Progressive columnist: Like Hillary, Sarah Faces Media Sexism

[Adir Pykhtin]

By Marie Cocco
July 7, 2009

A Trashing As Old As Suffrage

(excerpt):



Almost as certain, my colleagues will seek to defend the indefensible as something Palin brought upon herself -- by being too ignorant, too unpredictable, too touchy, too hypocritical, too loose with facts, too inept at governing, too flirty, even too obviously fertile.

Yes, this is one of the assertions made in the Vanity Fair profile. It declares that Palin is "the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs," and notes that some McCain campaign aides (unnamed, of course) speculated that Palin's erratic performance last fall might have been due to post-partum depression she could have been suffering a few months after her son Trig's birth.

Not to be outdone, CNN's Rick Sanchez, anchoring the network's coverage of Palin's resignation announcement, asked, "Hey, could she be pregnant again?" A stammering Candy Crowley could only reply: "Well, I, I certainly don't know the answer to that last thought."

At this point, I will provide the requisite disclaimers: I disagree emphatically with Palin's ideology and with her policy prescriptions on just about every issue. I, too, find her intellectual emptiness to be frightening in a public official, and her demonstrably poor judgment disqualifying.

More: http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/cocc090707.htm

[YOY]

1. Pfffttt...

The blatant sexism that comes with pointing out that a person is a flaming imbecile.

[Lost-in-FL]

3. +1

[Adir Pykhtin]

8. In the examples cited by Cocco, Palin is not just called an imbecile

She is said to have post-partum depression, and is said to be pregnant.

[YOY]

9. In what respect Charlie?

My wife had post-partum. It didn't make her an idiot.

It did not make her not read periodicals.

It did not make her not know Africa was not a country.

It did not make her use catchphrases that weren't true.

It did not make her not even research a position she was being offered.

Palin is an idiot. If they wanted a smart Republican they sure didn't look very hard.

I'm not a Hillary fan due to disagreements with her politics on certain issues...but Sarah Palin isn't fit to clean her toilet.

[iverglas]

14. looking at it again ...

You're just determined not to take the point, aren't you?

Post-partum depression didn't cause your wife to be an idiot, etc. etc.

So -- why the fuck would someone offer up post-partum depression as an explanation for Palin's moronic/irrational behaviour???

You made the argument yourself and then claimed not to get it.

A unique characteristic of women, a not uncommon characteristic of women, was offered as an explanation for a woman being incompetent and unreliable.

How much clearer could the misogyny be??

[YOY]

15. Um...I'm being mysogynistic? How?

I just threw back exactly that point that you're making in the OPs (who is curiously absent) face without so many words but examples of her incompetance and the lame ass excuse of her citing a real condition that woman suffer but does NOT make them blithering incompetant boobs.

Once agina, I didn't offer up PPD as an bullshit and sexist (sorry but no woman in her right mind would use that as an excuse for being ignorant) excuse...it's in the article and the OP thinks it's relevant.

The OPs article said so much.

My point is this: Sarah Palin...is an ignorant idiot. You can have a vagina or not have one and still be an idiot. There is no psychological condition involved. She is an incurious overreligious idiot.

[lukasahero]

16. Ok, I'll give this one a try

No one called you mysogynistic. The article says Palin experienced sexism in that things that have nothing to do with being a woman were attributed to her being one. No, post-partum does not make a woman an idiot. So why did newcasters suggest that her poor performance was possibly due to post-partum? THAT's the sexist part - the newscasters suggesting that a uniquely female condition could make a person perform poorly.

The point of the OP is not about you if you never used a uniquely female insult about Palin. However, just because you didn't doesn't mean others aren't guilty of it - in particular the MSM.

[YOY]

17. Sorry. It seemed Iverglas was calling me out on something.

Perhaps I misinterpreted.

[iverglas]

19. yeah, I was calling you out on something

Your insistence, from your first post in the thread, that there was nothing to see here and we should all move along.

[iverglas]

18. "I'm being mysogynistic? How?"

I give up. Trick question?

Or did you mean to put it to someone who had called you misogynist?


Once agina, I didn't offer up PPD as an bullshit and sexist (sorry but no woman in her right mind would use that as an excuse for being ignorant) excuse...it's in the article and the OP thinks it's relevant.

Lord fucking jeezus.

The OP said IT IS MISOGYNIST to offer up post-partum depression / pregnancy as an explanation for moronic/irrational things done by a woman.

Want to start over and try again?


My point is this: Sarah Palin...is an ignorant idiot. You can have a vagina or not have one and still be an idiot. There is no psychological condition involved. She is an incurious overreligious idiot.

Good for you.

Now try explaining why it occurs to so many people to identify uniquely female characteristics / characteristics common to a large segment of women and offer them up as somehow connected with and/or causal of her idiocy.

[YOY]

20. Jesus...you are a true loon in attack mode.

Go attack someone else for whatever mind crimes you can imagine they committed and words you can stuff in their mouth.

[iverglas]

21. actually, I'm a way too intelligent person

trying to explain something that a person of moderate intelligence should be able to grasp quite readily. Assuming, at least, that said person is a person of good faith without an axe to grind.

[cnh2123]

27. mysogynistic

Men automatically assume that because women do have major hormonal fluxes when pregnant or just during a monthly period, we're stupid. In 90% of the female population this is not true. Stupidity doesn't actually occur in the female any more than it does in the male. Actually the male exhibits this trait 5.76 more times than the female, largely because the female isn't by human standards allowed to display their own stupidity. Point in case, Sarah Palin. Unique in all species the human chooses the least qualified to lead. This phenomenon is unheard of in any other species.

[joeglow3]

28. How about asking how she can be VP AND a mother at the same time

As much as I loathe her (and love her for the benefit she is for our side), there was blatant sexism in the media.

[Lost-in-FL]

2. Sexism? Please.

She is a quitter and now her sympathizers will play the sex card. How predictable.

[damntexdem]

12. This is sort of like being called antisemitic for opposing Israeli expansionism.

It's the indefensible hiding behind causes to which it has no right to a claim.

[DontTreadOnMe]

4. A little perspective

Sometimes "trashing" someone with a destructive ideology is better for the general population as a whole.

[tanyev]

5. Unlike Hillary, Sarah showed herself to be a quitter.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. 
[link:www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html|Click
here] to review the message board rules.

[NC_Nurse]

6. Yes, there was sexism. And yes, she was a freakin' dumbass. Both can be true

at the same time. It pisses me off that an imbecile of such proportion got as far as she did based on bullshit catchphrases and NO substance.
She's a sensation simply because she can spout a talking point and look good doing it. Such is American culture. Sexism helped her and hurt her.

Ugh.

[backtoblue]

23. I agree

She was definitely not vice-presidential caliber when it comes to brain activity, but there was some blatant sexism that went on.

[Captain Hilts]

29. That's exactly right. nt

[Confusious]

7. I agree with

being too ignorant, too unpredictable, too touchy, too hypocritical, too loose with facts, too inept at governing

PLUS: to inept at creating a sentence, and all made worse by a accent and a voice like fingernails on a chalkboard

[tularetom]

10. I think she's facing stupidism - bias against the incurably ignorant

I plead guilty to it.

[damntexdem]

11. Idiocy as old as being coo coo.

HRC deserved the criticism she received for her performance during the primaries. She has been an excellent Sec of State and has been praised for it, here and elsewhere.

Palin has deserved all of the criticism she has received and more. And only and idiot, a true believer, or someone on the payroll of the right would try to defend her.

[iverglas]

13. just curious

And only and idiot, a true believer, or someone on the payroll of the right would try to defend her.

Who has defended her?

If no one in this thread, why would you bother typing that?

If someone in this thread, could you point?


To pick up on another comment in this thread: I am firmly opposed to just about everything the state of Israel has ever done.

I also know anti-Semitism when I smell it, and have no hesitation in calling it by its name.


What might make knowing misogyny when one smells it and calling it by its name somehow different?

It isn't misogynistic to call someone an illiterate moron.

It is misogynistic to attribute her illiterate moronicity (or other undesirable characteristics or actions) to some characteristic of women, and it is misogynistic to use tactics and strategies to discredit a woman that would not be used against a man.


And what a lot of protesting one does hear when this is pointed out. Too much protesting even, one might think.

[gwashington2650]

22. Give me a break

The media is critical of Palin because she's brainless dolt.

[foginthemorn]

24. You must have missed the examples in the OP to say that.

[Captain Hilts]

25. Well said, Marie. nt

[cnh2123]

26. Sarah Palin

Yes the woman is an idiot.  This is clearly a given, it has
nothing to do with the fact that she's a woman.  It has
clearly to do with the fact that she's......, well, good Lord,
words escape me.  This is the person that the republicans are
rallying around for the next election?  How frightening is
that?

[Tumbulu]

30. Her campaign is based on flaunting her particular style of that very sexist femininity

that I have always detested and fought against my adult life.

if you want to dress up all girly girl and then act silly and dumb- behaving like a dimwit (probably not an act, but perhaps it was magnified for attention)- then don't be surprised when you are labeled a silly witless female. The kind of gal who "stands by her man" and always "defers to the man with the bigger head". Revolting and disgusting.

"Live by the sword/ die by the sword" fits this situation.