Sarah Palin, 'Girl' Candidate - Her Plucky But Naive Image the Result of Restricted Media Access

Who knows how Sarah Palin will do in tonight's debate? It starts in just under two hours, and I know I'll be watching...and blogging afterwards.

Perhaps if she does well, the McCain campaign will remove her gag and let her talk freely at last. Because the media's tightly restricted access to her to her has caused them to do some silly things to get a fresh angle on her story. And that includes an interview that Harry Smith of the CBS Early Show did with her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I started out as a fan of Palin but am not one anymore. Regardless, I am bothered whenever gender bias rears its head in this campaign. And the Early Show interview, at least to me, smacked of paternalism - as if the media needed to check in with her dad for his opinion and approval of her candidacy. It returned Palin to her childhood and made her a 'girl,' and not in a good way. I'm talking 'girl' in the way the term was used in the workplace - to keep women down and to subtly demean them.

Up until now, because we haven't hear Palin in her own unscripted words (except for a few isolated interviews) an image of her has developed that is the modern-day equivalent of Nancy Drew. Palin has become the plucky, determined but naive 'girl' candidate, likeable to many but not really substantive in the way that women are, not in the way of McCain adviser Carly Fiorina. There is some sexism at work here, and I'd be wrong to not address it since I was so vocal in identifying it during Hillary Clinton's campaign.

To be honest, my liberal female friends say my argument is not particularly strong, but I also recognize that they really don't like Palin, and I'm trying to be fair here. What do you think?

Related article: Sarah Palin, 'Girl' Candidate: Restricted Media Access Feeds Gender Biased Coverage