Belinda Luscombe for Time Magazine: Women are abandoning Sarah Palin. Why might that be?
Luscombe's answers:
Women are weapons-grade haters.
1. She's too pretty. This is very bad news. At school, pretty girls tend to be liked only by other pretty girls. The rest of us, whose looks hover somewhere around underwhelming, resent them and whisper archly of their "unearned attention."
2. She's too confident. This also bodes ill. Women have self-esteem issues. But they also have other-women's-esteem issues.
3. She could embarrass us.
At risk of being branded a weapons-grade hater, let me say I have no desire to sit down with Belinda Luscombe, underwhelming-looking woman to underwhelming-looking woman, and discuss our resentments and self-esteem issues over a mani-pedi. (Though it would seem that Luscombe's insecurities about her looks would take far longer than one spa treatment. Check out her piece on how her husband is hotter than she is.)
So I'll settle for saying it here: Belinda, as is so often the case, this article tells us a great deal more about the author than it does about, you know, "Women." I'm sorry if you experience your looks as underwhelming, have self-esteem issues, and resent women who don't seem to have those insecurities. But that may be something better kept within your immediate circle of friends than inflicted on the world at large. Indeed, and let me stress the non-gendered nature of this recommendation, I'd prefer it if you used your talents -- whatever they may be -- in pursuits other than tarring women at large with your own personal flaws.
I won't resort to speaking for "some women," though I'd wager I'm accurately characterizing at least as many as you are. But speaking for me, I don't resent Sarah Palin's looks. I do resent that, when her talking points fail her, she exploits her looks by winking at the camera and wrinkling her nose and talking in a flirty-girly voice to get out of any expectation that she, you know, be qualified for the job she's seeking.
Her confidence? I have never been a fan of people over-confident to the point of believing themselves deserving of things they are not qualified for. The list of people on whom I train my weapons-grade hate for that sin includes far more men than women, for the simple reason that in my life I have come across more men than women with that kind of sense of entitlement.
She could embarrass us, as in Women? If I were a Republican I would be worried about the enormous embarrassment she was to my party. But then, if I were a Republican, I'd already have my hands full being embarrassed at John McCain's erratic behavior, disregard for the truth, temper, and lack of connection to any kind of honor or principle. That's not a gender thing, that's a Republican thing. And I'm not so insecure for my gender that I worry one aggressively ignorant and incompetent woman can undermine me-as-woman.
So, Belinda, like I say, I'm sorry you don't like yourself or other women very much. But that's you, not Women.
