second verse, same as the first

let's state the obvious first: i do not like sarah palin. i vehemently disagree with her policies. however, as a feminist, i am glad to see a woman be elected to a powerful position, even if i do not agree with her stances. i am also impressed that she is able to balance the difficulties of raising five children and handling the demands of this election. and the fact that several of her policies are not women-friendly (such as her anti-choice stance even in the case of rape/incest, the fact that while she was governor of alaska women were charged for rape kits, and cut funding for alaskan shelters for pregnant teens) does not mean that progressives should speak out against the sexism directed towards palin.

i remember the day that palin's nomination was announced. i didn't know anything about her, so i checked a few blogs and news sites to see what was going on. immediately after reading about her policies, i noticed a post on feministing about the newly coined term websites were using for palin- VPILF. this couldn't have been more than a few hours after her nomination was announced. and the parade went on, of course, with merchandise such as sarah palin action figure dolls (i'm not linking to them, google them if you must. jsyk, the two different models are naughty schoolgirl palin and... i don't even know what the other one is, but it looks like stripper spy palin) and commentators remarking that they want her in their bed (yes, some jackass actually said this on television). i have also noticed many remarks that question palin's ability to be a mother. a lot of what kind of a mother fill in the blank? what kind of a mother puts her pregnant daughter under a spotlight? (and on that note, can we please leave that poor girl alone? bristol palin's pregnancy is a private matter and has nothing to do with palin's ability to be vice president) what kind of a mother runs for vice president so soon after having a baby? and a baby with down syndrome at that. and on and on and on. even my own mother is doing this. we were talking about palin and my mother said flat-out, "i don't like her because i think she is a bad mother". when i asked her what that has to do with palin's stances, my mom said, "nothing. but that still doesn't change what i think." true, but why is it part of the conversation in the first place? who are we to judge what kind of a mother she is, and why should we be doing this in the first place?

i would love to say that obama has taken this opportunity to (finally) speak out about the sexism that has followed this election every step of the way. but i can't. instead he said, "Look, she's new, she hasn't been on the scene, she has five kids." come on. if palin's husband had been the vp candidate, would obama be commenting on his five kids? because i think not.

if you are going to say something about palin, it had better be damn relevant to the election. under no circumstances is sexism okay, period.