Sarah Palin has been in the news lately so I’ve decided to give it the Roissy treatment — one long kiss on the neck and an ass cheek squeeze.
She’s a palinpsest — people see reflected in her their particular American narrative. Why has she commanded so much attention? Because in her life, her mannerisms, her morals, and her views she is the embodiment of everything evil or everything good. Her existence alone reignites the culture wars.
VPILF
In general, liberal white men are more effete than conservative white men. This has been my observation. I can tell with 80% accuracy whether a male caller to a radio talk show is liberal or conservative just based on the tone of his voice. Liberal — mellifluous, sing-songy, whiny, high-pitched. Conservative — baritone, even, throaty, resonant. Sarah Palin drives the point home even further. Her ability to field dress a moose in waist-deep snow strikes at the sissified soul of the simpering suckass conformist and makes him lash out like a stuck piglet.
But Sarah Palin’s worst enemy is not the mincing liberal betaboy, oh no. It’s the childless, career-tracked, urban slut machine, government-as-daddy-and-husband-substitute, spinsterette. Palin shits grizzly-sized dung all over that lifestyle with her outdoorsiness, large brood, and prole tastes. The thing about her they really can’t swallow are her FIVE kids. There’s no better way to remind a hip clubgoing single chick in the city who loves to travel and sip pinot noir of her impending infertility and genetic obsolescence than with the image of a woman who’s chosen not to ignore her biological imperative in favor of playing the field indefinitely.
Palin makes blue state SWPLs nervous because she is the chill up their spines that they are being outbred into insignificance.
I’d bang Palin for the notoriety, but that’s about it. I prefer more feminine women for lovemaking.
If the rumors are true that Palin cheated on her alpha husband, I wouldn’t be surprised. She has a manly jawline, indicating high levels of testosterone which would make her more inclined to impulsive sexuality.
Race, sex, class. Who didn’t see an American trifecta election like this eventually bubbling to the surface like an evil geothermal vent?
Levi Johnston = John Edwards. Money doesn’t buy common sense to pull out. Class stops at the zipper.
The mainstream media has lost all credibility. Journalists are now no better than janitors. In fact, they’re worse — at least janitors know their place.
The merciful and morally right thing for Palin to do would have been to abort the Downs fetus. She is not to be lauded for keeping this genetic reject when we have the technology to prevent the suffering this child will endure his whole life. As I said in my Why I Love Abortion post and which Alias Clio said was the most immoral thing I ever wrote:
With constantly improving embryonic screening techniques for genetic or physical abnormalities, our gloriously abortifacient new world offers women and the men who love them the opportunity to prevent the misery and suffering of the doomed. For what could be more cruel than knowingly bringing to life a soul trapped in a twisted body or a stunted mind, wracked with pain and shame and exposed to a lifetime of horrible torment as objects of his affection forever elude him, his heart never to pulse with requited romantic love. I have nothing but seething hatred for those parents who willingly allow the births of babies with torturous afflictions.
Sarah Palin would not have to keep calling her Downs baby “perfection” if the baby was, indeed, perfect. The pretty lies we tell ourselves to keep the demons away…
Prole tastes and hobbies are mockable. As are SWPL tastes and hobbies. At least the proles seem to be enjoying themselves.
Bristol Palin is hot enough to bang at 9 months.
Sarah Palin is hotter than McCain’s wife. He knows this.
This was a good pick by McCain. How do I know? The opposition went completely insane.
There is no point to voting. When was the last time a national election was decided by one vote?
I could run this country better than any of the four candidates. But I’d rather be a heartbeat away from poolside.
A particularly new thing to the feminized men of the western world is to have your voice get higher right at the end of the sentence. This used to be only for girls, but not men do it as well. This is something that Steven Pinker has spoken about before.
How about what really counts: is she shaved?
My reasoned guess is that she is not shaved. Indeed, in a sorely needed break with the herd-like conformity that has infected most American women, Palin proudly sports a Glorious Natural Pelt. It’s all part of her crusty (heh) frontier spirit, a desire to be her own woman rather than a slave to fashion. Not to mention that it helps keep her warm on those cold Alaskan nights.
Due to her age, I’ll refrain from making any guesses concerning Bristol Palin.
She is not to be lauded for keeping this genetic reject when we have the technology to prevent the suffering this child will endure his whole life.
This is great, roissy. By your logic, we should have ALL been aborted.
About the SWPL people hating her…
there was a commenter on iSteve that said women who actually have families will like her, and all of those girls that spend all of there time at Perez Hilton and other gossip sites will absolutely hate her. For evidence, he said to simply check the comments section of any of those sites.
When was the last time a national election was decided by one vote?
This is a massive failure in basic logic.
For instance, take California: as long as all the people that usually do vote (i.e. White people) continue to vote and the people that usually don’t vote (i.e. Blacks and Hispanics) continue not to vote, well, the voters will continue to get who they want.
This is why Dems are always so crazy about “get out the vote drives”…Repubs just tend to get out more to actually vote compared to the young hip Dems.
So one vote may not count, but one whole group does. The group of people that think that their vote does not count, doesn’t get counted.
For the record, that picture of Palin in a flag bikini and a gun is fake.
Effete does not mean effeminate. It means ineffective.
I’d GILF it.
The leftists went ape shit over this chick. They’ve been practically foaming at the mouth over Palin.
In general, liberal white men are more effete than conservative white men. This has been my observation.
I prefer to call them leftists; liberals actually support liberty. I know exactly what you mean. The only alpha males in the Democratic party are the politicians with real power e.g. John Edwards. Men who vote Democratic are all betas. Thinking back through all the Democrats I’ve known, only one was an alpha, and based on his personality and the trajectory his life has taken, he is very likely to go into politics.
Has anyone noticed how conservative women are more feminine than left leaning women? They are also more attractive on average, but their femininity is what really sticks out.
“When was the last time a national election was decided by one vote?”
Actually, simple mathematical analysis shows that voting is in fact worthwhile. Imagine that you believe that your candidate of choice will increase everyone’s well-being by an average of $50 each (perfectly reasonable given the size and impact of government). Then, even if you have only a 1 in 10M chance of making a difference, the effect size of that difference is $50*200M = 10B. Your expected value of casting your vote is $1000.
Granted, this analysis requires you to be altruistic in thinking – having a tiny chance of getting a mere $50 yourself is not worth pulling a lever. But your facile nihilism is simply wrong.
I’ll be the first to admit I had to google palimpsest. That is all.
Any popularity was a mistake. Palin was MEANT to fail. She wasn’t supposed to get the Hillary vote… because she is anti-abortion. With the down’s kid. And she has no real experience and McCain could die tomorrow. This was SUPPOSED to disturb conservatives. She was SUPPOSED prevent triangulation and help McCain lose.
You see, McCain was PICKED to lose. Which republican canidate has more loser points than him?
1.He is 72 years old.
2.He is rabidly pro-Iraq war.
3.He might as well call himself a Democrat that wants war. So he enrages the actual core-conservatives with the fact that he is a neo-con.
4.He abandoned his first wife because she got in a car accident and was very disfigured.
5.He is nuts.
6.I suppose I could think of a few more horrible things if I tried.
But apparently McCain’s worthlessness wasn’t enough. Despite exceptional censorship and lying, some honest reporting from EVIL OUTSIDERS showed a tiny aspect of the Obama creature to the world:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/us/politics/14web-seelye.html
Believe me, if one wanted to gut the Obama creature, one could go on and on.
But, Obama is having trouble competing with McCain. So the super-smart manipulators thought Palin would do a good job of sinking McCain. Whatever else, they seem to have miscalculated quite a bit.
Roissy, the one problem with that abortion stance is if you believe life begins at conception.
I’m not religious and I don’t really care when life begins, but I’m just arguing the point. If you believe a one-month old fetus is as human as a newborn, then no matter what a test tells you the baby has, it is immoral to abort.
Now you can disagree with someone over when the life begins, but since it’s not something that can be proven one way or another, if someone believe that the life begins at conception, it would be immoral to abort.
Palin rocks. I am so excited to be voting for her. Hillary reminded everyone of their first wife, Palin reminds you of the kind of woman you want to be married to. The liberals just don’t get it and they never will.
5, Fallacy of division. One doesn’t choose to get out “the vote”. One chooses to get out your own single vote.
Pro-life people don’t actually believe that a fully human life begins at conception. If they did they would be concerned about the huge number of fertilized eggs that don’t implant in the uterus.
Alex – I’d venture a guess that the range of opinions pro-life people have on the start of a human life is beyond your own narrow scope of observation.
Yeah, that’s true. Women with families love Palin, she’s proof you can succeed with a family, without having to turn yourself into a man, ala Hillary.
Meanwhile, single women playing the field HATE her blue collar husband and kids. It’s a slap in the face.
A lot of it has to do with class and opportunity. As Steve Sailer noted, a strong back is all that’s needed in Alaska to make money, as Palin’s husband and Bristol’s prospective husband show. After all, blue collar Todd Palin makes around 100K. That’s not bad. Not Obama money, but shows how the couple afforded five kids.
But a Todd Palin is like a slap in the face for women who pursue the various man-boy “hot guys” who all look and act like a composite Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett, and Jude Law. As does Roissy’s astute observation that settling for one guy early is something single women and the Yuppie culture hates.
This pick (Palin) reignited the culture wars and particularly among men and women.
There is a sizeable portion of nerdy guys that LOVE Palin — she’s like Lara Croft come to life. It’s single women that hate her, because she’s a real-life Lara Croft, who married a blue collar guy. Who is not “Alpha” in the classic Yuppie sense of power/status.
As for the Down’s baby — it was hers. She couldn’t bear to abort it, which is pretty common among women. Most men can’t understand this. Most women can. I doubt she cheated, lack of time, and five kids with the same guy, speak to both a busy life and long, long attachment ala Gannon’s theory.
Liberals went insane (mostly over class/gender issues) and thus all sorts of idiot rumors: her youngest wasn’t hers, she faked her pregnancy, tried to miscarry, had an affair. By contrast Liberal media sat on Edwards rumors to protect him even though it was an open secret in the campaign.
9, thinking of themselves as swell guys whose simple votes are enough to benefit “everyone” by $50 is indeed enough of a reason to get many people in the voting booth.
However, most people don’t justify voting in terms of the swollen head it may give you.
In my experience, when pressed, most people fall back to the position that it is ones duty to vote. If this is true, it means that you should vote despite of the fact that it’s NOT worthwhile.
Whiskey, yeah, that is basically what that other commenter had to say. Single women will hate her for marrying a “regular” guy.
In my experience, when pressed, most people fall back to the position that it is ones duty to vote. If this is true, it means that you should vote despite of the fact that it’s NOT worthwhile.
People vote in Elections for the same reason that they vote in American Idol or any number of Sports Polls…because they care about it.
Fortunately, will still have a lot people who care about politics. Unfortunately, they do not get to choose what options (i.e. candidates) they will have.
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! I love this!
I can’t think of another picture that screams getting lucky in Kentucky more than that pic.
….. even though it’s in Alaska
As Steve Sailer noted, a strong back is all that’s needed in Alaska to make money, as Palin’s husband and Bristol’s prospective husband show. After all, blue collar Todd Palin makes around 100K. That’s not bad.
$100K is not a particularly impressive salary in Alaska given high prices. In any event, I believe Todd Palin’s oilfield job was more supervisory than physical, although he switched into a nonsupervisory job after Sarah became Governor to avoid conflicts of interest.
There is a sizeable portion of nerdy guys that LOVE Palin — she’s like Lara Croft come to life. It’s single women that hate her, because she’s a real-life Lara Croft, who married a blue collar guy. Who is not “Alpha” in the classic Yuppie sense of power/status.
The irony is that a woman like Sarah Palin wouldn’t give a nerd the time of day. Todd Palin is not an Alpha in the power/status sense, but he IS an Alpha in the alternative, physical sense. He could win a barroom brawl against the biggest meanest ex-con in the joint without even breaking a sweat.
Sarah Palin has melted my cold, cold heart.
I am the archetypal young, urban, unserious family-delaying hedonist. But if a 20-years younger Sarah (Yes, I am assuming first name basis) were to knock on my door tomorrow, I would give it all up for a life of snowmobiles, assault rifles and her formidable uterus.
I like Palin and her family kicks ass.
Some conservatives’ reactions are hostile to her as well. Lawrence Auster makes a convincing argument that, while he likes Palin as a person, her running for VP represents an amoral post-conservatism.
Half Sigma has gone over the top in Palin-bashing. He’s coming off a like a peevish, anemic nerd, which is too bad, because I normally kind of like his blog.
PS: I’ve read the word “Prole” more times in the past week than I had in the past 35 years. It’s a stupid and useless word and it needs to go.
@PA – You’re not an Orwell fan?
I wonder how much of a draw she will have on young men who, tired of the sex-and-the-city clones they have been dating, feel a primal, emotional attraction to her.
Well, I’m a single over-educated white urban female with no children, and I like Sarah Palin. Of course, as you pointed out, I’m pro-life. I’ve got relatives like her. I think that people who have roots in small western towns throughout North America will recognise the type of woman she is. On the other hand, I suspect many “hip” urban or suburban mothers will not.
Clio
p.s. Down’s syndrome people have lower suicide rates than average, and most of those I’ve known appear to be happier than people not afflicted by this condition. Or are you going to tell me that they’re too ignorant/unintelligent to know how to kill themseles? Don’t go there; even young children have been known to figure out a way.
Well, I’m a single over-educated white urban female with no children, and I am very Pro-Life. Which makes you very different than the group that is being talked about.
I wonder how much of a draw she will have on young men who, tired of the sex-and-the-city clones they have been dating, feel a primal, emotional attraction to her.
There is something uncommonly raw and primal about her.
You’re not an Orwell fan?
I only have vague recollections of 1984. I think “prole” is used by many bloggers pejoritively to mean non-SWPL / non-Yuppie.
Well in 1984 it was slang for the poor, working class (short for proletariat). Now that I think about it, it isn’t terribly accurate since very few Americans fit into that class. Most of the poor are in service jobs. Middle America is largely powered by small business, a very entrepreneurial class. Anything knowledge based couldn’t be considered prole work and even much manufacturing these days is knowledge-intensive.
Although it was written a quarter-century ago, Paul Fussell’s book Class defined “prole” in a meaningful way, one that still holds true today.
Peter – can you give us his definition?
As a longtime reader, I’m quite surprised by the author’s take on voting. For someone with such thought out opinions of the the logic of the world, and as such, human nature, it seems interesting that one could just as soon forget about individual responsibility (some say duty). I have found that the people who claim that voting is pointless because an election has and never will be decided by one vote are the ones without the moral framework to make an opinion once said regime takes office. They fall back on “Well, I didn’t vote for them…” or “Government participation is a sham”, but seem to be the first ones to be vocally opposed the “current state of the world.” Having said that, I’m someone who’s been around here long enough to see that the author’s opinion is that the world is just plain fucked anyway. And to some extent that’s absolutely true.
But for someone that seems to be an educated, cultured (somewhat, ha), and thought-provoking American citizen, it’s discerning to hear that the author would give up his right to vote, and assume the right to mend and support our liberties. But this is just from some dumb liberal–plus, it’s all about the ass anyways! Agreed on the VPILF.
flame away for saying it, but she’s pretty hot for a polictically-involved woman hailing from Alaska.
Not all Democrat males are betas. Take Hollywood, for example — not the stars, but the back stage and money people: producers, lawyers, agents, even directors. Mostly (not all) Democrats. And mostly uber-alphas. Other alpha-dems can be spotted among the arts & letters, nailing like-minded culture buds.
Granted, the majority of the men in those areas aren’t necessarily reeking with testosterone, but they exist. You’ve even pointed out a few on your blog.
Agreed on Palin’s appeal. But it’s slightly. . . Oedipal. The cheery mama/librarian/MILF thing is not my taste, but it obviously has many a boner stirring under the khakis. Personally, I prefer whores to madonnas, even the spunky ones.
All of the people who are bashing Roissy for his point about voting are very wrong. Roissy is right. To counter to two main contentions so far:
@5: Roissy doesn’t have control over the voting of entire groups. He only has control over voting for himself. Thus, it would be better for him to spend an hour trying to convince 5 people to vote for Palin, or donate money to her campaign to acheive that, than to actually spend his time voting. The ONE vote he has direct control over is meaningless.
@9: Your analysis is wrong. Roissy’s benefit function does not include the benefits to other people. So if he is to gain an expected 50 dollars if McCain wins, that is his benefit (unadjusted for the probability of making a difference), not 50 * 200 million.
For more on this, please read:
http://www.slate.com/id/2107240/
“Don’t Vote: It makes more sense to play the lottery.” It is written by an actual economist.
In the future, I think it would better for all commenters to really think before criticizing Roissy. He is probably smarter than you and is more likely to be right than you. Also, Peter, maybe I’m the only one who feels this way, but your GNP comments are really getting tiresome. Honestly, it is a worthless contribution and is annoying.
Fussell divided proles into three categories, high, medium and low, although in describing prole characteristics he for the most part lumped all three categories together. As I recall, prole characteristics include such things as watching a lot of TV rather than reading, engaging in outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing, wearing artificial (as opposed to natural) fabrics, overdecorating their houses, using improper grammar, generally having a more relaxed, what-me-worry outlook on life.
While I prefer my eagles bald, I’d hate to see Peter quit.
@ Peter – I think that definition really just collapses into name-the-stereotype about middle America without considering the long-form of the word or what it means. Seems like a nonsense definition to me (no offense).
While I prefer my eagles bald, I’d hate to see Peter quit.
Fear not, they can stop me from championing the Glorious Natural Pelt when they pry my cold dead fingers off of it. Or something like that.
@ Peter – I think that definition really just collapses into name-the-stereotype about middle America without considering the long-form of the word or what it means. Seems like a nonsense definition to me (no offense).
That’s pretty much the way Fussell did it. He defined proles almost exclusively in terms of stereotypes, with little discussion of economic or occupational characteristics. In other words, while “prole” is usually used as a near-synonym for “working class,” Fussell gave the “working” part relatively little attention.
It probably would have been clearer if Fussell had used “unsophisticates” instead of “proles.”
What I find most amusing is that there are rabid conservatives everywhere while there is a Republican in the White House. When Clinton was there, everyone railed against the Republican Congress. Just like the way they choose their vote by the odds, many people claim to be on the side of power regardless of what power is.
@21 Peter
What do you possibly have to go on regarding the physical prowess of Palin’s husband? I’m pretty sure I could kick his ass. He looks whipped to me.
Oh christ can we kill the “must reproduce, women reproduce, single women in the city want to reproduce”. Not every woman wants kids. Why the f-would I want FIVE kids? No thanks, she can have them.
She even has a typical blue-collar problem, a pyscho police officer threatened to kill her father when her sister divorced him.
Monegan tries to keep it quite while whining about being treated unfairly. Generally, it’s considered poor form for a police officer to be forced to admit “thug protection”:
http://www.adn.com/politics/story/463340.html
Top Cop, Saver Of Babies, Monegan admits that, you know, maybe Palin had been asking about investigating her sisters pyscho ex-husband, but “The only thing the civilians could prove was that he illegally shot a moose and tasering his eleven year-old step son. They don’t gots enough to get my man.” The step-son part is omitted in this story, as it is predjudicial against Saver of Babies, Top Cop, Monegan.
http://www.adn.com/politics/story/469135.html
The Storied Hero, Monegan,, says “He would die for Palin.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008157625_trooper04.html
This is what Palin had to say:
Her first thought about the bill, the e-mail said, “went to my ex-brother-in-law, the trooper, who threatened to kill my dad yet was not even reprimanded by his bosses and still to this day carries a gun, of course.
“We can’t have double standards. Remember when the death threat was reported, and follow-on threats from Mike that he was going to ‘bring Sarah and her family down’ — instead of any reprimand WE were told by trooper union personnel that we’d be sued if we talked about those threats. Amazing. And he’s still a trooper, and he still carries a gun, and he still tells anyone who will listen that he will ‘ever work for that b*itch’ (me) because he has such anger and disdain towards my family.
If people think the police officers of America will be capable of anything but awesome Worship of thier Ass in the event of real problems, then you should realize the dream-like fantasy world they exist in.
You guys are joking, right?
She is hot and feminine because she squeezed out five kids and didn’t respect her biological clock to do so?
If you are serious, I am happy to have the truly feminine girls, who don’t understand what’s so great about guns, hunting, right-wing politics and cheating on their husbands for myself. These girls love being with a strong alpha guys who does these things and don’t need to fill in these traits by themselves.
I will also claim for myself all girls with some brain, who understand that science is one of the great pillars of this country. Funny, Roissy that you demand a basic understanding of evolutionary genetics from a creationist.
Isn’t “prole” just a synonym/shorthand for working class in a class system that makes a distinction between working and middle class?
Americans are generally very uncomfortable talking about social class, so we lack a clear definition of the boundaries between classes. However, to me, middle class is defined largely by occupation and education: Middle-class jobs generally require a college education (require in the resume sense, not in the sense of actually needing to know anything learned at a university) or are generally filled by college-educated people even if it is not a strict requirement. People who hold middle-class jobs are middle-class, even if their upbringing was more humble. People in job categories that do not require a college degree are usually working class or lower, especially if the job involves hands-on physical work. In this sense, working class is more or less equivalent to blue collar, except that some theoretically white-collar jobs, in retail for example, are in fact working class.
Income is irrelevant. A plumber makes more than a teacher, but the teacher is middle-class and the plumber is working class.
Individuals vary so that you may find plumbers with refined speech, manners, and habits and teachers who love monster truck rallies and say “he don’t.” But, if you’re going to divide people up into social classes, at some point you have to draw lines, even if there are exceptions on either side of the line.
Re Sarah Palin: Why would single women – I think we’re talking about single middle-class women, right? – hate her for marrying a blue-collar guy? I can see some might hold her in contempt for “settling,” but I honestly don’t get why they would hate her.
Sorry for the double-post, but to clarify:
I understand why single women and SWPL types would hate Palin. The fact that she has five children is reason enough, but they especially hate her because her 17-year-old daughter is going to marry the guy who knocked her up. (Or says she is.) This violates one of the unbreakable rules of SWPL life: That one must never marry young, and must certainly never breed young. I married one year out of college, and the degree to which this baffled and even infuriated friends and some family members was amazing.
What I don’t get is why these women should specifically hate her for her choice of husband.
Her husband Todd Palin looks like a men’s bathroom stall toe-tapper, like 80% of conservative Republican “men.” (i use the term loosely.)
Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Jerry Falwell = Yup, the archetypical “alpha” conservative males allright. LMAO!
Why are the Repubs going after the media at the convention? Because there will be an “October surprise”.
Just watch.
Uh, I hate to bring the obvious about her husband, but how many of the men in here commenting on Sarah’s wise choice (and how the singles in the city hate her), were able to take on the responsibility of raising a family at such a young age? And I mean as a man, and not trolling for an easy score all the time? How many can and are ready to do it NOW?
I’m going to guess… not a lot. I’m from the South originally, and LOTS of my friends are married, with children, saving for/buying houses, etc… It really isn’t that crazy or revolutionary, or at times, that much to be jealous of. People are as mature, or immature as they are allowed to be.
Wanting to travel, or live in a city, or you know, do crazy stuff like follow a dream where you have demonstrated talent are NOT some personal death wish to never have a family or be married.
My reasons for hating Palin are quite simple: She’s a fundamentalist Christian.
Don’t even need to go beyond that.
Read earlier today something that I am 100% on board with:
Good Lord, I so wanna vote for her. I wanna vote all over her.
Roissy’s wrong about the DS child. DS people (and they are people!) can live reasonably long and happy lives. SP did the right thing in keeping hers.
But…most of the rest is spot on. I have in my inbox at this moment received an email from a passionate Dem friend of a friend about Palin. She and the long trail of people who’ve been part of the discussion have gone completely apeshit over Palin in a way that indicates that SP pushes every single effin’ one of their buttons.
They go on and on about how many kids she’s had, her lack of devotion as a mother (!), contradict themselves (e.g., one blasted Palin for having a kid who’s going to Iraq “to kill innocent Iraqi children”, aside from the slander of servicemen there, aside from ignorance of how Iraq seems to be winding down in America’s favour, I seem to remember M Moore criticizing pols who didn’t have kids in Iraq…for being chickenhawks or something or other), and above all, reveal a fragility that reveals how utterly threatened they are by the mere existence of women like Palin. They’ve made fundamentally wrong choices in their lives by choosing to live by the liberal left feminist code, they’ve sold their birthright as women for potage, and they know it.
I said on another blog that the left, by its reaction to Palin, has handed the words “feminism”, “sexism”, “misogyny”, and “empowerment” over to the right. Palin is the truly liberated woman, and the shrivelled harridans of the feminist left know it. Decades of feminist whining about “oppression” have been rendered nugatory at a stroke. There’s never been anything to feminism, and Palin has shown it just by being who she is: a liberated woman.
Good for her.
#48 greg s: You’ve got the wrong man on your list. Jerry Falwell was never even suspected of any kind of gay liaison that I ever heard. The name you want is probably Jim Bakker.
As for your comment about Todd Palin, it’s quite simply delusional. Dream on.
#49: Of course, you’re right, but there’s not much point in saying that here. I’m just grateful that these fellows like this other kind of liberated woman, and aren’t suggesting that she’s unfit to lead because she’s female. Conservatives of that kind are rare in the US, but they do exist.
I have no idea whether Mrs Palin will make a good vice-president, but I like her as a personality – what little I know of her. And I’m enjoying the consternation she’s created.
clio
47: What I don’t get is why these women should specifically hate her for her choice of husband.
That’s because nobody anywhere hates her because of her choice of husband. That’s a nice red herring the guys here tossed out.
I’m a single over-educated white urban female with no children, and I don’t like or dislike Sarah Palin, but I sure don’t want her anywhere near the White House. That’s due entirely to her position on environmental, education and reproductive issues. Whether she’s married, single or polygamous doesn’t factor in one iota — sorry, boys.
(The same applies to McCain, btw.)
50: My reasons for hating Palin are quite simple: She’s a fundamentalist Christian. Don’t even need to go beyond that.
Oh yeah — that, too.
“Individuals vary so that you may find plumbers with refined speech, manners, and habits and teachers who love monster truck rallies and say “he don’t.” But, if you’re going to divide people up into social classes, at some point you have to draw lines, even if there are exceptions on either side of the line.”
Social classes are moreso a kind of culture than they are about money, occupation.
Fussels book is an amusing read, much like the Stuff White People Like blog linked here.
I don’t really follow politics.
My stance on abortion is that it is evil towards the potential baby, but I’d rather people stop directing their agression at the doctors who perform it. The main players are the boy and girl that exposed themselves to the risk of a surprise pregnancy and those who put pressure on the pregnant girl to abort. Those are mainly her parents and the father to be, but sometimes also friends, work, school and the culture at large. Where the medical world is in the wrong is that concealing the emotional dangers, to the woman, of abortion and emergency contraception and the physical dangers of birth control pills creates a culture in which people feel entitled to sexual activity without the risk of pregnancy.
There is a lot to say on this topic, but an act can be harmful and understandable at the same time. Someone stealing to survive is harming a innocent person but his act is understandable. Understand that understandable is not the same as good.
I would greatly prefer people to abstain unless they were not averse to raising a child together, but I realise most people do not have the discipline.
Not all kids are being adopted, some children are more likely to remain in the system than others.
If abortions cannot be minimized and abortion is illegal, a large group of women will harm themselves to prevent birth and will be occupying hospitals and then prisons to an intolerable degree. Especially in those countries where abortion is the main way of birth control. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3093152.stm
Having the majority of women dead or in jail destroys a country.
The idealist and the pragmatist in me can find acompromise in illegal but tolerated in the first month. I would like people to be educated about the effects abortion and birth control pills have on women. Though I do not feel the pill is friendly towards a woman’s reproductive system, I’d rather see a woman use the pill than abort. Abortion becomes more cruel the longer the woman has ben pregnant. I really do wish we would invest in educating couples on how to plan families in ways that are more respectful of our reproductive systems.
It is very very sad that many women see things that harm them physically and emotionally as something they cannot do without.
She looks an awful lot like Dr. Phil’s wife-bot.
Despite my anger filled comments at Half Sigma’s place, I really don’t hate Sarah Palin for who she is. I simply don’t like her because she’s re-energized the Republican base, and she has the ability to attract Independents to her campaign.
Otherwise, she’s just a prole woman who lucked out and had five kids with handsome white dude and became governor.* OTOH, I’m still highly surprised at Bristol’s choice to have this kid and marry her b/f. As the child of a governor, one would suspect that she would abort, dump the local prole boy, and go to elite college and have a career and live a comfortable lifestyle.
I’m amazed that these red state women with five kids are happy. My mom had three kids and two grandchildren and she’s very miserable and depressed…
*For a fun comparison, Nancy Pelosi has five children and several grandchildren…
It’s funny how the same subjects are coming up in various topics at the same time. Like proles, it is the undercurrent of the week.
Pupu really has trouble identifying with Sarah Palin. We ” the childless, career-tracked, urban slut machine, government-as-daddy-and-husband-substitute, spinsterettes,” are mostly bonobos, who are into gg-rubs among each other; Palin is a chimp, a beautiful one. We are very different animals. It is hard to imagine how we could possibly vote for each other, really.
In general, liberal white men are more effete than conservative white men. This has been my observation. I can tell with 80% accuracy whether a male caller to a radio talk show is liberal or conservative just based on the tone of his voice. Liberal — mellifluous, sing-songy, whiny, high-pitched. Conservative — baritone, even, throaty, resonant.
Yeah. But too much macho can be a bad thing too. Like the past 8 years, for example. Or any country that overplays its hand. 1939 Germany comes to mind. The result was the most extreme castration of a country I have ever seen–they couldn’t sing their national anthem at football games for 50 years! (And do you blame the Allies?)
You gotta know when to fold ‘em…
yours trulyIt is very very sad that many women see things that harm them physically and emotionally as something they cannot do without
Sort of like junk food and cigarettes.
People are going to do what they want to do at the end of the day. Add a normal biological urge for something, and you are just wasting your time complaining. Telling people to abstain for 30–40 years* is like being on a very strict diet for 30-40 years. Some people are going to binge (religious preachers caught in the back alley), some will yo-yo, and others will just give up.
Many people don’t get married until they are 30-40 years old, if they get married at all.
Besides abstinence, there are barrier methods and Fertility Awareness. You can even combine both.
If all girls learned Fertility Awareness at school and people would use comdoms in addition to that outside a serious commitment, women would be much healthier.
“Many people don’t get married until they are 30-40 years old, if they get married at all.”
I agree with you Chick Noir. Abstinence for girls only makes sense when girls marry young. Therefore, abstinence preaching only makes sense if we are willing to marry 16-20 year old girls to older, more mature guys: that’s why I’m septical about Bristol’s marriage: she should have been impregnated by a guy aged 25-30.
YT- are you talking about the rhtym method?
I agree with you on condom usage btw.
No, the Rythm method is outdated and unsafe. Fertility awareness is much safer as it is based on the current cycle, not the previous ones. It can also be used to achieve pregnancy and to detect heath issues.
It does require discipline.
“I’m amazed that these red state women with five kids are happy. My mom had three kids and two grandchildren and she’s very miserable and depressed…”
Well, one of them is you…
Yours Truly, if you have a good link I would like to read more about fertility awareness.
,i>Steve Johnson
“I’m amazed that these red state women with five kids are happy. My mom had three kids and two grandchildren and she’s very miserable and depressed…”
Well, one of them is you…,/i>
*decides Roissey’s blog is too much of a cold place for a softie like me*
logs off and weeps for DA
Laura –
Because Todd Palin is not the High-status Alpha. He is not a Lawyer, Doctor, minor celebrity, and has deliberate blue collar status — he’s a Union member. The only Union membership acceptable to young women is the Screen Actors Guild.
He’s a “regular guy” who works in the oil fields and fisheries.
He doesn’t wear a suit and work in a big office. Drive a fancy car.
Simple as that.
Go over to TMZ or Dlisted. Check it out yourself. They all hate her husband who they’ve called KFed (guy has been working, HARD, all his life). Meanwhile a guy like Balthazar Getty or Jude Law is their ideal.
Not one to be Sarah Palining this and hiding it…
I just got a positive reading on my home pregnancy test.
Congratulations, Hope! I’m assuming the test is not a false positive, and I am assuming, potentially offensively, that you would be happy to be pregnant. I must admit that I am, in my own impulsive blurting foot-in-mouth way, happy to hear your news. Dear friends of mine are expecting very shortly (the conception was an accident), and they have done me the signal honour of asking me to be her godfather. I am right now in a state of mind where every pregnancy or birth I hear about makes me want to shout with joy.
I hope I haven’t offended you by offering my congratulations. I like you Hope, and from what I’ve read of your comments here I believe you to be a truly loving woman. I can offer my best wishes to you no matter what the appropriateness of congratulating you.
So…best wishes to you Hope. May the future, whatever it is, bring you happiness.
Patrick
The first part was pretty good, Roissy, the part that explained the hatred of Palin. You’re right there.
The part about her baby was stupid, vile and childish… maybe even evil.
The fall is coming for you buddy, and when it comes it will be an astonishing descent.
Arrogance of your kind is paid back tenfold.
I just got a positive reading on my home pregnancy test.
1) If it’s true, then congratulations.
2) Sadly, we’ll miss you.
one:
as a fellow wordsmith, i feel compelled to point out your misuse of the term “palimpsest”.
a literal palimpsest is a paper, canvas, or other drawing/writing material from which the original work has been effaced, but on which traces of that work remain. metaphorically, then, a palimpsest is something that betrays traces of its earlier form.
so, for instance, if a newly minted PUA still acts like a beta on occasion, he’s a “palimpsest”.
here, “mirror” would have sufficed.
–
two:
you enjoy pissing people off way too much to be a successful politician.
Congratulations Hope!
Chic Noir,
Read this book: http://books.google.nl/books?id=9AzqppB4L5EC&dq=garden+of+fertility&pg=PP1&ots=NMX7Ig3by-&sig=1PuSoeGl3qCb_x4PrJUmxOh7ZB0&hl=nl&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR16,M1
It is one of the best on the topic.
I do realise that openly steering away women from the pill to other methods has always resulted in an increase in abortions, I’m not sure if those numbers would improve when people are more at ease with other methods. In any case I would never want to offer FA, condoms and abstinence as the only options, but it would be nice if they were more popular.
Taking the pill for only a few years in total is not so risky for health, and this would cover the amount of premarital sex most people in my circle have. (Young and educated for the most part.) If you have 2 serious boyfriends and sleep with them for a years each, two short relationships of 2 months each and one holiday fling in Italy, that adds up to less than 3 years of pill use. Condoms can be the only coverage of the fling and used alongside the pill in short relations.
The real problem is when girls are put on the pill for irregular periods at 13 and stay on it for 15 years. This happens a lot in Holland, and while it is responsible for our low rate of abortions, it is also a very unhealthy and often unnecessary practice.
100 years ago it was normal to abstain until the late twenties and then marry, so it can be done. The super young brides and grooms are moreso a thing of the ‘50. http://family.jrank.org/pages/869/Industrialization-Marriage.html
I think the mean age of marriage in a bit lower now in the US and a bit higher in western Europe, but 26 for women and 29 for men are still very normal ages to start a family.
People who are at least 23 or so have dramatically lower divorce rates than teenagers, so too young is not ideal. Most women are still fertile at 32, but most are not at 42. Men’s sperm quality starts declining at 30 and even more steeply at 40. Older women have lower quantity children, older men lower quality, as the proportion of friendliness to mental disease in sperm gets higher. The US average for the age of brides falls perfectly well within that range of 23 to 32. The issue is that if the variance is high, many brides still fall outside those ranges.
Different social classes have different ages at which they considered a man to be economically ready for marriage and then men typically proposed to a woman 3 years younger, regardless of class and time in history. The most important influence on the average age of the bride is thus the age at which the men in her social class are ready for marriage. Prole men start working after high school and are often ready in their early twenties. Middles go to university, then take more education while on the workfloor and are expected to move to a decent neighbourhood before having children. I also think Middles tend to be a bit less similar to one another than proles, for prole culture is more conformist. This makes it harder to find someone compatible.
Interclass marriages are pretty rare, so middle class women have little opportunity at the ages when prole women are getting proposals. Even if she can overcome his grammar and he can overcome her taste for wholegrain, it is rare that they would have met in the first place. They don’t go to the same highschool, don’t work at the same places, don’t have the same friends, don’t play the same sports and don’t express their spirituality in the same way. It is pretty unrealistic to expect a 22yo daughter of a professor to go on the internet to find a plumber to date.
But hey, I’m seeing a movie with an electrician tonight and am having dinner with a lawyer tomorrow. But then again I’m a weird person who does not take a date that seriously:-p
astute observation Roissy and on the Money. Agree with so many points, but none more than I’d bang for the notoriety but not much else.
Bottom line, as a wall street d-bag myself, i mock her loser appeal to losers. short rednecks, long buying Cristal just so I can spit it. Her representation that anyone can be vp is retarted like the child she should’ve aborted. U shouldnt test worse than 25% of the SAT taking population and have the opportunity to be equal to them.
Whiskey,
I can assure you, that many women NEVER found Jude Law attractive. A co-worker who was finishing her Phd (in the sciences) was engaged to… a man who worked for ComCast. As in outside and climbing towers, that sort of thing. She was always happy.
And the “women” who comment on TMZ (not saying I don’t read it, just saying I don’t comment) are usually about 13-20. Or not the brightest crayons in the box.
The generalizations regarding the alphaness/betaness of Republicans and Democrats are myths. Both groups run across the Alpha/Beta spectrum. Apparently Democrats are tea-drinking, sushi-eating, over-educated, soccer playing, wussy boys and Republican men are Chevy driving, football loving, NRA members. These are stereotypes in the same sense that all Asian people are good at math and play the cello or other racial stereotypes.
Bateman was defining alphaness, in this case, as degree of masculinity. I know plenty of progressive minded, dem voting, athletic, pussy chasing alpha males. I also know plenty of wimpy, dushy beta Republicans. These tend to wear pleated khakis and bowties, have anchorman haircuts, and are out of shape. What about the Democratic voting steel workers? What about the Log Cabin republicans?
As for women the ugly – hot spectrum is similar for both Democratis and Republicans. I know plenty of feminine Democratic women and some really tom boyish Republicans. Democratic women are not just your pierced, tatted up liberal bitch at a war protest. Femininity is not strictly defined as conservative dress and haircut, wearing pearls, Lily pulitzer and apple pie baking ability. You can prefer more progressive fashion and lifestyle and still be feminine.
Side note: In case anyone wonders if it’s ok to hate someone based on their religion, point them to this thread. I certainly will. Hatred? Check. Condemnation of hatred? Nope. These are not the bigots you’re looking for… move along…
Most of the women I know (moderates, a few liberals and a few conservatives) think Todd Palin is a good-looking guy and Sarah Palin is a shrill fundie powerseeker. The conservatives don’t mind the fundie-ness, obviously, and they’re convinced she’ll lead the GOP to victory.
When it comes to class, attractive people get a boost automatically, so if you’re lower-middle-class, you are perceived as middle class. Good example: Britney Spears.
It works the other way too, and devout religiosity drops one down a rung.
The thing about beta-ness here is misleading. As some other blogger (I can’t recall which) noted, the McCain/Palin ticket is like the football player (Navy pilot/hero) and head cheerleader ticket and the Obama/Biden ticket is the school brainiac ticket.
The thing is, most people really couldn’t stand the football player and the head cheerleader, and with the retrospect of a school reunion or two, realize that the class geeks made better life decisions, founded startups and ended up happier in the long run.
In our information-age/creative class society. smart people aren’t betas.
“The merciful and morally right thing for Palin to do would have been to abort the Downs fetus. She is not to be lauded for keeping this genetic reject when we have the technology to prevent the suffering this child will endure his whole life.”
I have a cousin (male) in his early thirties who has Down’s Syndrome. I don’t think he has suffered himself any more than the average person suffers. In fact, people with DS tend to have good temperaments. That is also true of my cousin who has always been very friendly and open, and continues to be so to this day. He cannot speak but uses sign language and can uses domestic appliances like DVD players and TVs. Kids with Down’s do not suffer any more than normal kids at least if they are cared for and loved like normal kids.
But children with Down’s are much harder on the parents than normal kids because of their slow development. My cousin, for example, used diapers until he was five. Down’s also means no grandchildren. Since I have no problem with early abortions, I think aborting fetuses with Down’s is ok and me and my wife would have had abortion.
“A particularly new thing to the feminized men of the western world is to have your voice get higher right at the end of the sentence. This used to be only for girls, but not men do it as well. This is something that Steven Pinker has spoken about before.”
I have noticed this among Finnish speakers, too. It’s a very new phenomenon. It’s amazing that the same pattern such exist in both English and Finnish given that the two have no relation whatsoever and their systems of intonation are otherwise completely different. Some linguist talked about it on the radio saying that neither sex used to do it (at least in public speech) but that it’s now prevalent. Higher pitch at the end of a sentence is used to communicate that one has not finished yet. Recordings of conversations on the radio or television only dating back to the early eighties sound completely different in this respect.
[...] 22, 2008 by roissy In this post, I predicted that Sarah Palin’s most fevered foes would be the modern single urban childless [...]