By now most people have intuited that Barack Obama's comment that likened Sarah Palin to a pig was a major gaffe. Glenn Reynolds has a round-up of reactions, most of which suggest that Barack Obama consciously was disparaging Sarah Paliln and that his "plausible deniability" of the implications of his remark will not hold water. I suspect that Barack Obama's gaffe will have profound implications because of the psychological resonance it will have with a great many people. His remark illuminates an aspect of Barack Obama and indirectly of John McCain that is extremely telling.
To understand the psychological resonance of the remark, it is useful to understand an aspect of male development. All men during their psychosexual development must come to a workable resolution of their anxiety of, and attraction to, women.
[There are many reasons for the anxiety, not least that the first relationship a person becomes aware of is the existence of the mother; the self-object differentiate from the maternal-infant dyad, referred to as symbiosis. The time of union with the early mother becomes the core of ubiquitous fantasies of an all powerful maternal object that takes care of all one's needs. These fantasies animate disparate Utopian ideologies and are an aspect of the political wishes for the state to take care of one's basic needs.]
Insecure men, who struggle with the anxiety that the woman arouses, and cultures that are determined by insecure men, find ways to manage this anxiety. In less mature individuals and cultures, the woman's image is split in a particular way. Young, attractive woman are objectified, made into sexual objects who can be used without the necessity of developing a relationship with a real, fully human, person. At the same time, maternal objects have their sexuality implicitly denied. Older women can be then approached as sources of familial wisdom without the encumbrance of sexuality. In the most regressed or primitive societies, both aspects are defended against. The Taliban specialized in destroying girl's schools lest the women become too smart and dangerous. At the same time they made their women hide their bodies under billowing tents lest the power of female sexuality threaten the man's ability to control himself.
Secure men, on the other hand, not only have no problem approaching women as containing feminine and sexual aspects, but also revel in their intellects. Insecure men, fearful of the power of women's sexuality and insecure in their ability to compete intellectually, express their anxiety with aggression and its derivatives and this is where Barack Obama has made what could prove to be a fatal mistake.
I am not here speculating about Barack Obama's psychology. He may in fact be extremely secure in his masculinity and not only tolerant of, but welcoming of, the full panoply of attributes of the powerful woman. However, his tolerance of disparaging sexist remarks, whether directed during the primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, and now more overtly toward Sarah Palin, has been suggestive of a man made uncomfortable by a powerful woman.
Further, his problems are magnified when it comes to Sarah Palin. Where Hillary Clinton was seen, rightly or wrongly, as a powerful but non-sexually threatening woman, Sarah Palin is undeniably attractive and, to all appearances thus far, extremely sharp intellectually. A man who constantly disparages such a woman suggests that he is a man who fears such a woman. This resonates with viewers on a subliminal level. Most people resent the sexism inherent in his remarks but on a deeper level, there arises concern over his level of anxiety. The barely submerged meme that he eschewed Hillary Clinton because Michelle Obama objected to her, that he feared his wife, a powerful woman in her own right, more than he wished to make a smart political decision, gains credence by his continuing attacks on Sarah Palin.
It is interesting, and not unexpected (except to the MSM and liberal elites who have often never had the occasion to speak to a conservative or "right wing" Christian) that the Republican base is enthralled and delighted with Palin while the liberal base is nearly deranged by her. This owes much to the (post-liberation) devolution of feminism. Modern feminism lost its way when the angry feminists decided that not only are women equal to men but needed to then take the absurd step of denying that men and women are different from each other. This is now an established bedrock principle of modern feminism and is a reaction formation against the reality that men and women are in fact different in rather significant ways.
[In psychoanalysis, Shakespeare's elucidation of those who "protest too much" is called reaction formation. The insistence on equivalence, not just equality, between men and women is to deny the significance of the penis and the uterus. The woman's unique power to create a new life is denigrated; a woman with five children is thus an irresponsible breeder, not someone to admire. Worse, in their need to deny the unique power of motherhood, the feminist cannot believe that a powerful woman would keep a fetus with Down's Syndrome. At the same time, the unique sexuality, indeed the very necessity of men, is denied. The modern man, when he cannot be avoided, should be sensitive and metrosexual, more in tune with his feminine side. Turning Henry Higgins on his head, they ask, "Why can't a man be more like a woman?" For many men and women this is tantamount to emasculinization, creating men who are weak and feminized. Thus, the feminist movement has revealed itself fundamentally at odds with what defines us, and enraptures us, about the opposite sex.]
The initial objections to Obama's lipstick comment have come from women (and men) who are tired and annoyed at the same old patronization by insecure men who cannot deal with a real woman. As time goes on, we will see more and more men come to the realization that Obama's campaign, and the appearance that his gaffes promote, is a celebration of feminized and emasculated masculinity. There are a great many Todd Palins in America who love their women to be smart, strong, and sexy. I suspect as the import of the gaffe percolates through the zeitgeist it will continue to have damaging effects on the Obama campaign. The women may lead the way, but the men will not be far behind.
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