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I wanted to quickly highlight a post by Cara over at The Curvature that put exactly into words what I’ve been struggling to explain when it comes to Sarah Palin:

Via Sociological Images — a truly great blog I discovered recently — comes this story about a Sarah Palin lookalike contest held at Vegas strip club (oh, sorry, “gentleman’s club”).  Lots of bikinis, sexualized use of guns and sexism abound.  You can view more photographs of the event here.

The saddest thing is that it’s not the most offensive display of sexualized misogyny that has been directed a Palin.  The sex doll came close, but I’d say that award goes “Nailin’ Paylin,” the Larry Flint pornographic film starring yet another Palin lookalike, the existence of which all of us should have seen coming.

There are two problems with both the porn film and this strip club contest, and neither one of them is about porn and stripping in general.  The first issue is consent.  Sarah Palin did not consent to having her image used in this way.  Portraying her sexually like this without her consent is a violation — and contrary to what many people apparently think, existing as a woman in public is not the same as consenting to use of your body as public property.  This isn’t satire or parody; it’s just sexist and degrading.

Which brings us to the next issue.  The entire reason that anyone gets to hide behind the parody and “all in good fun” arguments is precisely because portraying Sarah Palin sexually is intended to be mocking towards her.  It’s taking a powerful woman and working to make her non-threatening by turning her into a sexual object.  And it’s the very opposite side of the coin as calling Hillary Clinton ugly and denying her sexuality.  Both reinforce the ideas that women exist to sexually pleasure men, and that sexuality is the only power we have (or should be allowed).  Whether revoking or affirming that “power,” the result is an attempt to render the woman inferior and powerless.

Click here to read the whole thing.

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