25.10.08

Things that are ridiculous

I don't like Sarah Palin. She stands for many, many things I disagree with. She calls me, and everybody at all like me in any way (live in the same city; have the same education level; share any of the same opinions) elitist and anti-American. She doesn't trust me to make my own decisions about what to do with my body.

That said, she doesn't deserve a lot of the criticism that she receives. The latest in this series of undeserved panning has been this business about her clothing. It's one thing for Cindy McCain to have paid over a quarter of a million dollars on one outfit. But I'm not surprised at all that a woman so much in the public eye would have paid $150,000 in a month on clothing. It's been, say 45 days. That's $3,000 per day, or probably about $2,500 per appearance. That's about what a fancy suit costs.

Men can get away with wearing the same two or three $2,500 suits for months on end. As long as they have enough ties to switch in, they're good to go. Women's clothing—even women's suits—come in all kids of fancy colors and styles. And somebody is going to notice at some point along the way if she's wearing the same few suits over and over, or if she's wearing sub-par clothing. Sarah Palin did not create the world that expects women to be pretty and perfect all the time, but she must live in it, and she must do so under severe media scrutiny—more than any other vice presidential candidate, I dare say.

This election cycle brings a set of issues more important than many that have faced this country in a long time. There's a financial crisis; we're stuck in a quagmire1 in Iraq and are losing ground in Afghanistan; we're about to see a sea change in the United States' position in the world. Governor Palin is not ready to face any of these challenges. Her wardrobe has nothing to do with this.

Yes. Please. Criticize Sarah Palin. But do it for the right reasons. She's wrong about choice. She's wrong about international relations. She's wrong about health care. She's wrong about offshore drilling. Name an issue, she's probably wrong about it. Fashion is the last thing that matters in this election. The anti-elitism, while proven hypocritical by this whole designer clothing thing, is still only tangential to the core problem with the rabid anti-elitism in the Republican party. So please, leave Sarah Palin alone when it comes to her latest outfit and dig into her politics.

1. Yes. I said it. Quagmire.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, I hope that Skriv en kommentar is not Norweigian for "sign your soul".
    And yeah, dressing is hard. Leave the poor woman alone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Werd,
    By the time book 7 comes out, we'll be *real* adults.
    Maybe..."

    This was a comment on my blog from several years ago regarding Harry Potter. So, are we real adults now?
    I vote no.
    My new criteria is offspring.
    ---Kerry
    (Comment back on my blog!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ahem.
    kpd's dad here.

    Do me a favor--should she announce impending adulthood here, be kind enough to flag it on my blog.

    I hate surprises.

    ReplyDelete