I think we could get a pretty accurate count of men who dislike women in power by counting the SUPPORTERS of Sarah Palin as opposed to her detractors.

Let me explain.

Many of you here are old enough to remember the volumes of shiny bible stories and children's stories that accompanied every doctor or dentist's waiting area. Donated by vaguely Christian groups, I fear I sifted thru them after I ran out of Highlights and Ranger Rick.

There was always one story of female redemption in them. I will recap the single basic plot now:

The bold, independent tomboy (whom I always identified with, of course) would thru some device or another be convinced to don a skirt and make-up, do her hair and trim her hangnails. The parents all ooh-and-ah and the boy next door suddenly asks her to the prom.

Short but sweet. No pretense of finding women attractive as themselves.

Some of you also remember adolescence in the late seventies and early eighties and you will have known people whose parents sent them away to 'rehab' and 'evaluation' for a few weeks for 'acting out', 'depression', and general teenage angst. I suppose being gay would have been another cause. The girls I knew who had spent time in that kind of psych evaluation program reported pretty much the same thing to me:

The pressure exerted to have them conform to rather stereotypical sexual standards was immense. Sometimes getting released depended on donning more mainstream feminine garb, putting on make-up, styling hair, and showing a certain polite deference to anyone who thought they were in authority.

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Here's the point. From what I can see, the supporters of Sarah Palin support her because she is the caricature that she is. It feeds into their conceptions of proper womanhood and femininity.

And they feel very safe in Todd being always at her side. I mean ALWAYS at her side. Like svengali, hand up her ample rump and tickling her overworked tonsils, at her side.

Slutty stewardess, secretary, nurse, teacher. They are all symbols of women's limited authority and professionalism. Sarah purposefully cultivates this look. It appeals viscerally to men (and some women too) who feel threatened by actual power and authority being wielded by women. She presents to them a safe image, The frontier babe, The Gov-I'd-like-to *, fertile and yielding to the patriarchal authority of scripture with a manly, masculine, man's man at her side.

People who call her out on this image are not bashing women. By cultivating this unprofessional image, this leering, butt-shaking lip-smacking horror, Palin is actively at work trying to roll back decades of our progress in the larger world. I feel no need to defend her from anyone and can only hope that her example will ultimately turn out to be a cautionary one.

She even fits another stereotype: "She looks great until she opens her mouth".


Hitting post message, running, Flame away.