I heard a story come on about an upcoming interview between Sarah Palin and Chris Wallace of Fox News. The story went something like this... Chris Wallace was doing a live interview with Don Imus and Imus asked Wallace, "are you going to have Sarah Palin sitting on your lap while you conduct the interview with her?" and Wallace replied "one can only hope."
There was some backlash from other media journalists on how this was a sexist remark and how women are still being treated with less respect than their male counterparts. One journalist that had something to say about this was Cokie Roberts, who is a senior news analyst for NPR. She was a guest on the Michel Martin NPR program Can I just tell you? where Roberts and Martin discussed how women are easy targets for this type of harassment, and that men escape this type of behavior.
Now, Don Imus is not new to the arena of criticism. In 2007 he called the Rutgers women's basketball team a bunch of "Nappy Headed Hos" which landed him in some pretty hot water. He was eventually fired only to get his job back after he met with and apologized to the Rutgers team.
After Roberts' and Martins' opinions of the interview got back to Imus he was the first to jump all over the story. He and Wallace once again were chatting live on air and they decided to talk about Cokie Roberts and smear her as if she had no room to question them, completely demeaning this very successful women.
To me, it's ridiculous how they make her out to be the bad guy (gal) in the story, saying something along the lines of Cokie's mind is in the gutter most of the time. Imus, of course, makes an attempt to play down what he means
IMUS: So you know, that morning that you were on and I asked you you (sic) were going to interview Sarah Palin and I said is she going to be sitting on your lap? Here is what I meant by that and I would tell you otherwise, I meant was it going to be a friendly interview.
WALLACE: That's not what you meant at all.
From: Huffington Post
Wallace then tries to clear himself from all the garbage and says he was just trying to get away from the conversation. They then go on to bad mouth Roberts and call her hysterical. Classic example of a women, right?
So my question here is: where is Sarah Palin and what would she say about this?
Cokie Roberts and Michel Martin put themselves out there to defend women from the feminist-bashing male media and to question why it continually happens mostly to women. I want to ask "would Sarah Palin stand up for herself and other women and say enough is enough, or would she sit on Chris Wallace's lap to get a vote?"
I would like to think she is a feminist in some small way and wants to see the movement of sexist behavior shut down. This would be a great time for her to step up and have a say, and to fight for women everywhere. She is in a fabulous power position and a lot of people are listening to her. (I personally am not.) But if Sarah Palin was to say something of great value like "stop demeaning women," I might just pay her a little attention.
I don't see with all her winking, her red leather jackets and her "you betchas," Sarah Palin will be stepping up to the plate and pissing off the men in the media that love her best!
As a matter of fact, I think this is one scenario where being sexualized is paying off. Sarah Palin definitely is appealing to a certain demographic and she knows it and loves it.
For the rest of us, it is just one more sock in the gut!
Photo from Scrape TV.
I'm really liking the smooth way you diplomatically pointed out that you do not personally listen to Palin, but are still able to see a message that she could easily cast amongst those in her caucus. Sarah Palin, no matter what other people prove, claim, or judge, has something about her that makes you want to watch. It could very well be that she is a SHE in the first place. I don't quite understand her politics or conservative thought process, nor think I could, but she definitely has something that makes me watch and listen. Personally, I think it's just because I'm waiting for something good to come out. If she ever did say something along the lines of "stop demeaning women", I might be impressed.
ReplyDelete-Reyes
Another time I have heard of Palin in the position of a sex object is in a "Newsweek" cover which used an image from a previous shoot she had taken with "Runner's World." (http://tinyurl.com/y6wqt4d) Palin called the image sexist as she was in short running shorts and it wasn't being used in connection to the article "I am a Runner" which it was shot for. I do not care much for Palin's politics, but I do find it unfortunate that it appears that much of her power lies in her sexuality since she is one of the few female politicians to hold as a role model.
ReplyDeleteBy reading your blog, I saw that you came up with some good examples of the mistreatment of women. The most ooutstanding comment was the "Nappy-Headed Hos' women basketball team. I love the idea that you're suporting women who are being mistreated, but from my own point of wiew, it would have been clearer to inform the readers that these women were women of color. Because "Nappy-headed" refers to black people. In addition, another insult was to call them 'hos" which is another word for whores. The reason I pointed this out is because there are other people who are not native english speakers who may have not understand what "nappy-headed hos means - including many students on our campus.
ReplyDeleteAbner T. Richet
Wow. So much to comment on!
ReplyDeleteFirst, looking at the image of Sarah Palin you chose all I can think of is those boots! Those really fit in with her "sexy" persona. Personally, I believe that Sarah Palin is ant-feminist feminist. Meaning that she believes in a lot of the tenants of mainstream feminism (women can work and still have a family, be in positions of authority), but that she doesn't want to be categorized as a feminist because there is so much negative baggage associated with the word. However, this is my personal position which comes from a very un-informed place.
I also believe that Abner brought up a really great point about positionality; meaning that our own personal interests and biases play out in how we perceive situations. I don't know that there is enough room on the web to argue every angle of every issue, but being open to other opinions is key when entering into the difficult discussions we are asking you to have this quarter in class and in your Blogs.
Becky, in terms of your blog, excellent start! I am always happy when students make connections with media and life that don't revolve around things we've already discussed in class. Keep up the good work.
- Ruth