Did my comment on the pride of having a female president someday inspire you to post this, Paul?

Honestly, I’m starting to lose respect for your Palin bashing. The fact that I am just starting to just shows you how much patience I have. I’m surprised as a journalist you aren’t writing about the monstrous amount of LIES that were spread throughout the mainstream media about this woman. And how we all lapped it up like hungry, rabid dogs.

But this turkey video is more interesting, I’m sure. If you don’t mind, I’ll skip it.

What do you find so amusing about this video ?

Yes there was a guy killing turkeys behind her. Is this some sign of her stupidity ? What was she supposed to do ?

I think it’s a novel approach to public relations. Somebody should really get on to Obama about this, perhaps an interview in an abattoir while a cow is being slaughtered.

Have you spoken out against the misgogyny, Paul? Did you have a single post about the sexism toward Hillary or Palin during this election?

I am not saying that you are misogynistic. I do not believe you are. But I do believe America’s obsession with mocking Palin as well as spreading lies about her DOES stem from a deep seeded misogyny in our culture. You get a pass – you seem like an overall good guy and you’re British. But far too many people I respect have said nothing about the hatred toward women during this election while mocking every little Palin irrelevancy. It’s not surprising – as a culture Americans have learned the script to stand up against racism but not so for sexism.

And to top it all off, this is just salt in the wounds.

Oh, thank you. I love the title. I’ll go ahead and read it tonight. I am thrilled to see a mainstream publication covering this issue. Just the other day, a Palin-hating friend forwarded a Huffington Post “article” about Palin’s lipliner. Is it tattooed or not? They had a slideshow of 10 images of her mouth in which they annotated the images with wonderful things like “the mouth at the convention”, “the mouth talking to Katie Couric”. Well, even my Palin-hating friend was disgusted. Thank god.

From the NY mag article:

“Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson notes that “for the first time since enfranchisement, [women] voted in greater numbers, and more progressively, than men,” favoring Obama by a 13 percent margin, while men were almost evenly split. In doing so, we selected a candidate whose views on issues like health care and equal pay and reproductive rights align with our interests.”

Isn’t this a bit sexist? How do Obama’s views on health care align with women’s interests specifically? (I speak as a pretend Republican woman).

I finally watched the video. How exactly is posting that Palin bashing? It was amusing and would have been amusing whoever was stood in front of the poor turkey. Palin, for her part, came across better than I have ever seen her before.

That article was rubbish though, I’m with you Ali.

That video was just . . . odd. Reminded me of the woman skinning rabbits in “Roger and Me” somehow. Very weird.

It will be interesting to note, years from now, how history looks back on Sen. Clinton and Gov. Palin . . . we all may be too close to it right now.

I thought the article did what articles should do, which is raise some good points (some not so good).

And Cretin (or should I say Pretend Republican Woman Cretin), what’s sexist is to assume Obama’s views on health care align can’t align with women’s interests specifically just because his views don’t single women out, specifically. It is simply an issue that is important to people, and women are people.

People may talk about Sarah Palin’s lipliner, but they also talked about John Edward’s haircut, Bill Clinton’s Boxers (BEFORE MonicaGate), and Barack Obama’s Jump Shot. People focus on trivial, sexist, demeaning, and awkward factors every day when public figures are involved. All these things are wrong, but all these things are very, very human.

I am concerned about the tendency to oversensitize any and all reactions, negative or positive, to Hillary and Palin as candidates, as women, and as public figures. Are you going to praise Hillary? Make sure you do it exactly the right way, or you’ll be condescending. Are you going to disagree with Palin? Use the wrong terminology and you will be branded a sexist. It is worth noting that the candidates themselves can make decisions that influence people’s reaction to them, and it’s unfair of them to imagine everyone will ignore those decisions. Hillary studied hard and got a law degree and distiguished herself in many ways. She’s driven, so some people will use demeaning terminology to indicate that she’s doing something out of their gender comfort zone. The same has happened with our President Elect, as proven by the way he’s been treated among those unable to accept a black Democrat with a funny-sounding name into their comfort zone. Sarah Palin willing participated in that bastion of feminism, the beauty pageant, instead of going to Law School — if she doesn’t bring some damn substantial policy observations to the table, people are going to gossip about her lipliner.

I’m a white male. I know that the walls are higher and harsher for women and minorities than they are for me. It is not an unfair or “vapid” observation, in my opinion, to say that the stakes are higher for these groups — they are. We are a country that judges people, sometimes based on a soundbite and a photo, and to cry sexism or racism every time everyone else acts like a jackass just gives the jackasses another sound bite to pigeonhole you with.

I am offended by those who do not show basic respect to people as equal human beings, and I’d much rather forget about much of the campaign at this point and focus on fixing the problems in this country, but Sarah Palin will continue to be analyzed, second-guessed, and talked about in all kinds of terms as long as she is a public figure, and as long as she is willing to put herself out there as a public figure. Many of those terms will not be fair, so she’d better have the knowledge and ability to rise above those remarks.

Just my two cents. Hope I didn’t offend anyone.