#6: Sarah Palin

Okay, okay. Not all women love Mrs. Palin, per se. In fact, some of us despise her. What we can agree on, however, is that we love to yap about her.

I get it. The election is over. Yet– we all continue to talk. About what? Well, her clothes, her hair, those damn glasses, her unwed teenage daughter and that boy, her choices, her politics, Tina Fey, etc.

This is a woman that has risen to the top of, well, Alaska. A beauty queen that doesn’t read newspapers, an outdoors-woman that shoots wolves from a helicopter, a candidate that winks at children in her home state during a live Vice Presidential debate, an avid church-goer that believes in the evils and existence of witchcraft. Love her or hate her– you love talking about her.

She is fascinating. She is a working mother with 5 children who has risen to the top of an Executive office in so little time.  To top that off, one of these kids has special needs? I mean– Geez. Women across the country should be impressed with that, no matter how you feel about her. Women could judge her choices from a Fundamentalist point of view (that is, shouldn’t she be at home with the ‘chilluns’?), and that point has certainly been discussed. To death. By women.

And the clothes. Ah, those clothes. The clothes plus the shoes. And boots! The Repubs were really trying to sex the little lady up! Why all of the discussion about the clothes? A lady has to look nice, however, is it okay to sex up the lady candidate and not the 74 year-old gentleman to her right? It’s not like McCain was oozing sexuality. He was oozing something else– like impending death? Some women say, why the hell not? Use what you have!  Others counter that it was degrading. In any case, the double standard was clear. She is clearly attractive. The Republicans played it up. Boys, would you rather make out with her, or Hillary? I rest my case.

The personal favorite of most women, when it comes to the discussions involving Sarah Palin, has to be Bristol’s predicament. Here is a woman– a mother– that promotes teenage abstinence, a woman that frowns on sexual education and birth control, a woman that is against abortion. In all circumstances. And her 18 year-old daughter gets knocked up by a local Wasilla boy. The thing is, most of us laughed silently at the grotesque insanity of it all. We all know teenagers fool around when they get bored– and in Alaska? They must get busy. Palin’s problem was that this went against her whole schtick. Wholesomeness and faith-based sexual ‘learnin’.

The entire mess did work out for them however– Bristol became the poster child for not having an abortion. Evangelical Republicans eat that shit up. Now that it’s all over and Bristol’s man is leaving her– even the tabloids are talking about it still. Another thing women love– Gossip Rags.

So, even if you despise the very image of this Wild Alaskan gal, never attempt to argue that you don’t like talking about her. Sarah Palin will be around for a while. If women get lucky, maybe we’ll see her again in 2112. I bet Tina Fey is on the edge of her seat, waiting for that one to happen. I think, in a way, we all are too. Damn, those sketches were funny.