Women and Politics

I have been wondering why there is such a visceral revulsion among women when we hear the names of Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, former Ebay executive Whitman, or Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard. Let’s add to the mix Senate candidate Sharon Angle (known as Obtuse Angle and extremist wacko) and Sue Lowden (known as the “chicken lady”).

It is not that the revulsion has not been earned, is that there is more to it than that. A lot more that makes us cringe while we laugh at their stupidity and collective insanity.

We watch the men in our lives laugh at them with gusto.
We see that Saturday Night Live can't keep up with the amount of material they have to choose from.
We see that Comedy Central’s Colbert and Steward don't have enough time in their half-hour shows to cover all the jokes.
We notice that Bill Maher is restraining himself in his HBO weekly show.

Don’t get me wrong; women laugh too, we just can’t do it as loudly.

There is a knot at the pit of our collective stomachs that won’t allow us to let loose those hearty laughs that are so well deserved. The knot in our stomachs feels like a primal warning alerting us to upcoming dangers that screams “Laugh at your own peril”.

As we half-pay attention to the laughter emanating from the comedy show, we catch a glimpse of our daughter doing her Science homework and we cringe as the latest joke about Sarah Palin or Christine O'Donnell wheezes by.

We feel rage as the crowd in the studio can’t control their laughter while our other student is intently reviewing her debate class manuscript for errors and clarity.

THERE!!!! That’s the visceral revulsion, right there! Sitting at the kitchen table and working hard to be the best people they can possibly be.

Our collective revulsion is brought on by primal protectionism that no man-made law can amend.

Our daughters’ futures are compromised by the disgusting circus side show provided by the Sarahs, Christines, Whitmans, Fiorinas “chicken lady’s” and wackadoodles of this world who are ridiculing us all.

These females have effectively become our enemies because they threaten our daughters’ futures.

Mothers don’t believe that “Every woman for herself” is an appropriate motto with which to raise our children. Perhaps it is due to the fact that women are the ones who hold communities together by caring more about others than they do about themselves.

As mothers, we are women of vision who can see far and wide into a future when these young ladies sitting at the kitchen table will be full-grown women.

We are terrified by these latest entries into the political arena and the harm they are going to cause to women everywhere when it comes to career advancements, equal pay, the right to make personal choices about their lives and their bodies, but most importantly, the right to be taken seriously as a mature and responsible adult by a population that has been laughing to their heart’s content about the ineptitude of women everywhere.

We are reacting to our daughters’ futures.

We are reacting to the hurdles they will have to jump to be taken seriously because the “Chicken Lady”, or the Fiorina’s of this world are single handedly attempting to destroy the work done on our daughters’ behalf by their grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

Our venerable ancestors got us the vote. They strove for equality. They demanded respect. They paid with their lives, their sweat, their tears and they sacrificed so, we, the women of today, would not be laughed at, or dismissed with scorn and contempt.

Decades of having our voices heard are now being put in jeopardy for a juicy contract with Fox News or being a player in a multi-national corporation who needs insiders to erode the fabric of our democracy for their own greed.

These females don't care about others, they don't care who is buying and selling them, they don't have a vision of how their incompetence reflects on women everywhere.

These females are out for themselves and this makes real women cringe in disgust wanting to lash out and scream: "Sit down and shut the hell up!."

We Resent Them

We resent any woman who allows herself to be used as a prop.
We loathe them because they have sold out to the highest bidder.
We can’t stand them because they lack integrity or character.
We cringe because they are laughable when they speak.
We squirm when they defend their ignorance.
We are appalled when the facts prove their lies and they brush it off as if it does not matter.

Most of all, we are insulted when they defend their ignorance as something to be proud of because they are “Earthy” and “One of the people”, or worse, they claim to be "Just like you."

Our daughters’ are earthy and part of the people, and they are NOTHING like these females.  That last statement simply adds insult to an already infested injury.

Our daughters don’t hide their intellectual abilities or dumb down to be accepted. They work hard to stand their own ground and have their accomplishments recognized.

It is costing our daughters a great deal of effort and grief to be the strong and reliable citizens this country needs, but it is also building up a character their great-grandmothers and grand-mothers can be proud of.  So NO! these females are nothing like our daughters, yours or mine.

Let's get something clear right up front, women, real women, far outnumber the females in our country. We know these poor substitutes for real women are not representative of who we are and what we are all about.

Our knee jerk reaction is not due to the fact that we consider these females to be incompetent, insipid, bought and paid for by corporate media and multi-national corporations, or the fact that they are opportunistic individuals lining their pockets at tax payer's expense. This is not the problem, we have already put up with the same type of individual from their male counterparts, and even though, we despised these individuals as well, we did not have the same visceral reaction we have to these women.

The Ramifications

We have fought hard to shed stereotypes and be considered serious contenders in the political arena and when a female is disguised as a woman representative, we know we have been betrayed.

The next time a real woman tries to run for president, she will have to fight the image of nasty, vicious, opportunistic, and incompetent Whitman and Fiorina. They will have to fight the indelible image of dimwitted, uneducated, and uninformed Palin and O’Donnell.

Women know that these females are nothing more than empty vessels we can vote against, what we will never regain is the less rocky terrain we had before they were injected into the 24/7 news cycle.

Thanks to these females, our struggles have gotten harder, our roads have gotten steeper and we are rightfully resentful of these Saturday Night Live candidates that are jeopardizing our daughters’ futures for the sake of the mighty Dollar.

Perhaps women’s organizations can’t state these opinions as bluntly as I have, but then again, I am not an organization, I am a mother who needs to sound out the primal scream: “Laugh at your own peril.”

Our daughters’ future is in peril. We need to sound the alarm and vote with our clear vision of the future. These females cannot be allowed to represent us, nor can we trust them with anything of value, least of all, our daughters’ futures.

Leave your opinion, I'd like to hear from you.