I think the Sarah Palin flap reflects the fact that some Men hate Women-But not like most suppose.

[juno jones]

I think we could get a pretty accurate count of men who dislike women in power by counting the SUPPORTERS of Sarah Palin as opposed to her detractors.

Let me explain.

Many of you here are old enough to remember the volumes of shiny bible stories and children's stories that accompanied every doctor or dentist's waiting area. Donated by vaguely Christian groups, I fear I sifted thru them after I ran out of Highlights and Ranger Rick.

There was always one story of female redemption in them. I will recap the single basic plot now:

The bold, independent tomboy (whom I always identified with, of course) would thru some device or another be convinced to don a skirt and make-up, do her hair and trim her hangnails. The parents all ooh-and-ah and the boy next door suddenly asks her to the prom.

Short but sweet. No pretense of finding women attractive as themselves.

Some of you also remember adolescence in the late seventies and early eighties and you will have known people whose parents sent them away to 'rehab' and 'evaluation' for a few weeks for 'acting out', 'depression', and general teenage angst. I suppose being gay would have been another cause. The girls I knew who had spent time in that kind of psych evaluation program reported pretty much the same thing to me:

The pressure exerted to have them conform to rather stereotypical sexual standards was immense. Sometimes getting released depended on donning more mainstream feminine garb, putting on make-up, styling hair, and showing a certain polite deference to anyone who thought they were in authority.

*********************************************

Here's the point. From what I can see, the supporters of Sarah Palin support her because she is the caricature that she is. It feeds into their conceptions of proper womanhood and femininity.

And they feel very safe in Todd being always at her side. I mean ALWAYS at her side. Like svengali, hand up her ample rump and tickling her overworked tonsils, at her side.

Slutty stewardess, secretary, nurse, teacher. They are all symbols of women's limited authority and professionalism. Sarah purposefully cultivates this look. It appeals viscerally to men (and some women too) who feel threatened by actual power and authority being wielded by women. She presents to them a safe image, The frontier babe, The Gov-I'd-like-to *, fertile and yielding to the patriarchal authority of scripture with a manly, masculine, man's man at her side.

People who call her out on this image are not bashing women. By cultivating this unprofessional image, this leering, butt-shaking lip-smacking horror, Palin is actively at work trying to roll back decades of our progress in the larger world. I feel no need to defend her from anyone and can only hope that her example will ultimately turn out to be a cautionary one.

She even fits another stereotype: "She looks great until she opens her mouth".


Hitting post message, running, :hide: Flame away.

[ThomCat]

1. Yes, I think you nailed something important.

Even as an exception, a woman who is achieving power and authority, she represents stereotypical femininity, including stereotypical traits like knowing and understanding less than men (cultivating an image an anti-intellectual image as a bit of a ditz), being nonthreatening to men, being appealing to men, etc.

She has tried to position herself as the Anti-Hillary Clinton. She wants to be a successful woman in politics without selling out everything a woman "should be" the way people on the far right think HRC has.

[juno jones]

5. "Cultivating ...an anti-intellectual image as a bit of a ditz"

Ayup.


I would be able to tolerate the outer appearance if there was something admirable behind it. But if she isn't dirt stupid, she sure plays dirt stupid really well, and either situation is good neither for the state of politics or the state of Alaska.

I really just wish she'd go away.

[MADem]

2. I think Sarah Palin is an asshole who is ginning up an issue for her own personal, craven political

gain.

Anyone who didn't know which daughter Letterman meant has their head deliberately wedged up their ass.



Even the "waaah, waaah, she's not a public figure" routine no longer passes the smell test. It did before she sold her story and pictures to the highest bidders, but once she put her face out there, she's in Britney Spears/Kevin Federline territory with the rest of the celebrity train wrecks.

[katanalori]

3. I think you said it perfectly!

analysis is spot on! She is Anita Bryant all over again.

[Apollo11]

4. So then I guess Rachel Maddow is also oppressing women

because she wears make-up and is polite to the guests who appear on her show?



Really --- it is insane to argue that every man who supports Sarah Palin hates women.

By "supports Sarah Palin" do you mean the millions who voted McCain-Palin? (I guess there are not many of them around here - what with this being a Forum for Democrats)

Or do you mean the minority here on DU (including myself) who have expressed disapproval of certain so-called "jokes" (and one in particular) told on CBS by David Letterman? :eyes:

[juno jones]

9. No. Rachael's OK.

And my post was not about make-up per se, but the way women are viewed in our society and made more acceptable by conforming to certain standards of dress and conduct.

I wear make up too.

When I want to.

And when I am working a job, I behave like a goddamn professional. Frankly, I don't think Palin is any exemplar of what a professional civil servant should be.

As a woman her behaviour offends me. I wish my offense was enough to get HER off the air.

There, now I've expressed my 'disapproval' too.

[riderinthestorm]

18. Does Rachel throw naughty winks at her guests? Hike up her skirts, just so?

Does Rachel always go everywhere accompanied by her manly man? (yes I know she's lesbian but that even ramps up the issue further) Does Rachel pimp out her children for the political/social/fame game in order to ramp up her MILF status (and worse)?

Sorry, comparing these two women is absolutely ridiculous.

Rachel, for one, would NEVER have been caught short answering an interviewer's questions about GW Bush policies if nothing else but I digress.

edited for spelling cause I've had two glasses of wine and really need to go to bed!

[Maru Kitteh]

6. Her "ample" rump?

Didn't you just complain about the biblical story books promoting the value of women as purely a matter of their appearance?

[juno jones]

10. Twas poetic

and baby do have back.

I didn't say it was unattractive or anything.

[Iggo]

19. "...baby do have back..."????

Oh my GOD!!! You hate women!!!!!

[mwb970]

7. Palin's most rabid supporters are worshipping a mirage.

They are in total denial about Real Sarah - you know, the one we see bobbling her syntax on TV, the simple-minded but good-looking yokel who is always fightin' some feud with somebody or other or whining about what a victim she is. This Real Sarah that we see is unknown to them. They see instead SuperSarah, a fictional character that they have created based on the surface characteristics of Real Sarah - she's a mother, she's conservative, she's Christian, and so on. (Palinbots are great at seeing surfaces of things; substance, not so much.)

SuperSarah is the Perfect Conservative, even more Perfect than Reagan because she's actually alive. She is also the Perfect Christian and the Perfect Mother. Everything they hear about and from Sarah is run through a filter. If it makes her look good, it becomes part of her Perfect Biography. If it makes her look bad, it is a despicable attack/insult/plot from the evil Satanic liberal communist media/politicians/pundits, leading to Perfectly Understandable Outrage and the immediate need to Fight Back. (Oh boy! Another feud!)

Of course the Palinbots love SuperSarah - she's Perfect! Just like Jesus.

[Arkana]

11. Jesus wasn't perfect.

I think you mean "Jeezus".

[juno jones]

12. Yes, the image is so perfect

and because she represent perfection, they never look behind the facade.

She is her own damn Potemkin Village.

[riderinthestorm]

21. "her own damn Potemkin Village". Nails it. Exactly.

I think that's what sticks in the craw - if you examine her record, her positions, her actual performance - it's laughable.

And that's why real conservatives were/are appalled at her nomination by McCain. Just like Dems. She's all Faux, all the time. The reality of Palin is so deeply troubling and flawed if you even dig just a tiny bit: her grasp of international affairs, her performance as governor, her outrageous extortion of funds from the RNC for "stuff" mirrors exactly her extortion of funds from AK taxpayers for jaunts for her and her daughters - and this is just to name a few transgressions.

She's worked pretty hard to cultivate this image, and yet the rest of her life is a mess.

[Odin2005]

8. Another example of sexism: most people diagnosed with "Histrionic Personality Disorder" are women.

In other words, this so-called "mental illness" is just the "hysterical woman" BS under a new name. Our society has no problem with "attention-seeking" men, but when women do the same behavior it's either a "mental illness" snd/or (both in the case of a friend) an excuse to rape them.

[juno jones]

13. I see her as 'aggro' not 'hysterical'. Her attention-seeking seems to be to re-enforce juvenile

behaviours, such as her soap opera, not appropriate ones, such as being a political leader of the state of Alaska.

She was Sarah 'Barracuda' in high school and was aggressive even with her own teamates. Playing well with others should be a prerequisite for public office. I don't really see where she has grown from then until now.

Personally, I'm not all that convinced that agression is a good thing in either women or men. It generally stifles co-operation and group endeavor, items that are as necessary for survival as our hair-trigger tempers.

[glitch]

14. Bingo. She's the Phyllis Schaftly of the New American Century.

Smiling, vicious, well-groomed AND willing to bomb whoever she's told to.

But she's too obvious and too erratic. They'll go with a more predictable "model".
Keep your eye on Liz Cheney, not kidding.

[SeattleGirl]

15. I agree! She perpetrates the whole idea that women can't get somewhere

by their own smarts. That winking, simpering, gosh gee golly wow schtick she does is disgusting, as is her constant grab for attention, even when she has to use her children to do it.

[Captain Hilts]

16. Did Chris Matthews make unfavorable literary comparisons to her as he did Hillary? nt

[Kitty Herder]

17. You nailed it.

:applause: :applause:

[Just Saying]

20. Fantastic analysis of the situation.

Spot on!

Thanks for that!

[troubledamerican]

22. Sarah Palin is a dog whistle for Nazi Christianists including female-haters. But

it's broader than only female-haters.

The Nazi part isn't real for those DUers here who weren't raised in a Fundamentalist Right-Wing Christianist Nazi family.

Don't underestimate Sarah Palin -- as a dog-whistle, as a Nazi Christian icon, nor as a raving maniac in her own right.

Let's not be sexist and tell ourselves that Todd Palin is pulling the strings. Sarah is a corrupt little Mayberry wannabe Pinochet.

[Blue_In_AK]

23. JunoJones, you nailed it.

Excellent analysis.

[stevedeshazer]

24. That's a really interesting take that I hadn't thought about before.

I agree except I'm not so sure about the Todd part. I don't think he really matters.

Good post.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. Yep, she's an ass.

And winking to get all the right-wingers hot and bothered. Bimbo with a whiny voice, but hey, she can see Russia from her house, so that makes her a furrin' policy expert! You betcha!!

:puke:

It's utterly insulting to American women that the Repukes would think she had anything in common with Hillary Clinton other than gender.

[lostnfound]

26. Noam Chomsky's Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in A Democratic Society

which I am reading right now, points out that the goal of avoiding public interference in decisions that matter has taken another step forward when moves from restricting the public to select among various programs authored or initiated elsewhere, to a procedure for selecting a symbol. He points to Reagan as an example of the latter, because Reagan had only 'the vaguest conception' of the policies enacted in his name.

When I read that paragraph I thought immediately of Sarah Palin. Politically she's just a symbol. She has no knowledge of the world around her which would allow her to actually hold the reins of power or govern. I was thinking that she really was a natural evolution, an inevitable stop on the route from Reagan and W.

[JNelson6563]

27. Lots of valid points.

Well done.