It All Comes Back To Reese Witherspoon

Not that we've had a real break from Palin news since the election or anything, but for the first time in a couple weeks I've read something smart about the woman (and Hillary) that has nothing to do with Africa (the continent!) or NAFTA (US, Canada, Mexico!). This, from Amanda Fortini's NY Mag story about the female stereotypes that were reinforced this year:

"In the grand Passion play that was this election, both Clinton and Palin came to represent—and, at times, reinforce—two of the most pernicious stereotypes that are applied to women: the bitch and the ditz. Clinton took the first label, even though she tried valiantly, some would say misguidedly, to run a campaign that ignored gender until the very end. 'Now, I’m not running because I’m a woman,' she would say. 'I’m running because I think I’m the best-qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running.' She was highly competent, serious, diligent, prepared (sometimes overly so)—a woman who cloaked her femininity in hawkishness and pantsuits. But she had, to use an unfortunate term, likability issues, and she inspired in her detractors an upwelling of sexist animus: She was likened to Tracy Flick for her irritating entitlement, to Lady Macbeth for her boundless ambition. She was a grind, scold, harpy, shrew, priss, teacher’s pet, killjoy—you get the idea. She was repeatedly called a bitch (as in: 'How do we beat the … ') and a buster of balls. Tucker Carlson deemed her 'castrating, overbearing, and scary' and said, memorably, 'Every time I hear Hillary Clinton speak, I involuntarily cross my legs.'"

For me, if Hillary is Tracy Flick of Election, then Palin is Elle Woods (of Legally Blonde or, better yet, of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, & Blonde where our main character was working in Washington). She's a well-heeled charmer who doesn't get wrapped up in silly things like policies. Who cares about words and ideas as long as you have enthusiasm and great shoes?

Tracy Flick a.k.a. Hillary Clinton, from IMDB

Elle Woods a.k.a. Sarah Palin, also from IMDB

In both of these roles, Reese Witherspoon is playing charicatures. Of course all public figures become cartoonish to some extent, and so it's not shocking that we align them with similarly two-dimensional characters. But both Tracy Flick and Elle Woods were meant to be laughable. They weren't just exaggerated—they were there for comic relief.

It's beyond obvious who I relate to/side with. Never mind the millllllions of Palin-bashing posts: I call one of them by her first name and the other by her last. But, anti-girl politics aside, some of this S.P. hate stems from the fact that she represents everything girls of our generation were told wouldn't matter for us. We could wear cute dresses to the office and not worry about it helping our hurting our career climb. We could just be women without playing the woman card. (Some of these feelings are highlighted in this Jezebel post by Jessica Grose that I was OBSESSED with. It's also mentioned in the article.)

At the end of her story, the writer gets at that space between bitch and ditz that all ambitious, opinionated women have to navigate, nevermind those 18 million cracks.

"But among the darker revelations of this election is the fact that the vice-grip of female stereotypes remains suffocatingly tight. On the national political stage and in office buildings across the country, women regularly find themselves divided into dualities that are the modern equivalent of the Madonna-whore complex: the hard-ass or the lightweight, the battle-ax or the bubblehead, the serious, pursed-lipped shrew or the silly, ineffectual girl. It is exceedingly difficult to sidestep this trap. Michelle Obama began the campaign as a bold, outspoken woman with a career of her own, and she was called a hard-ass. Now, as she prepares to move into the White House, she appears poised to recede into a fifties-era role of “mom-in-chief.” It will be heartbreaking if, in an effort to avoid the kind of criticism that followed Hillary Clinton, the First Lady is reduced to a lightweight."