This whole Sarah Palin thing is pretty fascinating, from a sociological and psychological perspective. (Terrifying from a political and pragmatic perspective, but I'll set that aside for now)
I've known many conservatives... die hard, Limbaugh, praise Jesus or go to hell, gays are the spawn of Satan conservatives... Every single one of them--even the female ones--have traditionally insisted that women should not govern our country. Heck, most of them wouldn't even hire a woman to manage an office department.
These are the same folks who spent hours criticizing Hillary Clinton and using any number of sexist and colorful commentary on her female shortcomings. It was clear that not only didn't they agree with her politically/philosophically but they also couldn't stomach the idea of a woman holding the highest office in the land. Before Sarah Palin's introduction to their psyche, I could have asked any one of them, "Do you think a woman could be a good president?" and I absolutely know not a one of them would have said "Yes, sure." They would have said, "No way. Women are too emotional. Women aren't as smart. Women have PMS so, man, having them near the red button??? Yikes. Women are hens. Women are irrational... Etc."
They thought they knew themselves well. They were proud of their confidence in their beliefs that, of course, only men should be president.
Then John McCain had to throw them for a fruit loop and introduce Sarah Palin to their brains. Now, these conservatives--especially the male die-hards--are in love. I read a few message boards for some of my family's outdoor interests and many of the contributors are conservatives. They rhapsodize about how "hot" she is, post pictures of her leaning seductively on machinery, talk about how she's so smart and spunky... She is nectar to their mid-life crisis'.
It matters not to them that she becomes largely incoherent when interviewed. That's just the press bulling her, after all... that mean old Katie Couric. How dare she ask those tough questions like, "What do you read?" Our little Alaska flower shouldn't be picked on like that. Besides, she's hot. I'm not sure I could have ever imagined conservative men using "she's hot" as a reason to vote for a potential president. It boggles my mind.
Who says you can't use sex to sell? Palin is the Republican pin-up-girl and the fellas are swooning hook, line and sinker.
Why is this happening to our conservative men? The answer is cognitive dissonance. (From Wikipedia: In psychology, cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling or stress caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a fundamental cognitive drive to reduce this dissonance by modifying an existing belief, or rejecting one of the contradictory ideas.).
Essentially, conservatives who always staunchly believed a woman should not be president now have a forced choice. They must vote for the McCain/Palin conservative ticket (of course, the Obama/Biden ticket is just not an option for a slew of reasons). However, because Palin is female and thus contradicts their well-established notions of who should/should not be president... this naturally creates some serious internal contradictions. They somehow have to find a way to relieve the psychological discomfort.
So you have men who would have cut off their left testicle before they'd see a bird-brained woman be president--now, having to talk themselves into how Palin possibly is a good choice. They are miraculously able to overlook her sketchy education, her folksy sayings, her gibberish answers, her inability to debate (if one considers a debate actually, oh, I don't know, answering questions and taking a side in an argument as opposed to Palin's "debating" which appears to be saying whatever you'd planed or been coached to say no matter what the question was), her working-woman ambition, her pregnant-teen daughter, her tag-along first dude, etc. They are having to justify and overlook things that would have driven them nutty a year ago.
Can you imagine what these conservative men would be saying if Palin were a Democratic VP candidate???? Let's say she's exactly the same woman except she's a Democrat. Heck, she can even have the same ideology...I don't care. But if she was the Democrat VP choice, the conservatives would be making mincemeat out of her. They'd be appalled. If she was a Democrat, they wouldn't have to twist their minds around her deficits...they'd just get to tear her to shreds.
But she's not. So they love her and think she is hot. Good for them.
I do wonder, though, how Palin might affect the evolution of gender politics in our country. We now have legions of men who used to abhor the idea of a woman leader prattling on and on about how great Palin is...how she'd be a fine president... how women can work and be a good mom... Palin's existence is shattering just about every sexist idea these men have ever depended on. Palin and cognitive dissonance are transforming these men into feminists... I wonder how long it'll take for them to figure that out?
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