I’m not a fan. Not even when they beefed up the ‘academic’ side of pageants. They are still ‘beauty’ pageants and Palin is nothing more than a trophy candidate.
This is NOT the kind of woman I want fighting for my daughter.
This is NOT the kind of woman I trust to represent American women.
Why?
Because we’re not swimsuit competition bimbos giving complexes to girls nationwide. We’re done being hung up on body image and beauty standards.
There is no way in hell I’m telling MY daughter our first female Vice President also thought it was just fine to strut a catwalk in a swimsuit and be judged on her looks.
ON. HER. LOOKS.
No. Way. In. Hell.
Had I been a beauty contest contender you can bet your ass (beauty queen worthy or not) I would have done that instead of my 70k in student loans.
I knew someone who put herself through college via beauty contests. She worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known. How dare you judge people who take a different life path than you. It’s kinda … well … elitist. 🙂
To lump this in with the crazy religion stuff and the REAL issues that are out there to be talked about re:Palin is what I have a problem with. Not that you don’t like her and don’t want her as VP.
A different path? This isn’t a different path, this is condoning being judged and rewarded as a woman on your looks. And she can take whatever the hell path she likes, but I certainly don’t want her as a role model for my daughter.
I’d talk about the real issues if she were capable of it. Clearly, given every televised interview she’s given. she is not capable.
Unless you find being able to see Russia as solid foreign policy experience.
Rock on, Queenie! 🙂
I’m with you 110% on this. People who participate in beauty contests seem to be, in general, flat out insane. Not to mention petty, superficial, materialistic, obsessive and intensely competitive.
As for the conservatives who object to digging into Palin’s past, stop dredging up muck from Obama’s past then! The gloves are off, folks. Time to get nasty!
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Palin’s got no business being in the White House anyway, based on sheer incompetence, but this is all the more reason not to tout her as a an example of the Strong American Woman, since she’s clearly playing into the sexist ideas she’s supposedly been fighting against since she was announced as McCain’s running mate.
It is absolutely NOT fine to strut around on the cat walk in a bathing suit like that.
Not with those chunky thighs, anyway.
2012ad hits the nail on the head I think. It’s that she presents herself as though she’s fighting these sexist ideas, yet there she is…a contestant in a beauty pageant.
Its just hard to take her seriously.
Last I checked one enters such a contest on a voluntary basis. The fact that we have the freedom to choose our own life path is partly what makes our country great. You can choose that this isn’t for you and you can raise your children however you like. No is saying that voting for her makes her a role model for your children. That is all a farce perpetrated by you. The simple fact is you disagree with her politics, its well known and documented. I therefore surmise that there is actually nothing she could do that you would agree with, except for maybe die. So please get off your high horse or ride to Spain and live there.
Ka-THOIIIIIING!
That was the sound of my cartoon frying pan whacking Rattling the Kettle upside the head.
Thanks Suebob. Let’s keep the comments in check folks. Don’t make me moderate.
As for the person who wants me off my high horse.
Good luck with that.
Would you really argue that the first female VP would NOT be a role model for women? Really? I mean, we can get all Charles Barkley if we want here, but let’s be honest…the first female VP will be a role model for young girls.
I would prefer one that doesn’t ‘choose’ to condone beauty pageants.
You go, girl! I do not want to teach my girls to get by on their looks. Looks fade, brains will last forever.
and since it’s my blog and I don’t have to shut up…
Isn’t her party the one that has issues with people who ‘choose’ to live a certain way? Isn’t this the party that regulates my body and whom I can marry?
Now you guys are all ‘hey, just ’cause she took a different path and chose something like a beauty pageant’ you’re all rather open….
huh
Open and against sexism, don’t forget.
xstevebob-
Anyone with half a brain would agree that the first female President of the United States (and let’s face it, if McCain won, there’s a darn good chance she would be) should have to set a good example for our daughters. She wouldn’t just be a role model, she’d be THE role model. The most powerful person in the country. And she should have to live up to some pretty high standards.
Saying that the attacks from the left are sexist when you’re a former BEAUTY QUEEN doesn’t live up to those standards.
It’s a double standard, but those aren’t the same thing, despite what Palin would have you believe.
god- I love it here- this is so awesome! I am so ready for the debate tonight. Palin scares the hell out of me. I feel like this has all been a dream or a trick! It can’t be us? xo you rock QOS!
As the mother of 4 children. 2 sons and 2 daugthers. I do not want to say to my daugthers that it doesn’t matter if youa re smart as long as you are pretty and can wear a swimsuit you need nothing else in life. I will not say to my sons look at a woman fo rher beauty, what’s in her head is of no consequence.
I am not made at Palin for her pagent stint. I am mad at a society that says this is a good thing to do to girls…make them strut their stuff. And maybe ask them some insipid question about what they would do to change the world.
We do not and have not valued women who are smart. Sex sells. Good looking women get jobs, husbands, careers. We all sucumb to this bullshit. We all color our hair, diet to excess, buy whatever Victoria’s Secret sells.
My problem with Palin is simply this…she is not qualified. It is not because she has a vagina. She is not qualified not because she was in a pagent. She simply is not qualified in a way that I dreamed a woman ought to be to step into that role.
I did a pageant when I was 16. It was an uncomfortable experience and I never wanted to do another one, but then again, I don’t think I’m “insane…petty, superficial, materialistic, obsessive and intensely competitive” just for doing it. Actually, I’m pretty much the least competitive person you’ll ever meet, which is probably a good part of why it was such an uncomfortable experience. I also have a friend did pageants for several years, was a woman’s studies major, is attending law school on a full ride and her great ambition was to be the first female president of the US. And she is very competitive. I’d be surprised to find a politician that isn’t.
I’m inclined to forgive her for participating in a beauty pageant just like I’m inclined to forgive Obama for smoking weed. Both things I wouldn’t want my children doing, but also, I think, irrelevant.
I’m not a fan of Palin. I think she’s vacuous and unqualified for the office she’s seeking. I’ve supported Obama since he first announced he was running. But her being in a pageant doesn’t really make a difference to me either way.
Nina she really doesn’t look 16 to me here. But then again, I’m getting old and can’t judge the girls at the mall either. I think they are all 18. But I would think there is a difference between those of us who tried a pageant once or modeling once or smoked weed once…and the types that were in competitions ….right?
I’d rather have the first female vice president be a role model to my (currently non-existent, but whatever) children than, say, Britney Spears, wouldn’t you? Yet here’s Sarah Palin, just about as role model-worthy.
With any luck at all, we won’t have to worry about discussing this woman’s vice presidency with our children because, you know, it won’t exist… here’s hoping.
And speaking of hope… GOBAMA. 😉
Good point. (And yeah, I think she did this in her 20s.) But I still think there are so many more relevant things that make her a joke of a candidate, this – for me, at least – isn’t one of them.
Let’s recap. Charles Barkley was right. You don’t choose to be a role model. Other people choose you as their role models. Never once have any of my role models asked “Could I be your role model?” The above commenter is correct, anyone with half a brain would argue that any female politician who becomes POTUS instantly becomes every young woman’s role model. However those with a full brain would likely make their choices for themselves instead of them automagically happening. Finally thank you for embracing my wisdom and actually declaring that you don’t like her for her politics, not her participation in a pageant.
Hope you don’t mind but I just had to link to you on my post! Regardless of the VP thing- she needed a fanny lift!
She’s a post turtle. http://ems0178.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-dont-get-it.html
You have the BEST BLOG EVER!
You find everything I wonder about and want to see. I don’t know how you find it but….. Please don’t ever stop.
Many people, especially women, think Palin is the perfect candidate because she leads the life of a “good, christian wife”.
Her beliefs are based on a literal translation of the bible, and she lives those beliefs. Stating that she is pro-life, believes that dinosaurs walked with man, and has a pastor that is on a “witch hunt” etc is simply making her case with these people that she is the perfect VP.
What I don’t understand, is how a married, female, biblical literalist can become a person in high office.
In ephesians (the bible), wives are commanded to “SUBMIT TO THEIR HUSBANDS”. This means the husband makes the final decision in the home, and is to step in and overrule decisions made by the wife if he thinks that her decisions aren’t right with god.
So she has to consult with Todd while performing her job as VP? About matters of national security? Would that be against the rules?
Or she has decided that this part of the bible is irrelevant.
Can you pick and choose from the bible if you are a literalist?
What were Palin’s qualifications to become major of a one-horse town? I’m guessing the swimsuit competition and no viable opposition. Beauty pageants are for scholarship money, NOT for public office. Entering or winning a beauty pageant does not lower intellect – how many pageant winners have gone on to be doctors, physicists, and other challenging careers? Those women did what they did after they won based on their brain power, with the help of a little cash that they won for being prettier and more poised than the other contestants.
Come on. Really. She may not be good for the White House, she may not be the role model you want, you might dislike beauty pageants…but isn’t this whole feminism deal about CHOICE? If she chooses to participate in pageant, if she chooses to be pro-life, why are you “feminists” all over her? Because it is not the agenda you want. Qualified or not, if she were spouting the liberal hoo-ha, you would want her on the top of the ticket…it’d be a coup for all. But in her choosing to be conservative, of faith, pro-life…then she’s scary. I really don’t get the hypocrisy of the left. And the “pundits” criticizing her parenting for going forward with the nomination? Even The Great Gloria denouncing her? At least have the backbone to stand by what you all have chanted for decades now…if a woman wants to go for it “all”, then by all means, let her and support that idea. Even if you don’t agree with her positions, the left simply cannot disagree with her career/family choices. And really, coming down on her for a pageant is so small.
Some of us enter ‘beauty’ pagents to assist with the cost of college…….sad, but true.