{"id":20878,"date":"2016-01-24T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=20878"},"modified":"2016-01-23T23:50:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T03:50:19","slug":"commenting-on-palins-sweater-is-sexist-stop-doing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2016\/01\/24\/commenting-on-palins-sweater-is-sexist-stop-doing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Opinion About Palin’s Sweater is Sexist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"(as<\/a><\/p>\n

When Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump, it provided political commentators with a goldmine of analytic fodder. \u00a0Working through the Palin-Trump team up, there is a lot to untangle.<\/p>\n

For instance, how do we make sense of a political climate in which the 2008 vice presidential candidate, who so damaged the presidential campaign of her running mate that he could barely mask his contempt for her on election night, is now a desirable connection?<\/p>\n

Or what dynamics were in play that pushed Palin to Trump rather than Cruz, especially given Palin\u2019s support of Cruz in his senate bid?<\/p>\n

Or could her endorsement backfire, finally impressing upon moderate Republicans the urgency of nominating Rubio or Bush? And relatedly, what\u2019s up with Rubio falling into the mainstream\/moderate category?<\/p>\n

While commentators touched on a few of these things, largely, the conversation was dominated by another topic entirely: Sarah Palin\u2019s sweater.<\/p>\n

\"palin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ewww.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I\u2019m not Ewwwing her sweater. In fact, I refuse to comment on her sweater. Because I\u2019m not a sexist asshole. Rather, I\u2019m expressing my disgust that mainstream Republicans and self-proclaimed progressives alike coalesced on social media to discuss a politician\u2019s wardrobe\u2014its attractiveness and appropriateness\u2014and that this story then became the content of broadcast news. I heard CNN news anchor and political correspondent Dana Bash spend about 3 minutes on the sweater, its other appearances (CBS Sunday in November<\/a>), and how the sweater fits into Palin\u2019s larger repertoire of wardrobe choices. Mashable ran a story<\/a> on the price of the sweater. And the Washington Post gave the sweater an in-depth analysis<\/a>. Ewww.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing. Social media are heralded as a democratizing force. The voices of the people flow into the voices of broadcasters, spreading into national and international conversations in ways previously unavailable. Social media are a mechanism for the people to speak in ways that projects out into public life. This is powerful. This has been a major tool in important revolutionary movements from the Arab Spring, to #Occupy, to #BlackLivesMatter. It\u2019s how the public insisted upon a serious discussion of interpersonal violence following the infamous Ray and Janay Rice incident<\/a>. It\u2019s where Hilary Clinton\u2019s evocation of 9-11 to account for her ties to Wall Street were noticed, critiqued, and given back to her with striking immediacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t live in a media democracy. Broadcast media still have disproportionate control over what does and does not become news. Social media provide content pools, which broadcast outlets sift through to select what they will or will not, address. This means the relationship between social and broadcast media is of a curatorial nature, with broadcasters maintaining more power than those from whom they pull stories. This makes broadcast outlets responsible parties. When they don\u2019t pick up an important story, they are accountable. When they do pick up a story that should have remained in the ether, they are also accountable. Sarah Palin\u2019s Sweater\u00a0was a story that should have withered and died.<\/p>\n

Commenting on professional women\u2019s clothing is sexist. It highlights fashion and beauty while backgrounding substance. It wasn\u2019t okay with Hilary Clinton\u2019s pants suits and it\u2019s not okay with Sarah Palin\u2019s sweater. It is disappointing if not surprising, however, that sexist commentary arises among the populace. It is unacceptable when that sexism translates into a headlining story.<\/p>\n

Jenny Davis is on Twitter @Jenny_L_Davis<\/a><\/p>\n

Headline pic (as seen on Mashable<\/a>. Credit: AP Photo\/Mary Altaffer))<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump, it provided political commentators with a goldmine of analytic fodder. \u00a0Working through the Palin-Trump team up, there is a lot to untangle. For instance, how do we make sense of a political climate in which the 2008 vice presidential candidate, who so damaged the presidential campaign of her running […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1753,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9967],"tags":[36391,55,36457,683,120,1528],"class_list":["post-20878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-donald-trump","tag-gender","tag-presidential-campaign-2016","tag-sarah-palin","tag-sex","tag-sexism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20878"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20892,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20878\/revisions\/20892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}