Feminists and Sarah Palin
Part of the idea behind picking Sarah Palin was to help broaden the GOP’s appeal to women. Instead, Palin is even less popular among women than John McCain. And if this exchange between Rick Davis and Bill Bennett is any guide, conservatives aren’t looking very seriously at addressing their problems (emphasis added):
BENNETT: I don’t know which drives them more crazy. Let me give you three things that I think drives them crazy, and you don’t have to comment. That’s she’s very attractive. That she’s very competent or that she’s very happy. You know, as a human being.
DAVIS: Yeah, all of the above.
Rachel Maddow did a segment on this last night:
That’s via Jessica Valenti. The idea that feminists, like politically conscious people of all genders and ideological inclinations, might have substantive views on the issues that contradict Palin’s doesn’t seem to have occurred to them. But in general, women are more liberal than men. And John McCain is more conservative than most politicians and Palin’s record is considerably more conservative than McCains. There’s no great mystery here. And yet Davis and Bennett can’t help but compound their problems by suggesting that women are somehow incapable of reaching conclusions about politicians for any kind of real reasons — instead feminists just hate attractive women.
52 Responses to “Feminists and Sarah Palin”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Wow, with instincts that good I’m surprised Bill Bennet lost so much money at the craps table.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Can we please stop calling Sarah Palin attractive? Sure, I guess maybe I could be fooled by at a long distance, if she’s wearing lots of makeup and expensive clothes. But I generally think you have to be the kind of guy who pops wood for Ann Coulter in order to have these feelings about Palin.
The discussion is akin to the whole “Fred Thompson is so appealing to women” meme. I mean, c’mon: http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/ap/wx11103111621.widec.jpg
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am
That’s part of being pure modern wingnut: pissing off liberals is their raison d’être. Pailin’s candidacy is basically trolling.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
Shaenon Garrity said it better.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
I love it when they talk like that.
Don’t change a thing, Republicans! America agrees with you! You just need the right messenger!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:46 am
Beyond policy differences, women are righteously pissed that Bennett, Davis et al think they’re stupid enough to fall for this uniquely unqualified skank as a substitute Hillary out of gender loyalty. Roughly equivalent to the African American reaction if Alan Keyes was the Republican VP.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
I hope they keep it up this monolithic approach to female voters. If Gramp’s campaign continues along these lines with their discussion of feminism they will have done more to harm their party’s chances going forward than Bush did. Man, I have never seen a nation wide campaign run as poorly as this one.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am
Sarah Palin was chosen BECAUSE she’s very attractive – if she was ugly in addition to being completely clueless, there is no way that she would be on the McCain ticket. Perhaps feminists are upset that after all this time, how a woman looks is still more important (to boneheads like these two) than how smart or qualified she is.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:58 am
Of course, the key word in Bennett’s line is “crazy.”
Basically, he’s saying chicks are nuts. All part of the attempt to attract more women voters.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:12 am
Yeah, it could no have anything to do with the fact that her running mate puts health of the woman in air quotes. I do not think McCain would put health of Joe the Plumber in air quotes.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
“instead feminists just hate attractive women.”
well, right. all wingnuts know that.
and they also know that all feminists are lesbians.
which is why lesbians are not attracted to women.
it all makes sense, in wingnut world.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am
I will admit that Sarah Palin is pretty. (Especially without that I-saw-Audrey-Hepburn-on-TV hairdo)
But guys, this is the age of the Internets. Honestly, who out there is starved for pictures of pretty women? (and I’m not even talking pr0n.)
(Or is it that Sarah is conservative and that they think they have a chance with her?)
I would rather download pictures of Blake Lively and have Janet Reno as my attorney general.
And Hebry Waxman is my hero.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 am
Henry. Henry Waxman.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
I think a good number of woman find Palin embarrassing. The winking, the faux folksiness, and her utter lack of seriousness. It’s a shame that many qualified, experienced woman were passed over for someone not up to the job.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
Honestly, who out there is starved for pictures of pretty women?
Yeah – there’s something “40 Old Virgin”/”passing for straight” about gushing over Palin’s attractiveness. Mmes. Obama, Biden, and McCain are attractive too. So what?
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:31 am
Hasn’t Rachel missed an obvious rejoinder here? The big point, to me, is that despite many advances in women’s equality over the past 40 years, the “pre-equality” white household required one worker in order to reach middle class income. Now, both parents need to work to earn an income that has fallen steadily the past eight years. And the Buffoon Brothers think vapid “happiness” with the annual moose kill is what riles liberal up?
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:41 am
Yeah, yeah, now I get it: it’s liberals who think women shouldn’t hold jobs.
btw: I just know that Bennett fantasizes about Palin in leather, holding a whip.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
These two talk about “liberal feminists” the same way a lot of us on the left talk about “Jesus Freaks.” We don’t know any/many personally, and have no interest in spending time with them. So we only see what we want to see — in the case of Davis and Bennett, all they see is the anger and disapproval.
It’s a symptom of the chasm between the left and right.
Hopefully, after Nov 4 we can start to mend some of that.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
“The idea that feminists, like politically conscious people of all genders and ideological inclinations, might have substantive views on the issues that contradict Palin’s doesn’t seem to have occurred to them. ”
Oh, it’s occurred to them, they just don’t care. As Pseudonymous says, all they care about is pissing off liberals. Consequently they love to talk about someone who pisses off liberals in a way that pisses off liberals. Frankly, given their electoral prospects, it’s becoming like comfort food to them.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
Yeah, Im really angry at that attractive, happy conservative Sarah Palin right about now. She’s foxy and a conservative and that really pisses me off. Yeah, conservatives, you really “Got” me this time. … Im especially pissed off at how successful conservatives are at making liberals angry this way …..and how Sarah Palin has really turned this election around …..
Oh wait ….
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
They’re not trying to win over women voters any more. They know it’s over. Now it’s about making excuses to their base: “We lost because feminists hate a good-looking woman.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
Please, Mr. Davis, please keep getting on my radio and my TV and doing your “bitchez be hatin’ Palin ‘cuz she’s hawt” routine. Women love that. In fact, I will pay you $1000 to go on Oprah or Ellen or The View and say that.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Well, in all fairness, I think Matt (and Rachel) are missing the point. Bennett obviously means that feminists don’t like the idea of a *conservative* woman who is attractive, competent and happy. In other words, liberals prefer conservatives to be like Bill Bennett and Ann Coulter, people with zero crossover appeal of any kind.
Same reason conservatives despised Clinton. And will despise Obama even more if his administration is a success.
Of course, Bennett’s fantasy only hold true in an alternate universe where Palin is not a laughingstock. Couric and Fey took care of that problem.
Hmmm….yeah, I’m sure only *Bennett* could have such a fantasy. I mean…can you imagine?
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 am
Its how Republicans do identity politics. They think women vote for women because they are women. Women tend to vote for women because of shared policy preferences. Republicans can be so tribal.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Every beautiful women is a melange (is that the word I want?) of several ingredients. Hair, deportment, posture, clothes. While Ms. Palin has oomph and espieglerie in spades, living up in the frozen North, she doesn’t get the latest couture correspondence from the elite fashion centers. But don’t worry! The RNC spent $150,000!! on fitting Palin, and her kids out with the latest glad-rags. From Saks Fifth Ave and beyond.
As one perceptive commenter put it “She’s a one-woman earmark!”
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Yes we women totally need a couple of white guys to tell us why we are just jealous of Sarah Palin. It has nothing to do with policy disagreements or anything of substance. We are just jealous! Hahahaha…. what idiots.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Since Republican down-home praticality dictates that a wardrobe should be multi-use, like Mrs. Nixon’s “plain Republican cloth coat” Ms. Palin’s wardrobe was chosen with a career alternative in mind. See if you can guess what kind of sucess they dressed her for.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 am
Bennett and Davis may simply being doing what conservatives like doing best – insulting liberals. We really do drive them crazy.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Between Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Biden, Mrs. McCain, and Sarah Palin, I think Biden’s wife is the most beautiful.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
It’s hard to take Jessica Valenti seriously as a pundit or smart human being when her official position on Duke is that she holds no position. She still can’t tell us whether she thinks a rape occurred there or not. And when her coblogger, Samhita tells us emphatically that the Duke students DID rape, and that they are not innocent, and that they got what they deservered, and Jessica makes no statement in denial of that,
well it makes Jessica Valenti a laughing stock.
I hope she’s got a better rack than the one Althouse was leering at, because Jessica Valenti herself is a one-track bimbo who won’t let facts, logic, or common sense get in her way, as evidenced by her own writings at her blog and her silly book, excoriated by feminists, full frontal feminism.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
I always wonder, when I hear anyone making rude remarks about the relative attractiveness of feminists, whether they’ve looked in the mirror lately. Rick Davis should use some of his lobbyist swag to buy a chin. And Bill Bennett should check his Book of Virtues to see if there’s anything in there about gluttony. I guess the all-you-can-eat buffet at the casino is too good to pass up. Really, guys….glass houses, and all of that.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 am
Why are pundits like Bill Bennett and Pat Buchanan never taken to account on TV for the things they say when they don’t have to pretend to be fair and balanced?
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 am
Pissing off liberals isn’t the aim, appealing to and reinforcing the stereotypes held by their audience is…
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Mr. Yglesias,
Er, no. Women are more liberal on _some_ issues than men, and more conservative on others. Women have traditionally been much less likely than men to support radical causes of the left or right, be they socialist or nationalist. Women’s suffrage was oppsoed by soem early 20th century leftists because it was thought that women would be a conservative force (as, in fact, they turned out to be in many countries). And in today’s America, women are more likely to be pro-life than men.
Palin’s “attractiveness” or “happiness” has nothing to do with it, and I agree it’s demeaning to suggest it does. On the contrary. Second wave feminists dislike Sarah Palin because they are fanatically committed to the culture of death and to absurdly denying essential differences between the sexes. Which Palin, for all her faults does not.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
To make that comment clearer…they have a predominantly white male audience, and they are telling white male conservatives what to think about feminists…which they’ve already been told, and believe, and don’t have the intelligence to question.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Jersey Tomato, I think the most obvious solution is a chin transplant from Bennett to Davis. Bill’s got too many and Rick’s got too few.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
pbg Says:
October 22nd,
But guys, this is the age of the Internets. Honestly, who out there is starved for pictures of pretty women? (and I’m not even talking pr0n.)
(Or is it that Sarah is conservative and that they think they have a chance with her?)
I would rather download pictures of Blake Lively and have Janet Reno as my attorney general.The CAP Cleaning Staff Says:——————————————————-
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Can we please stop calling Sarah Palin attractive? Sure, I guess maybe I could be fooled by at a long distance, if she’s wearing lots of makeup and expensive clothes. But I generally think you have to be the kind of guy who pops wood for Ann Coulter in order to have these feelings about Palin.
The discussion is akin to the whole “Fred Thompson is so appealing to women” meme. I mean, c’mon
————————————————————-
These are good examples of the ;’village’ media. Constantly attempting to tell You, how you should feel. Which works to protect there pay masters and fellow class wariors. If yuor able remember hhow back in 1992 we heard the oppositte crap, which was ……how Ugly Hilary Clinton was/is. This was said over and over. It worked. Because anytime politics was discussed in any setting -remmember again- no internet in those days- the first comment was Hilary was ugly. My better instincts were … not that ugly, that to feel empowered , i had to comment on a womams looks. Which i am not above, just do not feel the need to mention when someone is not attractive to me. I ramble.
But what is it with these two ,feeling the need to comment on a womans look not in a locker room or a corner at work but on TV or the radio….WTF does it say? One claims to have a phd…. philospy? Cato? ‘ ;Cathaginem esse Delenden’
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Kiva: Good one.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Sarah Palin was chosen BECAUSE she’s very attractive
—
HANDS
CLOSE-UP: Christie Todd Whitman’s hands, opening an ENVELOPE and grasping a REJECTION LETTER.
VOICEOVER (male): “You were the most qualified for the job. But the Republicans had to nominate a MILF.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Anon: Valenti wrong on the Duke case? OH NO! But what about O.J. Simpson–what does she think about that pressing matter??
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Left wing feminists are shallow and immoral but Mr. Bennett is not?
Wanna bet?
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
You know what else liberal feminists don’t like? Strippers and hookers. You know why? They are attractive, competent, and seem very happy when guys like Davis or Bennett show up with some cash.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Wayne–was I being insulted? Can’t really tell.
I can assure you I’ve never spent time in the Village.
(well, yeah, there was that time when I was attacked by a weather balloon….)
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Can we please stop calling Sarah Palin attractive?
Give me a $150,000 makeover, and I could look like a beautiful woman, too; not that anyone would recognized me without my beard.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Matt,
You’re such a child when it comes to how women think!
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
This has become a trend with conservative males, who don’t really give a dang about “Sarah Palin” but find her a convenient stick to beat their nemesis, “feminism” or even the bigger monolith, “women” (who won’t give the GOP our vote and more importantly, will never give them our hoo-hoo’s). Funny how they use “feminism” as an assumed term and never bother to define just what it is about “feminism” they have a problem with.
No analysis, just reaction. Typical clueless, conservative males.
More here: http://ohcrapihaveacrushonsarahpalin.blogspot.com
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
What’s awesome is that Maddow smiled the whole way through that story. No diatribe. It’s like, Davis and Bennett are so effing stupid they’re not even worth mocking. Just take the idiocy in for yourself, viewer…
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I liked what Martin Sheen said about Palin the other day, talking to Joe Scarborough:
November 12th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Palin’s a good looking woman, but I think looks alone aren’t really enough to qualify you as the leader of the free world. An a non-american, I’m glad that the republicans got beat, I have no real issue with McCain, but god forbid something should happen to him and Palin ends up the most powerful person on the planet!
January 15th, 2009 at 1:40 am
laptop battery
laptop batteries
February 8th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
laptop battery
April 16th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Hey. If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play at it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf.
I am from Kyrgyzstan and learning to read in English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Discount airline tickets, complete all inclusive vacations, discount travel packages and more.”
Waiting for a reply 8), Zelia.