So, I have a general rule against writing about Sarah Palin -- she doesn't interest me, and she isn't actually that important -- but this James Taranto op-ed was annoying enough that I felt compelled to respond. Here is Taranto explaining the dislike liberal women have for Palin:
Because the devil in the red dress wasn't orating like a professor, it roused an unquenchable forest fire of rage and loathing in the breasts of many women, perhaps of the toiling [gray mouse in a pantsuit] variety, who projected onto her their own career resentments and personal frustrations.
I have an alternative explanation, which doesn't rely on psychoanalysis and has the added benefit of making sense. Liberal women don't like Sarah Palin because Sarah Palin is conservative and they are not. Name any liberal issue -- fair pay, emergency contraception, health-care reform, etc. -- and Sarah Palin supports the opposite policy. As such, it is perfectly rational for liberal women not to like her, since she speaks to vanishingly few of their concerns and actively opposes most of them.
If Sarah Palin were Todd Palin, and this were about dudes, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Men are allowed to dislike opposing politicians because of differing policy preferences, even when their opposition is clearly driven by something more primal. It's only when we're talking about women that "jealousy" and "beauty" enter the picture.
For now at least, whenever I write about the conservative men who hate Barack Obama, I'm going to talk about penis envy or insert something about how he makes them feel less masculine. If ridiculous psychoanalysis is good for women, then why not men!
-- Jamelle Bouie
