The Governor of Alaska's alleged lack of qualifications and experience has been cited by pro-Obama commentators as reason enough to condemn John McCain's pick. However, many of the attacks against Palin have not been solely directed at her conservative stands or her policy choices.
"Caribou barbie," "beauty queen" and "trophy Vice" have been regularly used as supporting elements to discredit Palin as a viable candidate. The fact that she competed in the Miss Alaska 1984 beauty pageant where she won second place and a college scholarship is given as sufficient evidence that she cannot be taken seriously as a politician the underlying argument being that an attractive woman must be a bimbo, and a bimbo must not be in a position of power.
Most disturbingly, many of those willing to fire the thinly veiled misogynistic bullets are self proclaimed liberal women. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes:
The guilty pleasure I miss most when I’m out slogging on the campaign trail is the chance to sprawl on the chaise and watch a vacuously spunky and generically sassy chick flick. So imagine my delight, my absolute astonishment, when the hockey chick flick came out on the trail, a Cinderella story so preposterous it’s hard to believe it’s not premiering on Lifetime. Instead of going home and watching “Miss Congeniality” with Sandra Bullock, I get to stay here and watch “Miss Congeniality” with Sarah Palin.
The reality is that the world of politics is still dominated by men and this has not changed with the current surge of Dowd-approved, non-sassy, serious, intense and highly educated women involved in politics around the world.
Many women who have advanced in politics until now have done so aided by a family name made trustworthy by the actions of a male. Without questioning their remarkable careers and credentials, Michele Bachelet, Cristina Kirchner, Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi and Hillary Clinton may fall into this category.
Other female leaders have succeeded by projecting a character that is not by-and-large associated with what are generally acknowledged as feminine traits. Examples of these so-called iron ladies are Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel.
Although Palin does not fall into any of the described categories her story is hardly unique. Her political career is reminiscent to that of Venezuelan Irene Saez. Saez competed and won in the 1981 Miss Universe pageant. Like Palin, she subsequently earned a B.A. and later on decided to run for office in a small municipality. As Mayor of Chacao, Saez enjoyed high approval ratings. She was re-elected and then decided to run for president on an anti-corruption platform that echoed Venezuelans rejection of the traditional political parties. After losing to Hugo Chavez in the 1998 elections, Saez decided to run for the governorship of Nueva Esparta. She won handily with 70% of the vote.
A woman politician who fulfills all of Maureen Dowd's feminist requirements might take a while to come by. That is remembering that Ms. Dowd was also hostile towards Hillary Clinton, a non-Sarah Palin like female politician if there ever was one.
Women still have a hard enough time to reach the upper levels of decision making positions for Palin's physique to be enlisted as one of her disqualifications to run for office. In an equal opportunity world a woman should at least have the right to be attractive and succeed in politics without having to apologise for it to the self appointed defenders of feminism, regardless of her platform and views.
