Good Looks, Great Legs and Gender Chauvinism

Ok, I’m just going to say it! After, all it’s been right there in the front of my mind since Palin emerged as a political figure of note on the campaign trail.

Sarah Palin is to a great extent discounted and despised by the left (and many in the middle and on the political right) because she is a beautiful woman – too beautiful in fact for many to take seriously as a political leader.

I can’t tell you how sad I am to have to say this.

I have spent the better part of my life working toward equal rights for women. In fact, I have been so very serious about this issue that I married a woman whose principal quality is her fierce independence and her unwillingness to be totally dependent upon me or any other man. Likewise, I have raised a lovely young daughter who is also “her own person” – having absolutely no experience whatsoever of gender chauvinism at home.

Personally, I learned my lessons regarding gender chauvinism during the height of the “women’s liberation movement.” My mother raised me as an unfailingly polite and respectful person – particularly in regard to women.

Initially I thought this home-grown etiquette was going to serve me well. Reared as I was in this gentlemanly manner, I was not prepared for graduate school and my introduction to the early feminists, who at the time were seriously angry and very strident.

In fact, one of my clearest memories from those years involved taking the number 73 Highland Park bus from East Liberty in Pittsburgh to downtown. I would get on the bus early in its route when there were plenty of seats so I pretty much had the pick of where I sat. However, by the time we got to Squirrel Hill (about a third of the way to my downtown destination) the seats would be full. So when a woman boarded the bus – particularly and older woman or someone who was disabled – I would immediately offer my seat. However, I only did that for a couple of weeks. What changed my behavior was the reception I repeatedly received from women to whom I offered my seat.

These newly “liberated” females would simply unload on me whenever I offered them my seat, yelling me and saying that they were not “helpless females” and they didn’t need a condescending male treating them as such by offering my seat.

So, bruised and confused, I quit offering my seat unless the woman was much older and obviously disabled.

Thankfully, over time, feminists became much less strident and defensive. In fact it was not long before any number of female friends of mine involved me in the aborted effort to enact the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). After that I found myself not only accepted within many feminist circles, I was actually able to identify myself as a feminist – a descriptor that very much applies to me to this day.

Respecting the persons and rights of women has become an inherent part of my character – to the point where I bristle whenever I see or hear of a woman who has been disrespected. Moreover, I have come to expect that others who also share my values will do likewise.

Chief among those who I would expect to understand and decry gender chauvinism is the membership of the National Organization of Women or NOW. After all, NOW came into being precisely for the purpose of advocating for women’s rights and decrying gender discrimination. So, imagine my surprise during the campaign when the press and some of the Democrat candidates derisively criticized the Governor Sarah Palin in purely sexist terms.

I frankly expected the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other groups representing women to be loud and prolific in their criticism of the media and politicians who played the sexist trump card. However, instead of criticism all I heard was silence. Unfortunately, I heard not a word from NOW in defense of Governor Palin.

At first I guessed that the silence of feminists was based upon Governor Palin’s conservative and Christian values. I assumed that had Sarah Palin been a Democrat or even an independent then she would not be so thoroughly ignored and/ or attacked by the media.

However, something about this just didn’t quite "fit" – that is until I was having lunch with a conservative male friend of mine who frankly acknowledged that it was darn hard for him to support Sarah Palin for Vice President, because she was simply way too beautiful and `sexy' to take seriously.

That’s when it all fell into place for me. It was then I realized the Sarah Palin was being judged as if she were a beautiful bimbo – all looks and no brain, just like beauty contestants have been historically characterized. Sadly, it occured to me that for many men and women the idea of "beauty and brains" was nothing more than an oxymoron. Furthermore, I realized that this unjust stereotyping was to a significant degree reinforced by Palin's “Minnesota” accent (how she got that living in Alaska I will never know). Regardless, however, it was blatantly obvious that Palin was being treated in a terribly chauvinistic fashion not only by many men but additionally by a significant number of women.

So, I waited for NOW to raise cane over Palin’s treatment - and I am still waiting.

In fact it is this continued silence on the part of those who ought to know better than to discriminate against a woman on the basis of her looks that has motivated me to write this commentary.

Ideally, I would have expected to be seeing a host of defenders for Palin emerging from among those on the political left. However, not a word has been spoken from that quarter in defense of Governor Palin – leaving it to 60 year old guys like me to point out the obvious and implore that Ms. Palin be treated with respect and deference that her experience and intellect demand.

Granted that Sarah Palin is indeed beautiful and is in fact downright “hot” – that much is impossible to miss. However her beauty and sensuality are not what she is offering to the voting public since those personal attributes are entirely and appropriately focused upon her husband Todd.

So let’s move beyond the ornamental, external, and obvious and judge this interesting woman on the basis of her ideas and experience. Lets recognize the gender chauvinism that has been directed toward Governor Palin for what it truly is - "oxymoronic!" I particularly ask this of feminist organizations that should have long since been advocating on Sarah Palin's behalf.

If NOW and other feminist groups are to ever be taken seriously again, they need to speak up. Otherwise they communicate to the public (quite accurately in fact) that they only support women whose political values match their own. As far as those “other” women are concerned – i.e. non-progressive or conservative women – whatever ill treatment they receive is treatment they deserve. So don’t expect NOW or any other feminist organization to speak up and defend Palin. After all, their political ideology has trumped their egalitarian values.

Instead, look to a conservative for this kind of advocacy and tolerance.