Palin and Feminism

This could be a short post. Any woman trying to hold herself up as a serious political figure whose main appeal is an ability to be attractive while winking at the camera during a debate, despite a complete inability to give real answers to any important questions represents a massive step backward for feminism in America. This post from Sullivan's blog really spoke to me, and echoes a theme I've been discussing for weeks. She really does remind me of the "mean girl" archetype, and while that type tends to be able to make headway in ways that other women often can't, because they can charm men, it's not the kind of headway that helps women generally. Women need to be able to get ahead on merits, not appearance, and that's why this choice by McCain made a lot of women I know so angry. It's claiming to be promoting women's rights by taking the pretty, charming woman instead of many women who might actually be qualified - who might actually read newspapers, know what the Supreme Court does, etc. This sort of gimmick is just tokenism, and is an insult to women everywhere. And men who are supporting her... let's just say, I agree with Sullivan's reader. If I were dating Rich Lowry... I wouldn't be anymore after what that comment revealed about his attitude.

UPDATE:

Palin regaled the cheering crowd with a story about how she was reading her Starbucks mocha cup yesterday, which featured a quotation from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

“Now she said it, I didn’t,” Palin said of Albright. “She said, ‘There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.’”

The crowd roared its approval, but according to several sources, Albright actually said, “there’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.”

“OK, now thank you so much for receiving that well—I didn’t know how that was going to go over,” Palin told the southern California crowd. “And now California, let’s see what a comment that I just made how that is turned into whatever it’ll be turned into tomorrow in the newspaper.”