Palin and sexism. Cont'd.

A reader writes:

If it weren’t for sexism, Palin would not have been chosen. If it weren’t for sexism, she would be humiliated in a debate, rather than coddled. The sexism meme is tired, boring and hypocritical…..

Of course Palin benefits enormously for sexism. Any “mean girl” depends upon it for her power. 

But Palin wouldn’t be able to take advantage of it if it weren’t floating out in the general culture. 
It would be more comfortable to just line up a list of what’s ridiculous and frightening about Palin and the Republican campaign but that’s been done elsewhere very well. It’s less comfortable to point out the part of her phenomenon that crosses party lines, although I don’t belong to a party. Hey, I think she has a great ass too. And probably more audiences will laugh at a comment I make like that than will laugh at something that cuts deeply at sexism. One of the greatest gifts of this moment is that people are laughing at sexism. That is an entirely new thing.

That’s because our lives will look very different if women are seen for more than their appearance, especially if women see themselves as more than their appearance.

I’ve not used the term “sexism” much in the past 15 years (but man I used it an awful lot before then) as I came to see sexism as the gender tip of plain ol’ dehumanization you betcha.

But when it shows up specifically, in interesting new ways (eg. new debate camera angles) it should be named and I blog and perform about what I see and what’s new to me.


There are a many reasons to be disturbed by Palin’s presence on the Republican ticket. But it’s just as important to observe the soup of dehumanizing tendencies she’s swimming in. I I’ve been an Obama supporter for quite a while, but I still saw the sexist crap thrown at Hillary and named it as such.  
Sexism isn’t a meme. It’s one piece of not genuinely seeing others or ones self. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s beneath.  


 


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