This is so that he can have a good and long fight rather than crush the opposition with his full power.
Now if you apply that to Sarah Palin, Neo, it is just too hilarious ; )
Perhaps women’s aggression against Palin is a natural understanding that there really are places women shouldn’t go. Most women do not hunt, do not tear apart engines, and do not run for VP. Perhaps this is just discomfort with unfamiliarity. I think, however, it is much more. It is a proof of the truth that women know their place natively. Women do hate feminists, and to some degree each other, more than any male, even the finest misogynist of our part of our various species.
I have a friend (Big L Liberal) who has always said that for a woman to get elected she has to be three times as good to get one-third the votes.
We spoke recently. She said, “Interesting times.” I said, “Yeah, they are. I’ve been thinking about your comment that for a woman to get elected she has to be three times as good to get one-third the votes.”
We hadn’t been talking national politics.
She said, “Well, what I meant was that when you see a woman in office, she is always exceptional. But alot of unexceptional men get elected.”
Then she leapt ahead – ” But that’s not the case with HER. People get elected to the level they belong, and she is right where she belongs, governor of a small state like that, she isn’t fit for anything else.” I’m paraphrasing slightly because I don’t remember the EXACT words – it was SHOCKING to me. I knew she was for Obama, but I did expect her to appreciate Palin.
This was coming from a very successful, driven, powerful in her own right woman, who is also happily married with three great kids.
I just don’t get it.
Rose: I bet it’s partly elitism (cultural and otherwise), and partly educational snobbery. And that’s possible even if she came from blue-collar or rural roots herself, if she’s running away from them and feels she left them behind in a cloud of dust.
The fact that the MSM continues to publish the lie about Palin’s stance on matters such as the rape kit is unlikely to be due to either stupidity or ignorance. The rape kit allegation has been mentioned to me quite prominently by the women I know; it seems to strike a special chord and to provoke tremendous outrage. Even if the MSM knows it’s a lie, it’s just too valuable a lie for the MSM to give up. And it seems to be working quite effectively; I’ve even had some women tell me they were thinking of voting for McCain until they learned all these awful things about Palin.
Well, that is a very nice example of the truism that it is not individual voters that get to decide who to vote for, it is I who in convincing them that they came up with their own ideas, that control who they vote for.
I just don’t get it.
Hate is not to be “gotten” or understood, it is only there to be manipulated, like all emotions, for the ultimate goal.
Only psychiatrists and psychoanalysts want to comprehend hate to help people and relieve the cause of it. Everybody else has better uses for such strong emotion.
Hello NeoNeocon, thanks for the link to my blog post at IUSB Vision.
I wanted to let you and your readers know that at the time I made that post, doing the research, the public records searches, and the debunking of the stream of smears against Palin was a frantic 24/7 process.
I realized that my post was a bit sloppy and hard to follow, so I have cleaned the post up and presented the information so that it is easier to follow and absorb.