Sarah Palin in a Burqa

[as_alas_i_was]

A friend of mine posted this awful article by conservative pundit Kathleen Parker, (I think she's one of the Repub. ship jumpers from a couple of weeks ago), entitled "Something About Sarah"

My friend asked a group of us, mostly women, 'An interesting question raised here about McCain's choice. But also a couple of ancillary issues come to mind

Comments

[janinazew]

I think it's very difficult to curb misogyny against someone who promotes it with detrimental opinions and who is the running mate of a man who also promotes it. The criticism has to be of Palin and McCain first because their response to women's issues provokes people into treating her as the society she wants to create/sustain demands she be treated. Both of them actively approve of institutionalised sexism which promotes misogyny. It's very difficult to argue for a better treatment on the behalf of Palin because she is literally asking for it.

[as_alas_i_was]

Yes. Wow, as usual you nailed it. That's exactly it. Still, one feels--or, at least, I feel--the need to explicate how the misogyny has turned against the female icon in ways that accord with my party/policy politics but clash with my feminist politics. Sigh.

[janinazew]

Absolutely, there's an interesting examination here of how easy it is (for me) to defend someone who agrees with a cause and how easy it is to let it slide for someone who's pitching their actions against it (I've never experienced that before). Contextually it's also easier to define a female icon with Palin or someone right wing like Thatcher than it is with Clinton because her aims are harder to achieve and icons who don't fulfill their aims in politics always have that slight hint of failure about them (unless they die). The really complicated politicians to examine in this way is Tymoshenko who manages to somehow subvert the misogyny by placing herself within it before anyone else does (see picture of her on motorbike).

[kenllama]

Thank you for articulating this so clearly. (I'm tempted to say volumes more, but you've pretty much covered all the bases!)

I suppose your friend's observation about fighter pilots sums it up nicely too -- this needs to be a conversation about McCain's judgment, not Palin's sex appeal.