Sarah Palin Sexism Watch: Maureen Dowd: Go-go boots, Cinderella, and cheerleaders

Monday, September 1, 2008

Maureen Dowd: Go-go boots, Cinderella, and cheerleaders

In a column entitled Vice in go-go boots? New York Times' columnist Maureen Dowd manages to drag out every possible sexist stereotype of Sarah Palin, including:

Compares Palin's campaign nomination to a "hokey chick flick"
Compares it to a Cinderella story
Compares it to Sandra Bullock's Miss Congeniality movie
Calls Palin a cute unknown
Says she's underqualified but doesn't make similar judgment of Obama
Says the Republicans have a tradition of nominating "fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West"
Talks about her "sexy shoes"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: Well, when you consider that Dowd has written a book entitled: "Are Men Necessary?", what else would you expect?; September 2, 2008 at 8:21 AM
Badger said...: Maureen Dowd is the single most annoying columnist at the New York Times. After Frank Rich. And Paul Krugman. And Nicholas Kristof. And....; September 2, 2008 at 8:32 AM
Anonymous said...: Dowd...A 60's original deadbeat, derelict and dropout...who took Timothy Leary's advice seriously: turn-in, turn-on, drop-out.; September 2, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Jadis said...: Maureen Dowd is a hypocritical hack.; September 2, 2008 at 12:13 PM
sportsone234 said...: Just found your blog. It's a great idea. As for old Maureen and old Sally Quinn . . . one Sarah Palin is worth more than 100 of either of them.

I blog over at WordPress where I started out as a Hillary supporter and now strongly back the McCain/Palin ticket.
http://hillarynme.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/sarah-palin-the-new-face-of-feminism/; September 12, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Anonymous said...: This is the post that really convinced me that this is a partisan blog. Criticizing Sarah Palin's inexperience without criticizing Barack Obama's is sexist? Come on. If the two are really similar, I suppose Conservatives who criticized Barack Obama's inexperience without criticizing Sarah Palin's inexperience are racist, then?

Barack Obama has been in state level politics for 12 years, which is twice as long as George W. Bush was in state level politics when he ran for President. And yes, Maureen Dowd pointed out Bush's inexperience. And Sarah Palin's inexperience is more a more relevant political issue since John McCain earlier this year pointed out Barack Obama's inexperience when claiming that his own first criteria for a VP selection would be readiness to take over the President's role. John McCain is the one who laid experience as a guiding criteria, and then undermined his own foundation. The focus is on hypocricy more than anything else.

The whole "executive experience is more legitimate than senate experience" is a flimsy argument that isn't going to carry any water with anyone not already beholded to Palin and McCain. It just doesn't seem credible to say that someone who was a U.S. senator from a state of 10 million knows less about government than a governor from a state of less than 1 million. Anyone who really demands executive experience wouldn't be supporting John McCain, who himself has zero executive experience.

The most you can do is maybe argue that there isn't as big of an experience gap as people think, but it doesn't mean that anyone who is unconvinced that there is no experience gap is doing so on gender alone.; September 15, 2008 at 7:05 PM

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What is sexism?

All criticisms of Sarah Palin are not sexist. It would be sexist to expect that she would receive no criticism, or that she SHOULD receive no criticism, because she is a woman. I admit that some of the criticism of Palin may really be the result of ideological bias, or simply sloppy reporting, not sexism. Some of the questions are fair game in isolation (yes, of course, it's fair to talk about Palin's experience in general; it's that she's held to a higher standard than males in the race that's the issue).

The Palin piling on is a complex cultural stew. In some cases, I suspect ideological and gender bias are working together. A reader has challenged me to define what I consider to be sexism. Broadly, I would define sexism in the political sphere as the following: When the woman is held to a higher and different standard than a similarly situated male, especially but not limited to issues that have no relevance to the race and that tend to diminish the woman's professional accomplishments by playing into gender stereotypes.

Specifically, here is a list of what I consider to be sexist behavior:

Coverage of a female politician that fixates on her physical appearance, pro or con. I admit that male politicians sometimes face this (Obama walking shirtless out of the Hawaiian surf got a lot of attention, and there was a lot of attention about John Edwards' shiny hair). And I think that some women have mixed feelings about this. After all, who doesn't want to be considered good looking? But, for many women, when they are in a professional setting, and supposedly professional media commentators place the focus back on their physical appearance, as a positive or a negative, it feels diminishing of their professional accomplishments. This works both ways, of course. Hillary Clinton has been viciously attacked by some on the right for supposedly not being good looking. That, too, is sexist, especially since unattractive male politicians are generally not held to this standard. If you think about it, good-looking male politicians also find their appearance the topic of discussion in many cases, but that's not true of unattractive male politicians. It's true in both cases for women. Simply put, appearance is not relevant to competence, so why are we talking about Palin's hair and looks?
Sexual-related comments about a female politician.
Blatant belittling of one's intelligence without evidence and in a manner not accorded to male opponents (i.e. saying the woman is stupid, needs a teleprompter, needs a lot of coaching, etc.)
Implying that the woman must not really believe her positions or must be under the intellectual sway of a more powerful male. (This happens in racism too. Consider how opponents argue that Clarence Thomas is a tool of intellectual white men like Antonin Scalia).
Double standards relating to motherhood; i.e., the female politician is asked questions about motherhood that her male counterparts aren't asked about fatherhood. (Why doesn't Palin stay home to take care of the kids? Hillary, why don't you want to stay home to bake cookies and hold teas?) The reverse is also true. It's also wrong for people to demean females who CHOOSE to stay home and raise their families. I personally believe that whether a woman chooses to be a housewife, a career woman, or, like Palin, a mixture of both, is her personal decision and debate about it really isn't relevant in a presidential election.
Slurs that are typically used to demean women but aren't applied to similarly aggressive men; i.e. when attributes that would be praised in a man are reduced to a negative in the woman (b-tch, nag, etc.). The Martha Stewart phenomenon. The tough woman is a b-tch, but the overly emotional woman is too weak to lead (women can't win sometimes!)
The woman is held to higher standards for intelligence/professional qualifications than a male opponent. (Palin is utterly unqualified, but Obama is then not?)
Diminishing of traditional female roles as being silly (the PTA, chortle, chortle, chortle. She was a housewife once, how pathetic, etc.). I don't know about you, but right now I am thinking about the woman, a housewife, who ran my child's Catholic Bible school this summer, and she was quite a force to be reckoned with. I'd love to pit her against Putin.
Emphasis on female roles traditionally seen as silly when discussing an accomplished, professional woman (she was a beauty queen 24 years ago!!!!!!)
Assuming incompetence. (she's a woman, so she won't be a strong leader, etc.)
The woman becomes defined by a single gender-related issue in a manner that males do not (consider how the abortion question is defining Palin, but doesn't define Obama or even McCain.)
Issues that aren't used against male opponents are magnified out of proportion against the woman. (Bristol-mania. I admit this one might be ideological bias more than sexism, but I do think it's caught up in Palin's cultural role as a "mother")
Invasion of the personal sphere and personalization/lifestyle focus of/on the candidate. In other words, covering the woman through the gauze of personality and lifestyle issues, rather than professional accomplishment. (Why are we talking about Palin's prenatal care and amniotic fluid again? It's creepy. Do we talk about Biden's sperm count? I admit that's a really creepy thought, and I do admit that Palin invited some of this by talking about her breastfeeding to People magazine. But still.)

Sarah Palin Sexism Watch

Monday, September 1, 2008

Maureen Dowd: Go-go boots, Cinderella, and cheerleaders

6 comments:

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