The day a woman candidate runs and nobody talks about what she's probably like in bed will be awesome. Can you think of any other candidate who was sexualized (or desexualized) the same way our two big female candidates have been?
The goal is to mock Palin’s intelligence not by engaging with her foolish beliefs and ignorant rhetoric, but by pointing and saying “look, boobs!” or “I’d sure like to hit that!” And making her non-threatening isn’t only dangerous politically when Palin is in fact in a position to potentially do a lot of harm; attempting to make her non-threatening in this way is dangerous to all women who hold power, who want to be taken seriously, and who dream of being able to be proud of their sexuality and brains all at the same time. An acknowledgment of female sexuality shouldn’t be seen as mocking — these portrayals of Palin only reinforce the idea that it is.
And:
We still live in a world where sexuality itself is seen as degrading to women.
As somebody who feels like I can't talk about sex and my enjoyment of it for just that reason - because doing so will somehow devalue me as a human being - I really fucking resent this crap. Is it just that it's even more alarming and teeth-gnashing when they do it to powerful women?
It reminds you that you just can't escape it. You have to face it. And kick it's ass. It's not going away just because we can vote and wear pants.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Just because you can vote and wear pants...
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Hear, hear. It also frustrates me that people who don't like Palin still engage in this kind of behavior when there's a lot of what's-wrong-with-her substance they could be talking about. There are so many things wrong with so many people's ideas.
Though I think it should be 'female candidate,' not 'woman candidate.' Woman isn't an adjective, or hasn't been until very recently.
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