I am by no means a feminist (for one I am a dude). I usually am against legislation that attempts to artificially "level" the playing field and would much prefer an education type approach to descrimination at all levels. Here are the issues concerning the recent treatment of Sarah Palin that makes wonder how we are ever going to get equal rights for women in this country.
1. She has already and will continue to be caricatured as a ditz. Some will say this is because she is young, however, I do not see many 44 year old men being caricatured this way (I will grant you MOST 44 year old men have not been a contestant in beauty pageants). Especially, recently after Camille Paglia, a Democrat called her acceptance speech "the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.” Yet, she will be cartooned as a backwater ditz out of her league. I don't agree with her %100 politically. I do NOT find it funny to say she is stupid.
2. People already have seized upon the fact that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. This was released to the public after viscous rumors that Sarah Palin had faked her entire fith pregnancy to cover up her daughter being pregnant. The whole media firestorm about this issue smacks of the whole "if you can't take care of your household, how can you take care of the country" argument that was equally distasteful when used against Hillary Clinton. Women who decide to have a career will never have the confidence to be successful if, as soon as something goes wrong in their homelife, they recieve the sole blame and responsibility.
Those two are my main points, although there may be others. There has fortunate benefit of having some excellent female role models and mentors in this chauvinistic male's life. Frankly, the only time I want to "burn a bra" is when I see these types of stereotypes so prevalent. I would rather people just say she is a bad person....that way she would at least be given the credit of control.
1. She has already and will continue to be caricatured as a ditz. Some will say this is because she is young, however, I do not see many 44 year old men being caricatured this way (I will grant you MOST 44 year old men have not been a contestant in beauty pageants). Especially, recently after Camille Paglia, a Democrat called her acceptance speech "the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.” Yet, she will be cartooned as a backwater ditz out of her league. I don't agree with her %100 politically. I do NOT find it funny to say she is stupid.
2. People already have seized upon the fact that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. This was released to the public after viscous rumors that Sarah Palin had faked her entire fith pregnancy to cover up her daughter being pregnant. The whole media firestorm about this issue smacks of the whole "if you can't take care of your household, how can you take care of the country" argument that was equally distasteful when used against Hillary Clinton. Women who decide to have a career will never have the confidence to be successful if, as soon as something goes wrong in their homelife, they recieve the sole blame and responsibility.
Those two are my main points, although there may be others. There has fortunate benefit of having some excellent female role models and mentors in this chauvinistic male's life. Frankly, the only time I want to "burn a bra" is when I see these types of stereotypes so prevalent. I would rather people just say she is a bad person....that way she would at least be given the credit of control.
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