Hannah Swithinbank

approaching the stage of throwing things.

I never really jumped up and grabbed the feminist tag. I always associated it with people like Germaine Greer, who I never really liked, and I never wanted men to be doormats, ‘cos that would be no fun. But, Oh, My, Dearest, Life. This article by someone called Noemie Emery, who I’ve never heard of before, and who I assumed was a man (not recognising the name) until I googled them, because seriously, a woman could come up with this shit?

“There is something else that Palin brings to the table, that may be an unspoken source of this angst. She is the first woman near the very top level of politics who really looks and behaves like a woman, a woman whom men want to look at, and other women may want to look like. She has cheekbones to die for, movie-star hair, and has mastered the delicate dress code of looking both stunning and powerful.”

This is what you think a woman should be? You think all women want to look like Sarah Palin? Like they have 1000 pins in their hair, a poker up their backside and a nervous twitch masquerading as a flirtatious wink. Go away and find a suitable cliff to jump off.

And appart from that – you think all men want to look at Sarah Palin? Surely the popularity of the very different Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman is testament to the fact that that is Not True.

I am aware that we live in a ridiculously shallow age, where FDR might not get elected because of his polio, and where Hillary Clinton gets mocked for her pant-suits and Sarah Palin commended for her hair, and where this matters in politics. But surely the role of any halfway decent political commentator is to debunk this and call it for the crap it is?

“The less fetching army of liberal women may feel something like this. And thus be a little put out.”
I am liberal and therefore I am ugly? I am ugly and therefore I am liberal? Hillary Clinton is ugly? Sure, she’s not Kate Moss, but she’s hardly disfigured. Nancy Pelosi is ugly? And may I once again call up on Scarlett Johanssen (who I can hardly be said to adore, as I think she has got less interesting as she has got older, in terms of the role’s she has picked), who is very definitely Not Ugly, and is an Obama supporter to an almost embarrassing degree.

I don’t vote with my eyes, or thinking about the vision of me I wish I saw looking back at me in the mirror when I look into it. I know no woman who does.

Sarah Palin “survived” (Emery’s words) the debate. Fabulous. All women seek just to ’survive’ the struggle of daily life. And we all want to see a leader on the world stage who ’survives’ from day to day, wildly, desperately, flailing in response to the events around her, rather than going out, being curious about the world and what she might achieve within it beyond, ‘Oh sure, it’d be nice to have all that power, to you know, do stuff with.’
I don’t like Margaret Thatcher. I don’t like her policies. I don’t like what she did to my country. But at least she had policies, she cared, she could do more than survive. And I can respect her abilities even if I don’t like the way she used them. I have no respect for Sarah Palin at all.

I feel ill, having read that. And I hope that if Noemie Emery has or ever does have a daughter, that daughter will tell her just where to get off.

Still a bit WTF.

“I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers…”
Thank you Tina Fey and Saturday Night Live.

They say every cloud has a silver lining, and the only one in the potential election of John McCain is more of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. But it’s still not worth it, America.

Contradictions…

I got annoyed by Sarah Palin’s speech last night.  That’s probably fairly noticeable. It was a well written, well delivered piece of work, and it was bitchy and partisan as hell.

It’s one thing to disagree with your opponent, it’s quite another to dismiss their career path with a sneer.  ”Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organiser”, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Bada-bing-bang-boom.  Community Organisers *so* lack a sense of responsibility.  That’s why they took the job, rather than getting straight onto the political ladder by becoming mayor of a small town.

But then we get this little gem.
“I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people. Politics isn’t just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.”

Basically, “I’m not a member of the Washington elite, and therefore I’m more likely to change things than him, except, could you please forget that thing where I literally just said I have more experience than him because I got into politics as a mayor whilst he was faffing around doing jack shit in the South Side of Chicago.”

And that’s before we get into the ‘My family are off limits for political games, because they didn’t chose this, but I get to parade them around like there’s no tomorrow,’ crap.

The BBC have the full text of her speech.

Kthxbai.  I go have lunch now.