Is It Sexist To Want The Person Flying The Plane To Be A Pilot?
With all this talk about Sarah Palin redefining feminism and people who don't support her candidacy being sexist, I think we could use a little clarification.
Women's progress at work and in government is critically important. We are not, after all, living in the Dark Ages. But, and this is a VERY IMPORTANT BUT, consider the following scenario.
You're about to board a plane and a flight attendant says, "Today as part of our responsiveness to customers program you may choose Mr. Jones here as co-pilot. He will fly the airplane should something go wrong with the pilot, who isn't at his best today. Mr. Jones has been a pilot for twenty years and has an impeccable record. He is, however, a man. Because you support the advancement of women in the workplace, we also have a woman here who is willing to fly your plane. She is not a pilot but she didn't blink when asked to do this and for the past week a team of experts has been talking to her a lot about how to fly."
Who would you choose? If you chose Pilot Jones, would that be sexist? Or would you simply not be a complete idiot?
Apply this to Sarah Palin. She has not spent time in Washington as a senator or a congresswoman. She has spent most of her life in Alaska. From her interview with Charlie Gibson, it is clear that she is proud of not blinking about making decisions that affect millions of lives. And she is uninformed about the workings of the U.S. government.
Personally I'd have nothing against Sarah running for a seat in the House or Senate. It's a reasonable next step. And were she blocked from this path because of her gender, disparaged and demeaned in the press, I'd be miffed for sure. That would be sexist.
But just because I'd like to go to NASA and tell them that by November I want to be an astronaut, doesn't mean they should hand over the space shuttle.
There is far too much at stake to put someone completely inexperienced in the ways of Washington and the world so close to the presidency. There's no excuse for it, really. John McCain should know that. That's not sexist; it's simply common sense.
Dr. Reardon also blogs at bardscove.
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It is true that the right wing media controls everything
Personally, I would rather have a competent pilot. But using the same analogy, Obama would be a pilot with some training and experience with a Cesna. I would hardly want him to pilot a 747, and that is not racist. And in the analogy he is the pilot not co-pilot.
So let's keep this discussion balanced. If you compare Palin to a novice, you must compare Obama to only slightly more than a novice. He is on the top of the ticket which makes it much more scary than the second person in line
Still, I think Obama would take a minute to read the instruction manual and familiarize himself with the control panel. In a pinch, I'm all for the person who does a bit of homework before jumping into a critical situation. And I see no one else on the top or the bottom of the ticket with the inclination to do so. They don't blink.
In this particular case, I want all four people to have enough intelligence, education, and historical knowledge. The candidates running for president and vp should be the top people of their respective parties. The past experience of all four are varied, and difficult to compare. The good things they have done in the cases of McCain and Palin, are overshadowed by the game playing and prevarications that have ruined their own reputations. I wish McCain/Palin would grow up, stop the game playing, quit the smearing ads (which McCain promised he wouldn't use at the beginning of the campaign), stop sneering at approximately 50% of the voters, and actually think of the country as one nation. As it is now I'm convinced that McCain/Palin will find some way to retaliate against people who didn't support them, whether they win or lose.
The good things they have done in the cases of McCain and Palin, are overshadowed by the game playing and prevarications that have ruined their own reputations. I wish McCain/Palin would grow up, stop the game playing, quit the smearing ads (which McCain promised he wouldn't use at the beginning of the campaign), stop sneering at approximately 50% of the voters, and actually think of the country as one nation. As it is now I'm convinced that McCain/Palin will find some way to retaliate against people who didn't support them, whether they win or lose. I don't feel that these two are trustworthy individuals.
Why don't you try this:
Change "Palin" to "Obama", change "woman" to "black", and read the story again.
Get it??
A non-partisan comparison of the readiness and experience of Obama vs. Sarah would not consider either to be much better than the other.
The fact that this does not even occur to you says volumes about your spin here.
Idea! Let's stop giving Palin attention unless it is negative.
Let's pour all the words into exposing McCain for what he really is, a puppett for the super wealthy.
All Bloggers please talk about his voting no to the GI bill.
Not showing up for the alternative Energy votes that lost by one vote etc.
Let's get these words out and win this thing so we can live in peace!!!
Please God help us all and we'll promise to make this world a beautiful joyous place to live again.
Whwhwhat? A typical leftist argument and proposal. Let's expose Obama for what he is .. a Marxist puppet (correct spelling) of the elitist wannabes. If you will look, the super wealthy are usually Marxist elitists.
Obama won't bring peace but bitter war as we will be assaulted as we become weaker and weaker. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Coffee? Elitists prefer lattes. Be more accurate in your characterizations of us - it might lend a bit of validity to your lack of credibility.
Excellent article!
Great points! But let's face it, here at HuffPost we're all pretty much preaching to the choir (and I don't mean preaching about Alaska being a safe haven when the Apocalypse comes or about asking parishioners to pray for a pipeline). We need, I mean NEED, to get these messages out to the general public. That is, the ignorant, misguided, and uniformed. We've got to get people to bury this ridiculous concept of identity politics. And quash the ludicrous notion that intellect and insight are liabilities for a candidate. I don't want someone like myself to be VP; I want someone smarter and more knowledgeable. WE NEED TO DRIVE THIS MESSAGE HOME!! And we need to convey to people how vehemently the McCain camp is trying to manipulate us with smear and fear and outright lies. So, please, I implore you to send your post to battleground state newspapers and other media outlets. We need to do all we can to win this election. And with 52 days left, I'm starting to get really, really scared.
The enthusiasm engender by women around Palin feeds into stereotypes about how women make decisions. It suggest that women do not make rational choices. It suggest that women make major decision not based on reason and judgement, but out of emotionalism. It suggest that women are whimsical in their thinking.
It is a very good analogy. The left should keep this in mind when they start to play identity poltics. I hope you all remember this if Obama loses, because it certainly isn't racism to want the president to have governing experience either.
So, you are saying that to be Governor of a State is not good enough for you. So let me guess.....
Woodrow Wilson was a college prof. Harry Truman, well you said yourself..
I really feel it is more important to have a strong philosophy(like Obama)than experience. You see, that is what separates the parties. Not experience, but philosophy. When it comes down to it that is what it is all about. The two choices - either a big government bending to the will of the rest of the world; or small government leading the way for the rest of the world.
I do not want to pay more taxes and I do not want those who pay no taxes to get a larger rebate. SMALL GOVERNMENT.
Without taxes you will pay my friend. When your car gets broken into, or your house is robbed, or you collapse along with a bridge, or you go bankrupt because we don't have a national health care system. You will pay for a growing underclass in society in the form of crime. You will pay for a crumbling infrastructure. You will pay when your health goes south.
You will pay for it. The only question about taxation should be: how do we make it fair? Under Obama's plan the richest of society will see an increase. Under McCain's plans for health care (taxed additionally) and his plans in Iraq, and his continuation of the Bush tax code, you will pay in all the ways I described above.
Don't fool yourself.
Small government. So you're anti-Republican, then? Good! After all they are masters of expanding government as long as it benefits the rich.
Bill Clinton was a two-term governor with a law degree.
Woodrow Wilson was also president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey with a Phd. in Political Science.
Harry Truman was a longtime senator with several important accomplishments.
And you compare this to Palin? Don't make me laugh.
We live under the biggest "big government" in history, ruled by those who sing in the sleep about the evil of big government. What gives?
Over the last 50 years, statistically, the government has grown more with Republican presidents than Democratic ones. Republicans try to claim that they will shrink government but never do. So really the choice is between a philosophy that says it is alright to lie about fiscal policy, and one that says it is not.
'Know how you can tell, for certain, that McCain and Palin are lying? Their lips are moving, you just watch, every time they lie, their lips are moving.
I keep thinking about the book most of read as children "The Emperor has No Clothes" . I keep waiting for the little child to come and point that out to all the commentators. They are tiptoeing around afraid of saying the obvious.
Well, the ladies from The View of all shows did that. Besides, maybe it's just fear of seeing McCain naked.
I implore the Emporer to remain clothed. I need to save my supply of Xanax for the week before November 4th.
More and More women of intellect and Worldly experience need to come out and applaud this simple reasoning and message.
It is a bulls eye!
McCain looks like a man at the end of life not willing to give up on fame, and is willing to do absolutely anything to get this fame. Even if it means destroying the country.
Palin is just another pawn of the Powerful. She is expendable to Republicans and Global Corporations.
We've got two POW's on the Repelican ticket:
PODubya and
Pawn
Of
Wingnuts
Hey, I just had a beautiful vision. What if all Republicans move out of the country when Obama is elected! Abortion clinics will be lonely places becasue access to contraception will be opened up.
No it's not sexist to want the person flying the plane to be a pilot - but if that's the case - as long as that criteria is applied to BOTH tickets...
Obama is NO pilot. Obama has NEVER flown a plane.
Hillary is a pilot and Hillary has been flying planes and has the experience to fly planes. So was it sexist of the democratic party to choose someone that CAN'T FLY PLANES? when they had the PERFECT candidate that could?
Seems to me that the sexism is within the democratic party, not the republican party. The top of their ticket CAN fly a plane, their co-pilot simply needs some training.
But the Democrats put someone that's NEVER flown in the pilot seat.....
I'd be real scared to get in THAT plane.
Are you on crack? What plane has Hillary Clinton flown? Does being married to a pilot mean that you automatically know how to fly?
Let's not get crazy. If a pilot's wife jumped on a plane and said, "Hey my husband flies so I'm going to give it a whirl"...w
Now in fairness to Hillary, she is way more qualified than Sarah "I went to 5 colleges in 6 years to get a journalism degree" Palin. Are Americans smoking crack? What is going on here?
Sarah Palin fell from the sky two weeks ago and nobody knows who she is. I don't think that it's unfair for the American people to ask questions about who she is, what she believes in. and what she's done in the past that would qualify her for the #2 spot.
I'm not a doctor, but I played doctor as a child?
Hillary lived in the WH for 8 years with the only two term Democratic POTUS since FDR. She travelled the world as a representative, and while in China gave a very brave speech about women's right and humanitarian issues. She has been voted the most admirable woman in the world for years. I'm quite certain she has give up many high paying Jobs on Wall St, and Mains Street....
Many (18 million) wanted her to fly the "ship of state". First, the DNC and senior democrats like Donna Brazille, the loser in 2000, made a terrible mistake choosing to back 0bama, and the 0-man made an even bigger mistake not choosing her as VP.
Now we sweat out this election wondering it the GOPhers are going to manage to do it again, but the Democrats have always been very good as snatching defeat from the jaws of a landslide victory in this Democratic year.
Don't you have to be "EDUCATED FIRST", before you attempt to fly that plane or country?????
OBAMA is FORMALLY EDUCATED!!! PALIN IS NOT!
Many presidents were governors before seeking presidency. Based on what you wrote, they would all be considered Washington outsiders since they spent most of their time in the state they were supposed to be governing. And, thus, presidents like Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George W. Bush all would have been too inexperienced based on your definition. The fact that you're talking about a vice president pokes a few more holes in your analogy.
Granted, she didn't spend much time as governor. Don't go too overboard, though. Keep in mind that Roosevelt was only governor for three years, so you'll have to arm yourself with the argument that he was living in the most populous state of the era.
But your point of trying to say that you have to be a Washington insider to run for president would have excluded all those fine (or not-so-fine) people from holding office. I don't think you want to make that case. I would also shy away from hammering the point that she's "misinformed," because I think the general public was impressed with her performance on the news program. Democrats are always shooting themselves in the foot by utterly contradicting everything that's in the general public's mindset. If you want to win elections, you have to start doing what the Republicans do and start to gauge what the people are thinking and pander to it.
GET YOUR PC COUPONS BEFORE THEY EXPIRE
Please use the PC coupons your community organizer has given out before they expire on Nov 5th. These will work for ageism, sexism, disability jokes, and religious bias.
Listen, do NOT be apprehensive, we have already floated the Obama=messiah Palin=crucifer plan, so nothing you can do will be an issue. We have assistance in very HIGH places. One of our operatives even asked the Old Goat with brittle fingers if he was going to bring back Slavery! Ha!
If you did not receive the last Ageism/sex
WARNING !!
You may catch wind of a right wing Neo-con stating that Mohammad was a community organizer. If you witness this in any manner including blog, AM talk show, or newspaper editorial we need RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION! Call station manager, claim you religion has been insulted etc... Please don't forget to portray your demographic information as was instructed
KEEP UP THE BATTLE COMRADES!!
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