Sarah Palin: Count Me Out of the Feminist Defense
Something wrong with her brain? You betcha!
Okay, then: This week we have Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC Morning Joe schoolmarm, supporting–as she has, so often in the past year–Sarah Palin!
According to Mika, Palin represents “real Americans.” You know–Americans who cannot form a complete sentence, who are totally paranoid and believe the world is out to “get” them, who threaten to sue at the slightest hint of disagreement with or questioning of their positions, and who up and quit when, heck, it’s no longer fun!
I would like to speak now as a “real American.” That would mean, in my mind, a voting citizen. (Besides, while I live in New York City, key gathering spot and melting pot for unreal Americans, I grew up in Ohio. Doesn’t that give me some real American cred? )
Mika, unabashedly bitter about her own bounce from network news (in 2007, she was fired after a decade with CBS), also announced on Morning Joe that (and I paraphrase), “There are so many parallels between women on TV and women in politics…young women being pushed forward before they are ready.” Except that Mika was fired at 40…a fact she often brings up when condemning the barriers facing older women on TV.
So which way are we going here–oppressed female forced into the spotlight too early, or kicked out when the wrinkles start to show? (“I’m going to have to write something,” she threatened.)
But back to Palin, and the odd notion that she is a victim of male eagerness to push forth a pretty young thing. The former vice presidential candidate is 45. Hardly a spring chicken. Or baby fish, if we want to stick with Palin’s metaphors. Also, may I point out–the Governor of a state (albeit a sparsely populated state).
And yet, according to Mika, Sarah should be an object of sympathy, so young, so naive, prodded forward by manipulative men, just trying her darndest to represent real America against the unreal American media tide. A real American leader who spews forth self-pitying accusations and incendiary diatribes (Obama’s “palin’ around with terrorists,” Letterman has his eye on underage girls) in the hopes–or maybe assurance–that fellow real Americans, not gifted in grammar nor acquainted with facts, will grab onto her nonsensical words as rage-filled gospel.
The fact that Palin’s 17-minute mishmash of a resignation speech apparently did make sense to Mika Brzezinski should not be surprising. This is a woman whose major claim to broadcast fame comes from ripping up a 2007 news item about Paris Hilton’s release from jail –an act that, for some curious reason, was seen as one of courage and integrity. Granted that the item was inconsequential in the wide course of human events (or even the momentary course), wasn’t it her job to read it? I mean, how many times in your career have you had to report on a mind-numbingly dumb event or perform a pointless task? (And just how quickly would your ass be fired if you refused to do it?) And I would have a lot more respect for Mika if, in subsequent appearances, she brought something more to the anchor table besides alternately fawning at her co-host Joe Scarborough’s statements and tsk-tsking his antics.
The Mika-Paris incident, and the praise it ignited, reminded me of the female applause for Meredith Vieira back in 1991 when she quit her 60 Minutes gig because it interfered with her family life. At the time–and ever since–Vieira’s CBS supervisors were seen as villainous, especially unfriendly to working mothers. And probably they were. Except that–excuse me–why shouldn’t an employee be expected to do the job she was hired to do? If she wanted to quit, fine, but don’t expect me to hand her a medal. Even Vieira herself later pointed out, “I was a reporter who didn’t want to report.”
Sarah Palin is a governor who, for whatever reason, doesn’t want to govern. Her failure on the higher political stage–if it is indeed a failure–has nothing to do with being a woman, and even less to do with being the pawn of men.
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I would really love to believe that Sarah Palin is going away for good. But there is something about her that’s catnip. And she knows it. I guess the next entertainment we’ll be glued to is watching how she’ll screw up her new master plan, whatever it is.
Yes, I agree, she is here to stay. Let’s just hope it’s as entertainment value, not in a position of political power.
In response to another comment. See in context »It’s the PUMA effect, totally irrational, look how many so called Clinton supporters ended up supporting McCain because of Palin and now are bemoaning her exit. Frankly it’s just too friggin weird to even be taken seriously.
But Brian, I’ve read that the PUMA effect…wasn’t. It was just some sort of trumped up media supposition. Hillary supporters in fact did not turn to McCain because of Palin. (How could they? Palin’s positions are polar opposites.)
In response to another comment. See in context »I didn’t say there are enough of them to get her elected, but there are enough wackos out there to keep her in the headlines. Just another attraction at the freak show the GOP has become.
I think many of us are to blame for keeping her in the headlines!
In response to another comment. See in context »Susan,
Your intelligence transcends your two subjects. Unfortunately that probably doesn’t seem like a compliment. The only nice thing I have to say about Mika Brzezinski, is I can turn her off. I’m under no obligation to watch her antics.
Both women are self-centered to the extreme and unusually immature for women (or men) in the public eye. It is no secret that Mika is a huge fan of the soon-to-be-ex Governor of Alaska. I enjoyed your account of Mika’s career. It was very honest. A walking (well, sitting) contradiction that wants to have it both ways. Sarah Palin’s low, for me, was picking a fight with a comedian. It really did seem to rattle David Letterman and I couldn’t help but feel for him in that particular predicament. He was really the victim of an angry woman whose carefully concealed rage had nothing to do with David Letterman or his one inappropriate comment that was clearly accidental.
Mika’s courageous stand against reporting about Paris Hilton was just plain damn silly. I didn’t get it at the time and I still don’t. Peter Jennings did not want to report on the O.J. trial every single night, but it was the news and it was his job.
Sarah Palin is someone that I simply want to see go away. No, I don’t find her threatening, I don’t see her as oppressed…self-obsessed definitely. Unfortunately, she is still explaining her 17 minute resignation speech as it left more questions than supplied answers. Every single day she seems to make it a more cryptic mess that will give her press for some time. The irony is that she feels victimized by the media; I’m not sure it’s not the other way around.
Sandy