Sarah Palin: What's Sexist and What's Not Sexist? (There's a fine line?)

Sarah Palin: What's Sexist and What's Not Sexist?
September 10, 2008 04:31 PM ET
Bonnie Erbe

Women can be sexist, too, you know, just like persons of color can be racist. As the media debate whether Gov. Sarah Palin's public treatment is sexist or not, take this punch, socked to Palin by a woman, that's as clearly out of bounds as a husband slapping his wife in the face in public.

My colleague Sally Quinn put it most provocatively. "Is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job?" Quinn wondered. "When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick, what choice will she make?"

Has Quinn ever asked the same question of a man running for vice president? Of course not, nor would she. What if the answer is, Sarah Palin would take the call at 3 a.m. and jump on any plane to anywhere in the world, confident that her husband would care for the sick child? To pose the question is to promote idiotic and sexist media viewpoints, while ignoring the much more important flaws in the Palin candidacy.

What's at issue is her extreme views on the environment, on religion in government (as I've written about earlier), and about women's reproductive rights. Here's an example of nonsexist, legitimate questions raised by a member of the so-called liberal media:

The Palin administration has allowed Chevron to triple the amount of toxic waste it pours into the waters of Cook Inlet. This, even though the number of beluga whales in the bay has collapsed from 1,300 to 350—the point of extinction—because of pollution and increased ship traffic.

Women can be sexist, too, you know...

Blaming Hillary gets you no where. (Trust me, I know.)

Sarah Palin is in the process of rewriting the female (not feminist) handbook. GO SARAH!

Here's an example of nonsexist, legitimate questions raised by a member of the so-called liberal media:
My suggestion - just how much more energy does the bloated Algore really need to survive on the planet?

Boy. Talk about why the MSM is the dinosaur media. Bonnie Erbe, both in this link and another link off of that article to where she wrote about Palin (see "religion in government" link in midst of article) takes one word Palin used at a speech - "servanthood" -- and concluded from that that she had concerns about Palin "bringing God into government" and separating Erbe's phantom Berlin "wall of church and state."

Recommendations & critiques of this "columnist" (Erbe):

(1) She should be fired as any kind of legitimate journalist.
(2) Outright bigotry -- she doesn't even inform herself as to what Palin believes & disagree openly. She just takes one word as some that-explains-everything cue & writes her off as a "concern" on that basis. (This is beginning to look like new journalistic lows)
(3) Journalistic tea leaf reading in trying to untangle what "servanthood" looks like in office. (What? Journalists think Alaska is "too remote" of an outback or something to actually check the Governor's track record in office in Juneau or as Wasilla mayor? Or does journalistic laziness make it easier for her to simply take any & all unfounded potshots?
(4) What? Are Christians supposed to only be Christians apart from the job? Are Muslims supposed to be Muslims only apart from the job? Are Hindus supposed to be Hindus only apart from the job? (So much for the land of religious liberty)
(5) Besides, no such thing as "separation of church & state." It's not a constitutional principle. It's not in the Declaration of Independence. There's no federal law declaring your faith out of bounds.

But that's the US News & World Report. (Whereever possible, cancel your subscriptions or encourage others to do the same)

David St. Hubbins: They said the album cover is a bit sexist.
Nigel Tufnel: Well, so what? What's wrong with being sexy?
David St. Hubbins: Sexist, Nigel.

David St. Hubbins: Have you seen Duke Fame's current album?
Ian Faith: Um... yes, yes.
David: Have you seen the cover?
Ian: Um... no, no, I don't think I have.
David: It's a rather lurid cover, I mean...ah, it's, it's like naked women, and, uh....
Nigel Tufnel: He's tied down to this table,
Ian: Uh-huh.
Nigel: And he's got these whips and they're all...semi-nude.
David: Knockin' on 'im, and it's like much worse...
Ian: What's the point?
David: Well, the point is, it's much worse than "Smell the Glove"...he releases that, he's number three.
Ian: Because he's the victim. Their objections were that she was the victim. You see?
Derek Smalls: I see....
Nigel: Oh...
David: Ah....
Ian: That's all right, if the singer's the victim, it's different. It's not sexist.
Nigel: He did a twist on it. A twist and it s-
Derek: He did, he did. He turned it around.
Ian: We shoulda thought of that....
David: We were so close....
Ian: I mean if we had all you guys tied up, that probably woulda been fine.
All: Ah....
Ian: But it's...it's still a stupid cover.
David: It's such a fine line between stupid an'...
Derek: ...and clever.
David: Yeah, and clever.
Nigel: Just that little turnabout....

< /This Is Spinal Tap >

"This, even though the number of beluga whales in the bay has collapsed from 1,300 to 350—the point of extinction—because of pollution and increased ship traffic."

Pure BS. There is no doccumented die off of Beluga whales in the area. No doccumented claim to "tripled toxic waste dumping by Chevron" (which would be illegal even if Palin endorsed such a thing)

Plus there are over a million of Beluga whales. They don't all live in the cook inlet area.

1,300 sounds more like the annual number of Beluga whales harvested by the natives in the region each year.

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