BlogHer - Nailin Palin...? - Comments

Agree whole heartedly -

maasharu — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:26:35 -0600

I agree a great deal with Alyssa. I found it repulsive the kind of scheming manner in which the McCain people dug up someone so unqualified for high office and put her in a position where her gender could benefit them most. If you really want to talk about something sexist: consider the fact that McCain had only ever met the woman twice before, and yet magically once Hillary is out of the picture - and her demographic (Caucasian women) is up for grabs: in comes Sarah Palin.

I don't know what is worse frankly; that they had the despicable gaul to try such a trite and under handed move - or that it seems to have worked...

In any case: if i may offer an outsider's opinion. Perhaps Mister Flynt is neither being sexist nor making some kind of profound political statement. Perhaps - he's just being his usual self in that he's an extremely shrewd business man. He created the idea for this film just as soon as he heard who the candidate was. Started contracting out right away, rushed to put things into production and instead of riding the wave - he was ahead of the curve.

This seems much more like marketing at work; not politics. Also, I may add: that it is not always the case that a powerful woman creates feelings of impotence - as is often the opinion of women. in the case of sarah palin, she *is* a stereotype. When it comes to sexuality at any rate, and neither in a positive nor negative fashion. She's an attractive older woman with a very well rounded shape who eludes the "milf" (pardon the term) persona.

In case none of the other respondents have male children or took psychology courses: young boys are often attracted to older women. it is not by sheer coincidence or accident that so many female teachers are being caught with under aged boys. At some point it has to simply be said that a woman like sarah palin arouses old fantasies in a lot of men. Their best friends mother, their 4th grade teacher, the soccer mom who used to show up at practice.

The fact that sexuality tends to be a giddy affair when it comes to what "flips a switch" in people seems to be such as this case. Perhaps A shred business man making a parody film involving an extremely attractive woman has very little to do with her Political position; as it does with her celebrity status. Which is another key issue: she could be a Senators wife or a murder suspect - it's not going to change the fact she's a celebrity at this point in her life - and very attractive. Some form of pornography is going to be involved with any attractive celebrity.

Perhaps there's actually little more to it than simply that? Just a thought, when it comes to pornography about an attractive female celebrity who eludes juvenile fantasies about a lot of men's first crush: ladies, you may be over complicating things. I could be wrong, but the math on the issue doesn't seem all that complex.

For future references: Palin, Clinton and Rice - ugh. Very much, not working for me. I'm actually feeling a little ill after reading about it. I'm pretty sure that part is based on the idea of pure mockery, which may or may not be a mater of chauvinist method for devaluing female figures of power.

I'm very likely to agree with that, then again: there's a lot to be said for lewd humor being a key to better sales. Need i mention movies like European vacation, Road trip, American pie... etc. etc. Not even taking into account the worse lot of them like the Disaster movie, epic movie and scary movie series.

Perhaps that particular scene is just a method of indulging in this society's idea of humor; which leaves a bit to be desired. I have yet to meat any man or woman who told me they fantasized about Hillary Clinton, I'd vote her into office - but not vote for her to be depicted in pornography.

Palin is a woman.

niko381 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:39:42 -0500

She should learn from Nancy Pelosi. At least she knows the woman's place is in the House.

Sticky stuff, and no pun intended

Nordette — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:16:36 -0500

You did a great job with a complicated subject that leaves most of us scratching our heads and reaching for the Tylenol or Valium.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link.

I Wish I Was Torn

alyssaroyse — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:49:09 -0500

I really do wish I was torn. For that matter, I wish I was outraged. How dare they take a woman of such accomplishment, intelligence and experience and reduce her to a vapid sex toy just because she's a woman. But, here's the thing. I'm much more outraged that anyone would suggest that a woman who so clearly lacks accomplishment, intelligence, and experience could be president, just because she's a woman. I am positively offended by that assertion, to be frank.

Where porn (which I have no problem with whatsoever) may offend us for stripping aside all intellectual capabilities and reducing us to sex objects, this sham of a political ticket is stripping aside all intellectual deficits and reducing women to a sexual characiture. Porn, at least, is honest, we know what it is. This is sinister, putting the lowest form of woman in the highest office and suggesting this is as good as we get as women. This is the pinnacle.

Their clear strategy to make up for the loss of Hillary Clinton by putting a woman on the ticket, and doing so by choosing someone who basically admits she doesn't even read, is OBSCENE. Do they really think this is the kind of woman we want to see. Don't matter how she thinks so long as she's hot? No, my friends, that IS what we look for in a porn star. NOT in a politician.

When Hillary - a not very sexy woman, I'll admit it - was running for office against Obama, I would watch the political coverage with my daughter and come damn near tears. I would talk to my daughter about being smart, driven, hard working, determined, LITERATE, well-spoken. We would talk about how many people never thought we'd see this day, when a black man and a woman were running for office. But, i would tell her, if you're smart, driven, hard-working, determined, literate and well-spoken, you can do anything.

She literally looked at me the other day and said, "mommy, is it my imagination or is Palin just really stupid." No honey, it's not your imagination. All that stuff I told you about working hard, learning and stuff, it was all bull. Just put on some pumps and wink a lot. Turns out, that's all anyone needs from you.

I'd rather have her watch porn and discover incredible power and magic in her sexuality than watch Palin be trotted around as an example of anything other than the most pernicious kind of vile sexism in our culture. How passively demeaning do people need to be before we stand up and say, NO, we are more than just sex objects, find me a woman who inspires me, not just begs for a spanking.

Larry Flint nailed it. He may have the most astute political mind out there right now. If nothing else, he's telling it like it is. Personally, i don't like it, but i know the truth when I see it.

____________

Alyssa Royse

Just Cause It: A Web Site To Save The World

Start Her Up: A Blog for Women Entrepreneurs

Sigh, I'm Torn too

Erin Kotecki Vest — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:03:13 -0500

I guess you could call me pro-porn too. I find it totally fine so long as everyone really is willing and wanting.

And I guess every public figure such as this ends up in nasty parodies or made fun of or what not.

My issue is one of respect I guess. Which makes it a non issue really. But in my mind, our first female anything, be it VP or President, should get a certain amount of respect. However. That doesn't really make for an argument against free speech.

So, I guess I'm not torn.

But the overtly sexual stuff- trying to poke fun at Palin or Michelle Obama or Speaker Pelosi- meh. Bleh. ick.

Sexist. Not funny. And certainly not in the spirit of everyone being 'willing' participants.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain

And This Just Keeps Getting Bettter and Better

Megan Smith — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:31:11 -0500

Thanks for this very thoughtful post.

Honestly, I'm of two minds about this whole Sarah Palin porn thing. Yes they have the right to make the movie and to sell it, but like you say, just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

It makes me wonder whether there were any porn characters based on Jeanne Kirkpatrick or Margaret Thatcher. Knowing human nature, I'm sure there were. You're absolutely right when you say that porn characters of women in power, for many men is a way of muting that power. There's a feeling of male impotence there that can only be assauged by sexual objectification. It can't be stopped, it won't be stopped, it just is.

But putting aside Palin's credentials and her positions on the issues for a moment, what does disturb me is the Republican party's use of Palin's power as a woman themselves. It's with her permission of course, but I ask myself if a male candidate had winked and mugged to the camera as Palin did last week during the VP debate if they wouldn't be ripped to shreds for not taking any of this running for VP stuff seriously.

It's the same feeling I used to get watching the cute girl with the pigtails in 3rd grade, wink and mug at the teacher and still get taken seriously while the plain girl in the corner who was the smartest in the class, had to work twice as hard to get the same recognition. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

I think the credibility that porn producers attempt to undermine with porn characters is in even more danger if women themselves use sexual frivolity or as it's called in Palin's case, her folksy-ness, when it's least called for.

Megan

Megan Smith

BlogHer CE, TV/Online Video

My Other Blogs:
Megan's Minute &
Video Runway

Nailin Palin...?

American Princess — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 23:19:03 -0500

For some movies, there's no higher honor than earning an adult entertainment counterpart parody. Some of the greatest movies have been remade to star women with impossibly huge breasts, men with impossibly huge private parts, and lots of extras who are impossibly tuned in to the sexual needs of the main characters and who make impossibly bad puns. Its rare that this crosses into the real world, but apparently, Sarah Palin is about to earn adult entertainment's highest honor herself.

Larry Flynt is financing her porn debut. Sort of.

The Hustler founder has made an X-rated movie using an adult-film actress who resembles the governor of Alaska.

Flynt's team had posted an anonymous advert on the website Craigslist just days after Mrs Palin took the Republican convention by storm last month.

The ad read: "Looking for a Sarah Palin look-alike for an adult film to be shot in the next 10 days."

The actress would be paid $3,000 (£1,700) for the part.

Flynt's spokesman confirmed to the New York Daily News that the film had been shot, but he would not yet reveal the title.

Okay, so this article is a little outdated. We now know that the movie will be entitled "Naylin' Palin," will feature her engaging in foreign "relations" with her Russian neighbors, will star adult actress Lisa Ann, and will involve a...ugh...threesome between Palin, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice.

And its already selling advance copies.

And I'm really trying to hold it in, if you can't tell.

I'm a libertarian. I say that a lot. In fact, I'm what you might consider a pro-porn feminist libertarian. While I define feminism differently, I tend to lean toward the theory that porn is both an art form and possesses the potential to allow women to embrace their sexuality. To be frank, there are some types of porn that I don't find objectionable. In fact, at some point in my early adulthood, I very publicly admitted that I would edit Playboy in a heartbeat if given the chance.

But there's theory and then there's reality. Of course, I'd still love to work at Playboy, but in the grand world of pornography, Playboy is the Cuban cigar to the rest of the industry's Marlboro Lights (odd metaphor, but it works). Pornography is an art form that can be explored, used to make political statements, exist as satire and counterpoint to a stuffy, insular and often puritanical culture. From this perspective, I believe that Larry Flynt has the right to explore the parameters of the political system; if his and his editors idea of commentating on the political climate is to make a porn movie about it, the principles of artistic expression and free speech apply. Anything less would be...conservative.

But there comes a point where anti-puritanical satire borders on exploitation. Certainly, Flynt is making a political point, however, he is also riding a wave: the media, the popular culture, and without a doubt fellow progressives (and many, many others of both sides of the political spectrum) have been taking cheap but funny shots at the shortcomings of Palin's personality over the last week, resulting in ratings -- and message -- gold. For some, its merely a way of spreading the truth, for others, its a way to devalue Palin as a human being, a political candidate, and...as a woman.

There are many reasons to object to Sarah Palin; I can imagine that my co-bloggers here at BlogHer would have no problem issuing me a list at the drop of a hat and every point on the list would be legitimate, but there's no question that for some critics, the thought of a woman ascending to the highest office in the land is terrifying. Hell, they thought a woman with the qualifications, experience and level of respect of Hillary Clinton ascending to the Presidency was terrifying...of course, they'd switch targets to the small-town mayor from the 49th, wilderness state. How better to marginalize a candidate than by appealing to the most animal instincts of her critics? How better to make Sarah Palin nothing more than an object than by reducing her to, well, an object?

Pornography, no matter how empowering, and like any weapon in the free speech arsenal, can be used for evil. Pornography and adult film-making is especially dangerous, since it often deliberately depicts savage sexuality, violence against women, and reduces women to their most basic state: that of a sexual object. Its stars are not helpful in this respect -- most of the women who star in mainstream adult films are not natural women. They are plastic representations of women cleaned from the fantasies of hyper-sexualized, macho males. Not people loved for their intelligence, sophistication and wit, in other words.

Its something feminists have been saying for years; despite supporting the necessary freedom of expression, there are clear lines that should not be crossed. No woman should be depicted as the victim of violence, no woman should be reduced to nothing more than the object of a teenage fantasy. For true equality, women must accept their sexuality and demand respect.

By depicting Sarah Palin as a brainless sex object, by taking advantage of the popular notion that she is a political fantasy, Hustler and Larry Flynt are perpetuating the idea that any woman, no matter how accomplished, can be reduced to the sum of her bedroom prowess. And he's not the only one. Palin, Clinton and other high-powered women have been intentionally and recently attacked, cited as incapable of doing their job because of their gender, and demeaned because of their habit of wearing skirts. In this film, Flynt reinforces even those ideas, making certain to incorporate the other women in high office in this country into a threesome fantasy. It's no secret that the threesome is the most profitable and sought-after scenario in adult entertainment. Marketing to the masses of young men consuming this material by putting three powerful women into that situation makes clear the result of Hustler's art: there's a possibility that the movie's consumers will see the precedent and apply it to all future female candidates.

Of course, Larry Flynt has his rights, and if the movie stimulates (heh) political discussion, then it will have been successful as political parody. He may be on to something and I may be paranoid, but as with all rights, just because you can use it, it doesn't mean you should. In this case, I have to believe the story of Sarah Palin's naked exploits with Russian oilmen should have been left unwritten.

Or at least wait until she's Vice President. Now those scenarios would be kind of hot.

Don't just agree with me. Read more about it at these ladies sites: Echidne of the Snakes discusses the ramifications of both the porn movie and the possibility that Sarah Palin may be exploiting her own sexuality for political gain. Monya of Stupid Celebrities and her readers take a look at the situation from a Hollywood perspective. Tennessee Gureilla Woman delves more in depth into the strain of sexism that has run through this election cycle.