Sarah Palin, the MILF Factor, and 'Ugly' Women Vs. 'Pretty' Women

Amy Alexander's got guts for going where no one dares to tread with her straightforward look at Sarah Palin and the MILF factor. (Don't know what a MILF is? Alexander will explain.)

Since she was tapped for the number two spot on the GOP ticket, her MILFyness has been the elephant in the room. Most of us have maneuvered around it with a tight smile and a policy of 'no comment.' Not Alexander. She deserves plenty of credit, but I'm afraid she'll get a lot of hate mail as well.

We should have tackled this long ago. By avoiding it, a funny thing's been going on behind the scenes.

Palin is exceptionally attractive and works it to her advantage. For this reason, there are those who claim that what other women say about her is suspect. I've had male colleagues accuse women of being her harshest critics out of spite; and I've seen comments left on this blog that accuse women less physically pleasing than Palin of being jealous and petty if they question her credentials or say anything even slightly negative.

It's all part of that great myth about women - that so-called 'ugly' women hate 'pretty' women because they feel dissatisfied with themselves and want to be like them.

Until the internet provided a completely anonymous way to perpetuate this garbage, it was whispered by some - usually men of a certain mindset, but some women too. Now open forums enable anonymous dissemination of this particular brand of poison:

Is the reason that liberal women dislike Sarah Palin because Sarah is a beautiful, intelligent, successful career woman and they are ugly trolls who don't bathe, use makeup or shave their legs and armpits and whose wombs have been so deformed by countless abortions that their bellies resemble alligator hides?

This question made it onto the Yahoo! Answers site and garnered 17 responses before it was removed.

Why is it when a woman runs for office, misogyny becomes part of the equation? It doesn't matter if the candidate is well-educated, older, and not exactly MILF material, or not so well-educated, younger, and proclaimed a MILF by many male supporters. This is what the conversation comes down to - how the candidate looks, and how we respond to that, and how any intelligent woman with an opinion is judged to be inadequate, ugly, and jealous. We're damned if we do, damned if we don't.

How many women will have to run for public office before this stops happening? I'm tired of seeing this come up again and again - and tired of ignoring it because giving it credence is a waste of time and energy. But by not talking about it, we let it thrive, flourishing in the dark places between conversations. It's gotta stop.

As more and more women run for public office, many will be younger and more attractive than candidates in years past. How we deal with that - and whether or not we can move past looks and get to issues - will set the stage for future campaigns, debates, and candidacies. Let's not blow it for them here and now.