While few would dispute the brilliance of McCain in announcing early in the morning following Obama’s “historic” speech that his V.P. choice was going to be the young scrappy Governor of Alaska, Sara Palin, there may have been one major drawback to the choice that the McCain camp overlooked. Palin may simply be too pretty. While it is highly likely that the choice of Palin as McCain’s V.P was partly designed to attract disenfranchised Hillary supporters, the pick of a young and beautiful candidate appears to have had an unintended affect.
While the earliest polls indicate that as many as 9% of Obama supporters are considering changing their vote over to the McCain/Palin ticket, most of that increase is coming from men and not the expected female voters. While this is certainly a baffling effect, I believe that reasoning among liberal pundits that it’s because Palin is pro-life and a lifetime member of the NRA is incorrect. A simple look at the photographs of many leading females in politics is likely more revealing. To be straight, they are all unattractive.
Women in the workplace have long complained that they are their own worse enemy. Whether it’s a genetic or social response, women seem less trusting and more willing to sabotage other women professionally than their male counter parts are. This seems ever more true when a woman in the workplace is perceived as being more attractive. Usually in this case it seems that her accomplishments are simply brushed aside or explained away as a nothing more than an unearned benefit of her appearance. Additionally, some women seem to also be put off by other women that appear more successful than them.
Now I know that many of you are thinking that I am just another man wrongfully labeling women. Therefore, I have put together a short list of light reading from women authors and columnists on the subject.
Women: their Own Worst Enemy? – by Courtney Caldwell, Road & Travel
“Their success stories and climb to the top were all somewhat similar. What each discovered along the way, as well as when they reached the top, was how lonely it was. The pursuit of their dreams, attaining their goals, and reaping the rewards of their success was not without cost. For most, it was hard to keep friends who were not equally successful, due to jealousy or insecurity. For others, making new friends was difficult because it was hard to tell who was sincere or who was pretending to be sincere for access to money or contacts.”
Q&A: Rita E. Wilson; How Women Treat Each Other at Work – by Charlotte Libov
“The title “Sisterhood Betrayed” is the conflict between what we expect and the reality of the workplace. Women expect other women to be there for us, and help us open doors, and the reality is that there is a lot of sabotage.”
COMPETITION AMONG WOMEN – As published in Today’s Dallas Woman Magazine.)
“As we look to form healthy business connections, friendships, and mother/daughter relationships, jealous competition works against some of our natural disposition of relationship building. Women have a natural ability to form intimate relationships, oftentimes over and above the male’s ability. We have built-in relationship manuals. Men work typically in hierarchies — women in circles. This innate female ability forms the glue in many families, churches and synagogues, communities, and companies. When we stay in the jealousy, we disconnect from the vital ties that glue us together. Competition and jealousy, sabotaging and backstabbing, keep women from forming the relationship structure characteristic of a healthy family, business, and community.”
While I know that there are many that will argue that I am over simplifying this matter, I can’t help wonder how many women used in the polling data from Rasmussen and Gallup actually heard her acceptance speech as McCain’s V.P. Choice. After all, as far as I know it has only been aired once in its entirety on the major networks and that was early in the morning on Friday, August 29th. I truly can’t help wondering how many of those women polled, looked at Sara Palin’s picture on the evening news and simply responded the same way that this woman did on CNN’s Cafferty File Blog,
“John McCain not only undercuts his own message but insults all women by nominating Sarah Palin, when he had many stronger, more experienced, more intelligent women to choose from. I guess since he already feels like he has a “trophy” wife, he needed a “trophy” vice president to make a bookend set. This is sad and pathetic on so many levels, but to have this woman, literally a heartbeat away from the Presidency, is SCARY!” (Stephanie, Alabama)
During the upcoming Republican National Convention and in the months leading to the election we all, conservative, liberal and moderate will have an opportunity to see why Sara Palin has risen so quickly to become not only one of the most popular Governors in Alaska’s history but also Senator McCain’s choice for Vice President. Hopefully we all will decide to vote for or against her based on her credentials and not just on whether she has the “face” of the modern Women’s Liberation Movement. Enough said…
- Richard Okelberry
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