Sarah Palin: Pretty Girl
The burning question sane women have about Sarah Palin: "Just who the hell does she think she is?"
I'll tell you who she is: Sarah Palin is a Pretty Girl. Due to her Miss Alaska runner-up credentials, Palin has enjoyed a life, thus far, of getting what she wants, whenever she wants it, regardless of rules, consequences and fairness (try to ban books? fire an enemy? lie blatantly? force her daughter into a sham marriage? why not!). Palin believes her opinions matter simply because people have always paid attention to her. In Alaska, where there are approximately a hundred men for every woman--and a thousand men for every Pretty Girl--Palin must have enjoyed the rapt, undivided attention of any man or moose she ever met or shot. The air of entitlement--what Palin embodies, from her Kawasaki glasses to her Naughty Monkey pumps--is a hallmark of Pretty Girls. Think of the Pretty Girls from high school. Recognize the not-blinking smugness, the certainty that their jokes were funny, their observations were interesting and that their believes were correct? I sure do.
Not so say that all Pretty Girls have an inflated sense of importance . . . actually, I am saying that. Or, at least, they do until they grew out of it. Most Pretty Girls are humbled by life. Their over-confidence is knocked out of them by the inevitable disappointments and failures we all have to deal with. Many Pretty Girls, sadly, get fat, ugly and old. They figure out that, in the great wide world, pretty isn't enough. It's a damn good start, and it opens doors. But, eventually, Just Pretty doesn't cut it. You also need to be smart, insightful, considerate, open-minded, flexible.
Despite facing "challenges," Palin does not appear to have been humbled by life in the great wide world. Why? She hasn't been in the great wide world. She's been in the great white north (and I do mean "white"). She might be able to see Russia, but she hasn't been there. Nor has she been to Iraq, although she claimed to have been.
This week, Palin arrives in New York (where the population of a single city block is larger than all of Alaska) and will visit the United Nations. No doubt, she'll soon announce that she's traveled 'round the globe by walking the corridors there. She will spend a day of meeting-and-greeting international diplomats, giving them the Pretty Girl treatment, smiling and winking, just like she smiled and winked at Charles Gibson to idiotic affect. (Just try to imagine Hillary Clinton winking when asked a question about national security. Can't be done.) After leaving the UN, Palin will most likely claim that she now has vast experience handling (as in, shaking hands with) foreign leaders.
The hubris! The delusion! Only a Pretty Girl would compare herself to a pit bull. Only a Pretty Girl would say "nucular" two times on TV without a shame and embarrassment. Will hubris, ultimately, be Palin's fatal flaw? Now there's something to pray for.
To answer the question, "Who does Sarah Palin think she is?" Why, she's God's gift to mankind, of course. What shocks and saddens me is that so many women seem to agree.
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I agree with this article, I would only add my opinion that this kind of "pretty girl" (or "football captain", for that matter) $#!+ happens a lot easier in places like Alaska. I would hope that her act wouldn't have allowed her to become governor of many other states.
You do get the feeling from watching the clips of her trying to stumble her way through interviews that no one's ever called her on her statements, that's for sure.
...and do her over-exaggerated hand gestures and vague catch phrases remind anyone else of David Brent?
For an excellent film portrait of the vacuous republican mindset, see John Sayles' brilliant "Silver City."
Leave it to a woman to really get the Palin thing! Vapid, disdainful, sarcastic, smug, lacking humility, on the offensive and totally unconcerned about who she hurts in her crawl to the top. I've met this type in high school, college and at work. I suppose she's pretty in a very retro way. She is the female version of Bush, the frat boy that you' want to have a beer with. How could anyone who has lived through the hell of the Bush regime think that this handmaiden of the right could be VP, or God forbid, Presdident?
"Pretty" on the outside but terrifying in terms of character, intellect, beliefs, integrity and world view.
"[T]he frat boy that you want to have a beer with" who doesn't even drink. Never understood that one.
Did you miss whole Bush' I am better than that thing? We have gone through his alcohol and drug use. He's in recovery due to his religious transformation. Also known as a dry drunk.
I don't think its that she's pretty. George Bush wasn't pretty. IIts just that republicans are blind to any criticism of their leaders and icons. They won't let the truth get in the way of their ideology or loyalties.
Why else would they pick a pretty girl who happened to be in a party that directly opposed the Republican credo of loving America at all costs and country first. Palin was a member of the Radical Alaskan Secessionist Party, AKIP yet the media left or right hasn't mentioned it besides Bill Maher. Here's an interview with the AKIP chairman on Palin's involvement.
http://www.newsone.com/elections/article/akip-interview-on-palin
I have searched the internet far and wide for anecdotes from friends and associates of Sarah that show the compassionate side of her. So far I have been unsuccessful. I mean with Cheney I at least get the sense that he loves his "special by GOP standards" daughter and that she loves him. With Sarah, everyone is a prop. The pregnant daughter? The Eskimo husband? The son going to Eyeraq? The son with Downs Syndrome?... Where is the love?
"Nucular" appeals to the illiterate base.
Along with NASCAR association, the pseudo-sport of male virility.
Whaaattt??
Pretty girls get fat, ugly and old? Well dang, it's a good thing I went to college.
Seriously, this is incredibly insightful, who would have ever guessed that having a bunch of female deprived cold weather men hang on your every word was the fast track to the White House.
But now that you've spelled it out, I shudder at the thought of what Miss Congeniality will do if she's ever snubbed in cabinet meeting.
That mean ole' Condi better be careful or Sarah will write her name in the boys locker room.
Her vitality as a "distratction " ( the pretty -thing being so persuasive and I believe that it is , however alarming ) is a direct barometer to the unconsciousness of Americans today.
Frigtening really. God forbid we would approach critical thought. We are now in OZ. Bailout, AIG, Congress et al. Palin is the sugar cookie that some Americans seem to lap up.
Nice post. Palin has insouciance, the province of the *pretty girl * down. Pat. Revolting.
Too bad that she's not beautiful. Beauty confers somthing authentic which cannot be said about Palin.
I am no fan of Sarah Palin. However, our society mistakenly places great importance on looks and those lucky enough to be viewed as attractive benefit from that attitude. When will we learn that intelligence and compassion for others are far more attractive than a slender figure and movie star looks? Maybe when we learn to care more about the world we live in and less about how "good" we look..........
Instead of merely looking good, be good for something.
I agree. Nellie from Little House on the Prairie. The chick who drinks Draino in Heathers. Signourney Weaver from Working Girl. She's no friend to women, or men.
Palin reminds me of ubiquitous people during college.
I didn't meet anyone like her in college. I met them in high school.
.
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She's smug, condescending and flip, a dangerous combination of mean and stupid..
She reminds me of Gov. George W. Bush in 2000.
Won't get fooled again.
Oh, no.
.
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You really think she's pretty?
See Valerie Frankel's Profile
Not by New York standards. But it's about self-perception and the way she's used to being treated
As a fellow New Yorker, I salute you. Now tell us what you really think!
Don't worry, Valerie, I'm not swayed by Sarah Palin.
However, like you, I am amazed that there are women and men who are swayed by her good looks and pairs of.....well, let's just say, pairs of certain body parts.
The more I read about HER and her stand on THE ISSUES, I cringe.
The less she's willing to talk to the press, I cringe.
But, the more some people are beguiled and duped by her......I shudder.
I don't disagree, exactly, with this thesis. But doesn't this also mean that George W. Bush is a "Pretty Girl?" And maybe even John McCain?
See Valerie Frankel's Profile
George W. is a "Frat Boy." McCain? Way too defensive to be a Pretty Girl
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