Palin who?

What is a Sarah Palin?  Is it a maverick? Is it a scary fundamentalist? Is it a feminist? I've heard them all, but what's the truth? She has cast herself as a just shy of red-necked pioneer lady who's tough enough to face down the problems of our country.  Left wing blogs and celebrities warn that she is a right wing demagogue in sheep's clothing. Meanwhile The Economist and others proclaim her rise as a "triumph of feminism." Feminism you say?

Let’s look at the other big name woman in politics this election season, Hillary Clinton. She sparred with Obama and others in debate after endless debate and held her own on shows known for not pulling any punches, such as Meet the Press. When she attacked an opponent it was with all the steel gutted gusto of her male counterparts in running. She was often perceived as mean or even as a nagging wife for this. Her brand of actually-trying-to-be-equal feminism is not palatable to the Palin supporter. They seem to want a vice president (or very possibly president) of the United States who knows her roll.

Upon closer look, Palin's maverick cloak falls away and we are left with a women who indeed plays by the rules: the rules that society has created, the persona that women must adhere to to be embraced. Children? Check. An apparently hot look? Check. The ability to be use as pretty packaging to sell the outdated ideas of power hungry men? Check. Yes sir, she is the true face of new feminism.

"I told congress thanks, but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere." This is Sarah Palin's call to arms. It brings cheers from her newly energized ranks, but has she ever been asked to defend this lie? No. She is protected behind a cloud of republican alpha males ready to bark "SEXIST!" at anyone who would dare ask her to speak for herself. She doesn’t have to answer to the press, they might be mean to her,  it’s not like she’s running for the second highest office in the country or anything.

Correct me if I'm wrong but feminism has historically meant for women what civil rights means to minorities in most respects, right? I have always though of both as fights for equality, or as Martin Luther King Jr. so famously said, to be judged on the content of one's character. To my thinking, if Sarah Palin is being celebrated for being a woman, with no one actually caring what she believes in or looking into her record as a public servant, she is being judged on her sex and not on her content of character. What could be more sexist than that?

If a voter were to look into her record, they would find someone against abortion even in cases of rape and incest but who cuts funding to help teenage moms, anti gay rights, anti animal rights, anti environment, pro gun, pro censorship, and pro war. Not a woman, or man, I would want in office. Maybe the scary fundamentalist bit isn't too far from the truth.

John McCain would have us believe him a new sophisticate man of the times with his VP pick, but in reality it just illustrated the depth of pandering and yes, sexism rampant in his party. And Sarah Palin, you may be a lot of things, but you are no maverick, and certainly no feminist.