Palin as Woman Candidate
Ah, the gender card. It’s a card that people like to accuse us feminists of playing all the time. I won’t go into it, because that would completely derail this post, but I will simply say that people love to criticize the use of the gender card when it makes them look bad, but they love to leap into action and decry sexism when it will get them somewhere.
In this case, the right wing is having a field day with crying “big bad sexism wolf!” over any criticism of Palin. After all, if people disagree with Palin’s politics, it must be because she’s a woman. If they are questioning her experience, it must be because she’s a woman.
Where were these questions during Clinton’s campaign? Nowhere, because the right wing was very busy criticizing Clinton for, you guessed it, being a woman.
These days, the Daily Show is pretty much one of the best news sources out there (scary, innit?). So here’s a personal favorite clip of mine on all the double-standards that the right wing has wrapped itself in, like a snuggly burrito of hypocrisy, to make Palin seem to have merit:
Oh Jon Stewart, why are you so great?
Think about it this way–Palin is being praised by the conservatives as being a new kind of ideal feminist. Why? Because she “put a skirt on.” Because she embodies the woman-in-her-place position. Because Donny Deutsch wants her laying next to him in bed.
Yes, beddability is a quality I often look for in a Vice President. Never mind where she stands on the environment, on domestic policy, on separation of church and state, on the economy, on whether or not to charge a woman to get a rape kit exam… These are not things we should worry about. What’s REALLY the meat of the matter is whether or not she’s a VPILF.
People are praising Palin for being a candidate for women–after all, she has kids, she, uh, maybe drove a minivan at some point… She wears lipstick! She’s got ovaries! Aww man, look at how she and I are nearly identical! I should immediately disregard all of my political values so that I can vote for the person who also stores the reproductive organs on the inside. Yup, that is my priority. Internal baby-makers.
If I may quote the fabulous Feministing once again:
A woman candidate is not the same thing as a woman’s candidate. Sarah Palin does not speak for me.
Know it, love it, look for the double-standards, call them out.
Bitches Get Stuff Done 