Was Palin a victim of sexism?

I feel that she got the scrutiny she did because she was a relative unknown. If the running mate chosen was a male, I believe he would have been under the microscope, as well. (maybe not about his suits – but let’s face it – guys just have to have a few good suits, and a bunch of ties!) And she asked for it by agreeing to be the VP running mate. John Edwards was criticized for his $400 haircuts, and Hillary was lambasted over her pantsuits. The media love to build people up and then knock ‘em down – man or woman.

I now know much more than I ever wanted to about Sarah Palin and I don’t think it’s because she’s a woman. I think it’s because she was a candidate for Vice President of the United States.

Yes, I think she was a victim of sexism. I still don’t know hardly anything about Biden. And he is “one heartbeat away” from running the country as we so often heard in connection to discussions of Palin.

Why did we not know anything about John Edwards’ affair and (possible) resultant child until well after he had dropped out of the Democratic primaries?

I would offer that it is because he wasn’t scruitinized as closely….

No, i dont think she was victim of sexism, more like victim of stupidity. Honestly i think thats why she was scrutinized so much. I mean we heard her talk once and collectively thought “god damnnnnnnnnn this lady’s stupid we need to find out more about her before she possible runs this country”

africa isnt one country dontcha know ;)

I love how you pointed out that Dick Cheney shot someone in the face. Lurve.

Her stupidity notwithstanding, I still think she got more scrutiny b/c she is a she.

I’m with Snoopy.

I would argue that part of the scrutiny came not simply because she is a she, but also because people were upset that Republicans were trying to cash in on having a female candidate once Hillary was out. They wanted to show that it couldn’t just be any female. But I also think that no male would have ever received the wardrobe scrutiny that she did.

John Edwards gets $400 haircuts.

She received wardrobe scrutiny only when we learned that her wardrobe was paid for by the Republican Party. This is unprecedented. It made it clear that she was
a hired Barbie doll.
Michelle Obama’s acceptance-speech dress was awful, but it wasn’t immoral. People
smiled and moved on. Michelle’s not a hired doll; she picks out her own clothes and pays for them.
Palin was scrutinized more and more the more mistakes she made. It was the mistakes, not her gender, that made her notorious.
This is coming from someone who truly believes we should not get mean about her. It’s not to our credit or benefit to do that.
We already have 35 years of experience with Joe Biden. We know him. He has a track record. There’s nothing left to examine. If Palin had been a public servant of 35 years’ duration, and had done a good job for her constituency, we’d have been less curious.

@fireside LOL. What is up w/ that anyway. How is that even possible?

@susanc I barely knew who Biden was….? Frankly, I think there are few Senators outside of one’s home state that one is typically aware of….

and I am sure there are lots of people who can’t even name their home state Senators, sadly

Biden ran for president a couple of times, the press knew who he was.
@Snoopy – Maybe they charged by the hair?

Didn’t past male presidential hopefuls take heat for expensive hair cuts and other such things. It did seem like the media was relentless , but I think her own stupidity was fuel for the media.

@susanc
Michelle wasn’t a candidate.

The scrutiny was deserved. In comes a person no one had heard anything about… of course, the country will care.

That said, we are all victims of sexism and racism. Being a public figure amplifies that.

in dire straits to play catch up to the obama steamroller, the mccain team scrambled to find a VP candidate who could have the same “beautiful energy” as the obama campaign.

the thought on the mccain side was, we need somebody who is beautiful and youthful. what the mccain side didnt calculate was that although obama is pleasing to the eye, he is also intelligent and knows how to think on his feet. no question has stumped him yet. they used palin to gain the rockstar vote.

beauty is only skin deep and america was smart enough to vote for the dissolver of issues at hand no matter what package it came in.

@charlie “obama is pleasing to the eye”.......??? Whoa. Really?

No she was a victim of her own ignorance and ego.

I would say yes; but that doesn’t mean that male candidates are not victims of a form of sexism themselves. She was called a milf, ridiculed for her parenting skills, and even judged for her decision to run for office. Those topics rarely arise when talking about male candidates. But I do agree with adina is some respects. You can’t expect to play the court jester and not be lambasted.

Gov Palin was a victim of her own hubris. She went into the campaign with her eyes wide open. She should have known that her “role” as a mother/wife/homemaker would be put under a microscope-look at Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. She should have known that every word and action would be examined and blown up to billboard size, after all her party has been doing that to the Dems for decades. C’mon 25% of her party’s talking points were about Obama’s name! (which his parents were responsible for) Maybe she thought the media lived by the rule that you can’t hit a girl, but that obviously is not the case.

As far as the attacks on the spending for grooming and clothes goes, the campaign blew it. Let me say 1st, I never was a fan, but that issue was totally bogus. I recognized right away that was not her wardrobe and she had help with hair and makeup but it would be stupid not to. Ladies, think about what we look like when we get off a long flight and how we dress after living out of a suitcase for a week. If she had done it on her own she would have been jumped for not looking perfect-that’s just the way we are. When the media started talking about it, she should have asked Keith Ohlbermann how much was spent for his hair and makeup and asked Katie Couric what was the annual budget for her wardrobe.

@aidje: You’re right!!

The campaign that the non-candidate Mrs. Obama took part in didn’t buy her clothes.

I should have said: neither the two male candidates nor the other vice-presidential candidate nor their spouses nor their children had their clothing bought for them by their supporters.

This means the other people were running for office; Governor Palin was a hired gun.

Good catch!!

@susanc
My sarcasm detector just blew a fuse, but my sense-o-meter lies dormant. Please just say what you mean.

This question came up last night on Real Time with Bill Maher, where I think the most persuasive argument was that she was NOT the victim of sexism. Certainly Palin got a drubbing in the press but, if you look at it in context, it wasn’t because she was female, it was because she was ignorant, unqualified and mean. I think she drew additional attention—and criticism—because she was being put forth as a kind of icon embodying the same kind of swaggering (wink, wink) know-nothing Republicanism as George W., which many people were concerned might become the future direction of the Republican party.

On top of that, she was a one-woman smear campaign, with her mean and uncalled for attacks on Obama’s patriotism, here sneering emphasis on the foreign soundingness of his middle name, accusations of him “palling around with terrorists,” and the like. In this I think she drew attention and deserved criticism to herself.

The consensus of the Maher panel was that Palin was, and is, a bimbo—and that she has been treated no worse than other male bimbos that have come and gone before her. Dan Quayle was a male bimbo and remember the amount of flack he took for not being able to spell “potato.” Apparently Palin’s bimbo-ness was much worse than what the press actually reported. They actually held back stories of what she didn’t know. For example she didn’t know that Africa was a continent; she thought it was a country. She couldn’t name the three countries of North America. She couldn’t name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe v Wade, on top of the gaffes we already knew—such as not knowing what the Vice President does.

George W. is another male bimbo, who has gotten relentless drubbing for it and, I think, deservedly so. By these standards, I don’t see how you can really say that the press going after Palin’s very real lack of qualifications was motivated by sexism. If the press were really sexist, why would they not go after Hillary as well?

That said, I think there is a sense in which she was a victim of a kind of sexist cynicism in which the Republicans looked at Hillary Clinton and thought, “Well, if the electorate wants tits, we got tits. And not only have we got tits, we got bigger, younger and firmer tits.” (I am paraphrasing Bill Maher here.) The idea that Palin would capture the people who voted for Clinton was a calculation based on crude sexual objectification, as if the woman’s sex were of primary importance and her policies were not. The notion that disappointed Clinton supporters would flock to Palin just because she was a woman, more or less had to assume that women are mindless bimbos who would vote for anyone in a skirt, even if they were hostile to women’s interests. (Palin, as Governor of Alaska, forced women to buy their own rape kits, among other things.)

Umm, Monty, it’s po- ta- to- e

Monty wins the thread.

@fireside,

Umm, that’s what Dan Quayle thought too. Its potato.

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1992.html

@monty – it’s Q-u-a-y-l

(LOL, monty, fireside was making a JOKE!!!! lol!)

To answer the questsion:
was Palin a victim of sexism? my question is FROM WHOM?

the mainstream media? no, i don’t really think so.

the mccain campaign aides that shared her ignorance with the media? i doubt it, but i don’t know them.

a few middle aged men who are sexists in general? probably.

the people who made “nailin paylin” and other pervs? yes, definitely.

and as far as her wardrobe and hunting is concerned:
it’s already been mentioned that other candidates have been criticized for their excessive spending, and dick cheney wasn’t hunting an endangered species as far as i know…

besides that, she’s the one that made an issue out her hunting. my mom called me up and said, “yeah, this Palin lady’s so great, she’s pretty and she hunts, blah blah the second amendment”. Palin thought it would help with the republican base, the NRA endorsement, etc.

I find her claims of sexism a poor attempt to play the victim and pretty offensive given that when katie couric asked her if she was a feminist, she refused to answer the question, hiding behind not wanting to “label” herself.

so, she can’t stand up for equal treatment for women, but she can complain that she’s being treated unequally because she’s a woman. pathetic.

Amen, to Monty!

Although I have to admit, I saw the media interview with Sarah Palin in Alaska yesterday and I just felt really, really bad for her. Without the glam, gloss and media protections of the presidential campaign, I think she looks and sounds even more pathetic.

I agree with all of Maher’s (and Monty’s) points, but with the latest proof of her total ignorance, suggestions that she tanked McCain’s chances, and constant attacks about the clothes, I feel she’s been sort of stripped bare of some sense of dignity. It was painful to even watch her try and defend herself with one poorly articulated statement after another.

Well take a look at G. Bush. He gets a ton of scrutiny because he (most of the time) is stupid for a lack of better words. I feel that Palin was pretty much the female version of Bush. She thought Africa was a country and had no idea what NATO is. Pretty much solidifying that she has no place in politics that would ever deal with over sea policy or relations. The fact that she is a women brings more attention for sure but I think it would have been hugely different had she actually been able to 1. Answer a question 2. At least explain what NATO does. 3. Africa is not a country, I think I learned that in the cities public education system in Cleveland in 1984.
We all build our own walls. This is why Obama did so well and Biden did so well. As for Palin, she is probably feeling a little boxed in seeing that she could not answer questions that could be answered by students a fraction of her age and not even old enough to vote.

@ snoopy – I think that because She was such a complete unknown and had such little experience (which is something the republicans and other democratic wanabees including Biden kept pointing out) and because she was obviously chosen, in part, to court the spurned Hillary voters, she was focused on.

I don’t think means it was sexist or prejudice because she is a woman.

Also, Biden has been in politics for many many years. For the media, he was old news.

First off, let me say that with the answers already given by autumn43, uberbatman, susanc, galileogirl, MontyZuma, La Chica Gomela and judochop, there isn’t a whole lot of new ground to cover, but I’ll do my best to add a few new things to my summary.

First off, what is sexism, anyway? I think the absolute best answer I get for that question can be found here.

No one discriminated against Palin…she had a shot at the second highest office in the land. To really say she was discriminated against, one would have to say that people in the position to help her or harm her chances of success would have had to have harmed her chances on the basis of her gender.

There really are only two categories of people who CAN discriminate against a candidate, one would be the voters themselves, and it’s really hard to build a case that 150 million people discriminated against you. Some probably did…I have to imagine there’s a handful of guys out there who feel like any woman would be too irrational at certain times to be one heartbeat away, but I don’t think that’s the mainstream point of view…I have to believe that if the right Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate came along, sex would matter no more than race did this time around, and I think the contest between Clinton and Obama showed that.

So, did the media discriminate, i.e. hurt her chances because she was a woman? Well, no. I don’t think anyone tried to get her because she was a woman, I think the media reported on what was newsworthy, which is what the media does. The media is often called out for bias, but when you really follow the money you have to admit, the media will report on whatever people want to hear. Is it sexist to report that Britney Spears flashed her beaver? Well, no…that sells newspapers, one would have to think that if Shaia LeBouf let his wang fly out, it would make the papers as well.

How she was reported on WAS indeed different BECAUSE she is a woman…there’s no doubt. But the media had no more of a double standard than does our society when you get right down to it. Women in professional life do indeed require a bit more complexity in their wardrobes than do men and they are expected to be “put together” in a manner which men do not have to aspire to. But is that discrimination or sexism? Or is that just societal norms? Plenty of women go out in public without makeup all the time, no one is forcing you to put lipstick on that pitbull. And basically, even if you feel that society expects someone of your stature to look their best, certainly no one expects you to spend a quarter million dollars of someone else’s money to do it. These types of things are integrity issues and they are newsworthy when a man does them as well.

Case in point, Norm Coleman who may or may not win in his recount here in Minnesota in his Senate race against Al Franken. A couple weeks before the election, it was reported that a wealthy local businessman bought him $75,000 worth of suits which he did not disclose as gifts in his reporting in the Senate. That’s again a ridiculously expensive amount of clothing, but was the issue that he had to look a certain way? No, it was that he may have been trading favors under the table…integrity is the issue. One has to question the integrity of someone who would insist upon this much fashion on a dime other than his/her own.

As for the magazine cover, it’s not a flattering shot, mostly due to the angle, and it’s really the contrast between the public face she’d put on vs. this more candid view that I believe was newsworthy…the point of the article was how she was a regular Josephine, indeed this picture is little more than a visual representation of the article.

And some of the things that took the spotlight were personal, like her hunting. Well, it’s not really sexist to point out that women who hunt are not as common as men who hunt…pointint out a difference is one thing, being critical of that difference in a way as to limit that person’s potential is another. We certainly heard about Cheney’s hunting when he shot someone in the face…that made it newsworthy. Palin’s persona was indeed talked up, she was presented, again as a “regular” gal, but a “maverick”, someone who was “folksy”...it was part of the persona they wanted to put forward. When you subject something to scrutiny, it WILL be scrutinized…that’s what the media does.

So, she subjected her family to scrutiny by having them up there in the spotlight with her, commenting on her daughter’s pregnancy, etc. Then of course when she broached the topic with the media, the whole right wing feigned outrage that the media would take interest in it.

I guess I’d just have to say that from my point of view, to rise to the level of sexism, it would have to have been a questioning of her ability to lead, not based on the very fair criteria of her inexeperience and lack of understanding of the world around her or any sense of aparent intellectual curiousity, but her ability to lead would have had to have been questioned within the context of her gender. Just not the case.

@aidje – I think dale may be the new champ.

@dale
In response to your penultimate paragraph, I’d just like to point out that the only reason Palin brought up her daughter’s pregnancy was that there were accusations flying around that she had faked her own pregnancy to cover up her daughter’s. Because of the those accusations, it was decided that the best course of action was to come out and say, in essence, “You’re right. Bristol is pregnant. But her mom’s pregnancy wasn’t a lie. Two separate pregnancies. Lay off.”

Two things about that aidje:

#1 – That’s hardly the only reason she announced it. After all, people would have found out…it’s not the kind of thing you keep quiet when you’re running for higher office, if you do, then the media comes out with it and you look like you were hiding something.

#2 – In my mind, though I’m a big believer that unless a rumor is proven, it’s still just a rumor. Nonetheless, the rumor that Bristol was Trig’s real mommy was VERY persuasive for a number of reasons, and in my mind, the timing issue, which supposedly dismissed it was not proof positive of anything. Again, I’m not making any accusations here, but if one was willing to go to the lengths that she would have had to have gone to in order to pull off something like this while being a state governor, one would have no qualms about giving a false due date to the press for her daughter’s pregnancy…just sayin’.

@dale
Even what you’re saying would function just fine as an argument against what you had said: that Palin chose to expose her family to media scrutiny. I maintain that there was not much choice involved, unless you’re talking about her initial choice to be McCain’s running mate.

My actual statement was:

So, she subjected her family to scrutiny by having them up there in the spotlight with her, commenting on her daughter’s pregnancy, etc. Then of course when she broached the topic with the media, the whole right wing feigned outrage that the media would take interest in it.

By that I was not referring specifically to her choice to join the ticket, though as an afterthought, yes you do have to realize that when you are a candidate for public office, your family will become a public interest story. Contrast this to the Obamas however.

Michelle was run through the wringer, but she went out on the campaign trail with Barack and spoke at rallies for him. His daughters became a bit more visibile after they came out on stage at the convention, but for quite some time, he really did not make them any sort of central piece of his campaign, and indeed he did one family interview, which he later said he regretted. He made a concerted effort to shield his daughters from being anything more than a simple human interest story.

What Obama DIDN’T do that Palin DID was to make them a focal point of his campaign. Palin made the following focal points in her campaign and held them out as reasons to vote for her:

1) she’s a hockey mom
2) she’s the mom of a soldier on his way to Iraq
3) she’s the mom of five kids
4) she’s the mom of a pregnant teen who is choosing life
5) she’s the mom of s special needs infant (and chose life)

She didn’t just “acknowledge” her family and make it clear they were an important part of her life, she made them PART of her campaign. That is what my statement meant. She did this by making sure that the entire clan went everywhere she went. And as far as I was concerned, she pointed out a great hypocrisy in the process.

Consider that she has vehemently opposed abortions, even in the cases of rape or incest or for the health of the mother (something the McCain/Palin ticket seemed to have general disdain for, evidenced by McCain puting the words “woman’s health” in air quotes during one debate). She was for essentially taking the “choice” away from everyone to make that decision. Yet, when she spoke of her daughter’s pregnancy, she stated that her daughter had made “the choice” to keep her baby, just as she herself had made “the choice” to keep her Downs baby.

Also, consider that she was opposed to any sort of sex education that was not completely abstinence based, sent her daughter to a school that taught abstinence based only sex ed and tried to force that on all the citizens of Alaska as well, rather than giving them the “choice” she had, and yet her daughter did NOT choose abstinence, and aparently did not know (or care) enough about proper birth control to keep from becoming pregnant when ignoring what she had been taught at her mother’s behest.

So there were a lot of choices that Sarah made in regards to thrusting her family far further into the spotlight than she needed to do, as I see it, she attempted to use her family to further her political career, and if your family is going to be used as a tool in your campaign, then that becomes part of the campaign itself and SHOULD be subjected to greater scrutiny.

Now the pregnant daughter thing in and of itself, yes…that would have become media fodder no matter what, and yes, it’s better to cop to this up front and say “this is a private family matter and my daughter is dealing with it with the full support of our family, and as she is not campaigning, I would ask you to please respect her privacy.” That’s it, then you can complain all you want about the media stepping over the line if they don’t respect that. But instead of doing that, it was like, HEY AMERICA, HERE’S MY KNOCKED UP TEEN DAUGHTER, HERE’S HER DIRTBAG BOYFRIEND WHO WE FLEW IN WITH US, SHE’S A SHINING EXAMPLE OF SOMEONE WHO CHOSE LIFE AND A SYMBOL OF WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING FOR…LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE LITTLE SLUT.

Harsh, yes, but that’s how it came off to my ears and eyes.

I think the Republicans, in their desperate rush toward the bottom, did their level best to turn the elections into a Jerry Springer show.

@MontyZuma While I disagree w/ your characterization, I find it particularly funny that you mention Jerry Springer.

Jerry Springer is very much a Democrat.

McCain and Palin were never expected to win. It was a setup from the beginning. No one really wanted to run for President this time around.

Palin was brought it at the last min. in order to keep the charade going.
Though in a sense she was not prepared. There was no need for her to be. If you look closely she had an air of not being an air head but of not taking it too seriously.
It really stood out since “we” all took it serious.

As far as where we are at right now. She is pissed off because she did a solid for the powers that be. And, ended up getting slandered.