I note with amusement that many of our URQ friends have adopted their own version of “political correctness”. Folks who criticize the choice of Sarah Palin, it seems, are now “misogynists”. Or “mysoginists”. Or “mysiginists”, depending on the (il)literacy of the blogger.
That’s a pretty strong term, being applied with a pretty broad brush. “Misogyny” means “hatred of or contempt for women” - a few notches worse than common or garden variety “sexism”.
Our good friend Kateland, for example, has detected hatred or contempt for women in the following critique of Palin’s qualifications, released by a spokeswoman for the Obama camp:
“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” Adrianne Marsh, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama, said in a written statement.”
Now, I read this, and I see a statement intended to underline Ms. Palin’s lack of governance and foreign policy experience. These are valid points, and it’s to be expected that her candidacy will by criticized for that lack. But if you can’t attack the message, the next best thing to do is attack the messenger. So Kateland has concluded that this dismissal is NOT about Ms. Palin’s indisputable inexperience: it’s about hatred and contempt for women.
And Kateland is not alone. The usually-more-sensible Rjago promulgates the same silly meme. And a simple Google of Misogynist Obama Palin reveals that literally dozens of URQ bloggers - most of the usual suspects - are leaping on this nonsense.
Why the sudden proliferation of this exceptionally stupid idea? Because it works.
The purpose of many of these blogs is to give dimmer readers tools to help them dismiss difficult ideas they might otherwise have think about. In this case, McCain chose a candidate lacking experience in a key area, and he’s getting lambasted for it. Fair enough - Palin has strengths in other areas, and that’s why she was chosen. But to point out her weakness in foreign policy or her lack of experience is not “mysoginist” - it’s drawing attention to a real weakness in the candidate. But of course, if you can somehow argue that criticizing that weakness means the critic hates women, you achieve two things. You may shut the critic up; and of course, henceforth you can smugly ignore the substance of the criticism.
This is all a variant of the political correctness game. Ann Coulter first jumped on it when she accused “liberals” of “racism” for their dislike of Condoleeza Rice - we didn’t dislike her because she was a neocon Bush promoter, it was because she’s black. It seemed to escape Coulter that precisely the same hostility was directed at Dick Cheney and of course Bush himself. More recently I was accused of anti semitism because I mocked Ezra Levant’s faux martyrdom and self promotion. In both those cases, the accusation of “ism” was foolish, but useful - it distracted from the actual criticism, and brought the discussion back down to the level of infantile name calling, where “pundits” like Coulter were clearly more at home.
The irony is that this is precisely the kind of hair-trigger political hypersensitivity our URQ friends accuse the “left” of. Let’s say, for example, that a man publicly called his wife a “cunt”. That, to me, would be better indicator of mysogeny than critiqueing someone’s non-existent foreign policy experience.
Well, it’s all politics, and if it works, by all means go for it. But do me a favour. I’m not an idiot, Kate and Robert et al…don’t insult me by expecting me to take you seriously when you play that game.
I’m a feminist who has in fact been called “militant” by a certain progressive blogger. Sarah Palin is unqualified and unfit to lead the US, and it has nothing to do with her (well used) uterus, ovaries, or vagina. It has everything to do with her only job experience being 1. runner up in the Miss Alaska pageant; 2. being mayor of Bumfuque, Alaska, pop. 6700 (no offense to residents of Bumfuque, I’m sure your town is lovely with its open gravel pits and smattering of homes); 3. being on the PTA (parent/teacher association); 4. being governor of Alaska for 2 short years, population 600,000 give or take a few and one of the very reddest of red states. And then there’s the fact that she’s a koolaid drinking evangelical wingnut.
We can all play at that assinine game. Next time someone says Obama doesn’t have experience, call them a racist. It’ll be just like the Democratic primary! ;)