Such a bittersweet day. We (finally) have half of the presidential tickets as something other than old white men. (Seriously old - McCain is 72?!? The stresses of that job at his age? Oy. I want to be retired well before then.)
It doesn't make it any better that they're from opposite sides of the aisle. I'm not going to switch streams and vote for the Repubs, but I'd love to be proud of a woman who reached such heights even if she was from over there. But because of the way this was done and the way it's being embraced by the webs, I'm well on the road to root against her. That kills me. (I mean, way to go nerd-boys. Turn an intelligent, fearless, powerful woman into just another spank target. Feh, I say FEH.) It also kills me that the local station (850 KOA - full disclosure, they're conservative) prefaced their kudos for Hillary Clinton's speech the other morning by first lampooning her orange pants suit. Seriously? Steffan Tubbs and April Zesbaugh, you two made me pull over on my way to work. If I still had the station phone number saved or could have successfully navigated to the instant message section, I'd have called you both on the carpet when it happened. I was so angry. For shame you two, for shame. In case you don't get why this is so egregious, no man has to endure ridicule of his fashion choices, hairstyle, weight, and/or makeup before they even begin to talk about his actions. She was a hairs breadth away from being a Presidential nominee and this is what we get?
Why is it a woman is still judged first by her fuckability (sorry for being so plain, but that's what it is) before all else? Don't talk to me about shattering glass ceilings, all we have here with Palin is your standard beauty queen raised up to try to garner disillusioned Hillary Clinton supporters. The only thing this reinforces to our little girls and boys is that you have to be pretty (and have the majority of men want to bed you) to be a woman who gets to be given a spot at the big table. Don't miss that last part either - given a spot. Palin didn't run for it. She didn't compete on a national scale against an entire field of men. Palin was plucked out of obscurity (at least for those of us in the lower states) and put on the ticket by a whole bunch of men.
Ugh.
PS - On the bright side, did anybody else notice how heated Obama got when he talked about making sure his daughters got paid the same as "your sons"? I could kiss the man.
PPS - It's not polished and it certainly isn't written well. I just decided to post it as is instead of letting it languish in draft mode because it was so rough.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Bittersweet
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2 comments:
I can't agree with you more. I'm cynical enough to think the repubs picked a woman just to make it harder for Biden to debate her. She could be a completely competent leader, but she is being thrown in a fray by people who only care about getting McCain elected, not whether she could take the job if she must.
As of Obama, as the father of daughters myself, I felt what he said about them being paid equally. I was a doubter about him at first, supporting Hillary. But now I feel that he has the best interests of women, the middle class, and every American in his heart.
Sad thing about conservative radio is they always go for the cheap laugh. Her pants suits, she's a bitch, etc. I heard one woman comment on the lady who spoke who had double bypass surgery. Her brilliant comment was that she was fat and should have lost weight and not needed bypass surgery.
This is their argument.
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