Current mood:	irritated
Entry tags:	no - i really *do* care that much

The Politics of Victimhood
In an article in the Globe & Mail on Sunday, Judith Timson used one of those sentences that irritates me to no end: "But Ms. Palin, ..., not only sent a clear signal that she was nobody's victim ..."

Ah, yes. The so-called "victim card". Fastest way to make someone appear "weak" or "unable to cope".

Of course Sarah Palin is no one's victim. She's running for the second-highest position in the US with strong support from the presidential nominee. When feminists point out the sexism directed at Ms Palin, they're not doing it to protect her from the big mean media. Ms Palin doesn't need that at all.

Why we're doing it is because this sort of stuff hurts women everywhere. When Ms Palin is attacked in the media for being daring enough to go to work when she's got a young child at home, it stokes up the so-called mommy wars, frames that debate as being legitimate, and again sends messages to (middle and upper class) women: stay at home, because if you run for office, this is what you'll get. Your parenting choices will be scrutinized, mocked, and torn apart by the media, by bloggers, and by Jo Average On the Street.

[For many women "Do I go back to work after pregnancy" isn't a question - it's the only way to keep a roof overhead and food on the plate. It certainly would be in my case.]

Articles written about Palin's hair and shoes, blog sites dedicated to how "fuckable" she is, and various places repeatedly bringing up her "beauty queen" past, are short for "You must be THIS attractive to run for office, ladies, and even then we're going to reduce you to just that."

This stuff hurts all women, especially women who are involved in politics. I tell people who think I'd be a "good" politician that I couldn't stand the idea of my decision not to have children, my atypical attractiveness, and my loathing of fashion being something that would be used against me by my opponent, as opposed to silly things like my record on the issues and my political affiliation.

The same thing is happening to Sarah Palin right now.

The answer isn't (as is implied by "no one's victim") to demand the Big Bad Media back off and play nice. The answer is to demand the new media focus on what's really important here: Palin's stand on the issues.

Not to protect her, but because focusing on a woman's attractiveness, her decisions regarding going back to work, and her fashion choices is just plain wrong.

The goal should be this: "[T]he day when you ask, what is the most important thing about a female politician? And the answer will be, her policies, stupid."