I saw this card for sale at a Target near Troy, New York, last week:
Inside it said, “Now that I have your attention…” and then I think “happy birthday” (I can’t remember for sure what it was for). There were several other election-themed cards, but this was the only sexualized one. I thought it was an interesting comment on how the candidates are being (humorously) depicted this year that the McCain cards were about him being old, while Obama is associated with hot young female supporters (which I would argue doesn’t imply any more respect for him or his voters).
I assume this is inspired by the self-styled Obama Girl, who started the whole sexualization-of-Obama-supporters thing by actively sexualizing herself:
This election year is just weird, people. One the one hand, McCain gets ridiculed for supposedly being too old, but at the same time, I’d bet that for a lot of people the image of Obama supporters as highly attractive young women would take away from his credibility.
Also see this post about the New York Magazine cover that has a shirtless Obama next to a fully-clothed McCain.
