A short-short lesson in sexism

[trinityvixen]

Newsweek took a ton of flak for putting this picture on their cover the other week. The haters claim this move was sexist because it reduces Palin to a pretty face instead of a credible political force.

Well, PS, Palin is just a pretty face on an empty (but lovingly be-coifed) head. She put this image out there to use her sexual attractiveness as the one-and-only lure she actually has. Because every time she opens her mouth, people remember why they don't want her in charge of the local Denny's, to say nothing of the country. The best explanation for why this picture being attached to an article that explains exactly that:

The problem with crying “sexism” about Newsweek’s use of this picture is that it’s photo she took for calculated appeal being used to show her calculated political appeal.

Bingo. This picture? Was all about appealing to organs below the belt so as to distract those above the neck. Instead of attaching it to an article that went "Wow, isn't she brilliant," Newsweek pointed out that, no, actually, the pretty package is empty. This is the perfect shot to portray that.

Anyway, regardless, Newsweek felt compelled to prove that they're equal opportunity. So after dutifully printing out the responses to their cover, they cheerfully proved one angry letter-writer wrong by throwing her quote over this picture of Barack Obama. There, now everyone's hot political leader has had his/her sexy action shot in Newsweek and the conservatives who didn't think sexism existed before Sarah Palin became John McCain's running mate can shut the F up.

(I read the comments on the Palin cover with gritted teeth because People. Do. Not. Get. It. When I turned the page to find the picture of Obama, I snorted out loud. On the street. Drawing more than a few looks. Which is even more awkward given that I was looking at a picture of the President wet and shirtless.)

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The real question of sexism comes down to who represented her sexually in the first place. I can see all your points and be persuaded by them, but I have to consider this in the context of her entire national public career. Newsweek didn't pick this photo in a vacuum, though they might have picked one that, out of context, is the worst of its kind.

Put it this way: if Sarah Palin introduced and furthered her career using her looks, it's wrong to cry sexism when others point out that looks are all she's got worth noting. Especially when every decision since then has proven that this woman is no heavy lifter when it comes to thinking. (Think of Carrie Prejean, the dethroned Miss California, as another example of this trope.)

Now, you can make the caae that Sarah Palin was not the author of the meme that she's sexy and nothing else. Surely, there is an element of that to all female candidates--no matter how professional their conduct, some asshole is going to comment on their looks and reduce them to ugly/pretty, fuckable/not. It's a shame that that's happened to Sarah Palin because it shouldn't happen to anyone. But she invited that with her winking, her putting forth her fertility as proof that she was worth a darn as a politician (the "hockey mom" schtick). I'm not trying to blame the victim, I'm saying that this "victim," in my opinion, actively courted approval based on her attractiveness--she sold herself with sex in the first place, and has continued to do to stay popular.

Of course, I could be wrong and that is just what the media ran with. edgehopper pointed out that Obama and Palin have a few similarities in that they're both good looking people with little actual governing experience. We challenged Obama on his lack of experience through the campaign, as we did Sarah Palin, and none of the same "ooh, he's hot!" memes took off about Obama. Sexism? Palin and the McCain camp claimed it was. However, that seemed to me to just be a cover since when she was actually tested as a candidate and came up with that disastrous Katie Couric interview, she fell back to a position that boiled down to "don't ask me, I'm just a girl." As soon as she was exposed, she fell back on dog whistling to the base.

Should Newsweek have done better? Sure. But I think there's something to that blog I quoted about how this is about what Palin is doing to appeal, not what Newsweek is twisting out of it.