ElizaQ, I have taken it to mean a fool. And one can be a fool, and still be very intelligent. It is more of a statement about her being deficient in rational judgement and common sense.
Having said that, she did not even know what the job of VP was. [img]eek.gif" border="0[/img]
And your point about EQ and IQ is salient, IMV.
To extend Cueball's argument, it seems obvious to me that Palin is having thrown at her everything nasty you can say about and do to a woman as woman: a "savvy" Larry Flynt piece of sexual defamation, the above depiction of beauty contestants as inane, another Doug gem of cat sounds filling in for her voice, a full thesaurus of assimilations of women to irrational idiots, predictable stuff about her "shopping", flirting, winking, etc.
There are better reasons for criticizing Palin and MUCH better reasons for rejecting McCain, Bush and the Republican agenda, but if misogyny temporarily serves an allegedly lofty purpose, most of you folks seem to have no problem with that, regardless of the obvious consequences for any future woman candidates.
I am convinced that this pattern is deeper-ingrained and that the Left has a long history of hitting women in politics with everything it's got, from the days Proudhon and other luminaries were arguing against allowing women the vote because they felt women had traditionally and would always support the Right. To this day, RW women seem to get ten times the hatred RW men get, for a host of different reasons I don't have time to get into. Let's just call it the "Marie Antoinette syndrome"...
P.S.: And I am not getting into the blatant, heinous classism from Palin's critics. Ms. Mallick skewered herself badly enough on that count.
[ 25 October 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]
Ya, well, Martin I leave it to you and cue, to rescue, ALL women from themselves because we are so deeply ingrained to attack our own gender and to rescue Palin from those other misogyny filled men on the left, so the rest of us women can safely go into poltics. [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img]
Not much point I agree. Mallick's elitest "white Trash" classist statements, and dubious use of the term "pram faced", not to mention her god awfully snooty lectures about the aesthetics of suburban working class neighborhoods gets a pass if she is serving the right cause, while Klein's urban elitism and so-so support for your party warrant vilification at the extreme.
Ignoring the underlying sexism of many of the attacks against Palin used by the so called "democratic left" because those attacks serve the "greater good" is completely expected.
Again, where is the Palin Sexism Watch thread here at Babble? The hypocrisy is clear to anyone who doesn't dye their underwear Orange.
[ 25 October 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]
ya, well, cue, get back to me when Mallick owns her own magazine, starts a national movement to deprive voters of their vote, or in fact even starts telling people how to vote, and I may take something you say seriously. But granted perhaps not even then.
Lol, I thought the issue was who was published here at Rabble, and strategic voting was irrelevant. It was her elitism that bothered you was it not? Want me to find you the quote?
quote:
Cue, again I do not care about what you believe Now does for progressives in Toronto. I care about what she says and does nationally that has impacts on the ROC during an election and her being given a presence on rabble to voice it. And I care about her elitist regressive and divisive comments about western Canada in that voice she had at rabble.
But, yes I know, that is what half of political PR is all about, consistency is irrelevant, as long as their is some kind of couter-arguement.
[ 25 October 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]
quote:
Originally posted by Cueball:
[b]Lol, I thought the issue was who was published here at Rabble[/b]
I thought the issue here was Sarah Palin and the discussion you're trying to have was in some other thread.
Honestly, I also feel that there has been a lot of sexism directed at Palin during this campaign. But I'm not sure that we're seeing an example of it here. I mean, I suppose ANY criticism of her incompetence could be spun as being sexist because we're assuming she can't do the job - but are we assuming that she can't do the job because she's a woman, or because she's simply not knowledgeable enough, combined with her corruption which is only equalled by her spite?
That beauty queen picture with the slogan about the only beauty queen who doesn't want world peace? A case could be made for that being sexist, but on the other hand, her own campaign is really pushing the "hot chick" angle and they're mobilizing her base with it. So does that make the satire within bounds? I don't know, maybe.
As for Wente, what she's doing is talking about Republican men and their sexist reaction to her, and then decrying it. And she's also saying that when you promote an unqualified woman and play up her sex appeal, and a bunch of guys in the party and in punditry fall for it, there are going to be some red faces when they realize that they lost a lot of support because of it.
Does that mean she's stupid? No, not at all. I think she's pretty darn smart. But I also think she's pretty mean, pretty calculating, and out of her league. She can get away with petty and corrupt shit when she's the big fish in her tiny pond, but on the national stage, with intense media scrutiny, she can't get by that way.
I think the most sexism during this campaign can be found within the Republicans, not the Democrats. Sure, there is sexism within the Democrats. And I still think the Republicans put Palin up as a trap, hoping the Democrats would fall into it and start showing some of their below-the-surface misogynist colours. And the occasional Democrat has fallen for it and done it.
But much, much more sexist has been the Republican base, with their objectifying and sexist slogans about Palin. And it's going to be really something else - something awful - to watch them turn on her when McCain loses the election because of his terrible VP pick.
remind is right. I have ZERO pity for Palin, nor do I rise to her defense when she is busy trying to be the "good Xian anti-woman" freak that she is. All people can be many things at once - smart, funny, silly, goofy, you get the point. The fact that as a woman, I'm expected to stand up for this horrid beast is not reflective of me, but of the men who assume I must do so simply because we have the same genitalia. Please!
It's not a matter of standing up for her. Its a matter of being consistent, and discouraging such behaviour from "the left", regardless of who the target is.
I don't think anyone expects progressive women (or men) to "stand up for" Palin. I think it is necessary, however, to refrain from attacking her in sexist ways, and to call other people on it when they do it.
Sexist degradation hurts us all, no matter who it's aimed at.
Cueball, I'm pretty sure there have been discussions on babble about sexist attacks against Palin.
The right just feeds off the apparent hypocrisy. Palin is getting all kinds of sympathy points because of these mendacious and silly attacks.
Oh, I know. I've made that argument a number of times in other threads.
Anyhow, this is getting long...please feel free to start a part two. Or! You could start a sexism watch thread if you'd like.
