October 20, 2008--Not Just Another MILF

One of the most interesting phenomena of the Sarah Palin candidacy is the fact that she is doing so well at rallying men to the McCain-Palin ticket. So well that by 44 to 36 percent men more than women indicate they are “favorably” disposed to her. (See New York Times article linked below.)

One would think that macho Joe Sixpacks who hate anything having to do with a feminist agenda, who feel threatened by liberated women, and who love their guns more than their wives or girlfriends would not want to see a woman in the White House except as First Lady, a First Lady at that who would stand by their man no matter what. And we know what that “what’ is.

So what’s the story behind the story of so many men showing such enthusiasm for even a gun-tottin’ gal?

I’ve thus far thought it’s because she’s such a Babe. A babe, actually, of a specific type--a MILF.

In case the concept of a MILF is new to you, it represents a particular subcategory of pornography. And the most popular one among Sarah Palin’s male constituency.

At the risk of getting too graphic here, suffice it to say that MILFs are mature women--mature meaning older than 20 but younger than 50. The “M” in MILF stands for “Mothers” and if you want to know what the “I” and “L” and “F” represent, I’ll give you a hint—they stand for “I’d,” “Like,” and “to F***.”

If you tuned into Morning Joe today you heard both Republican Joe Scarborough and Democrat Lawrence O’Donnell drooling over her in this way after seeing her on Saturday Night Live. Fairly or not, Sarah Palin looks the part, and I have been suspecting that this is the source of much of her appeal to men.

It may be more complex and interesting than that.

According to the same New York Times story it may be that many of her male followers are more than letching her up. Yes some at her rallies say they are there to ogle her. One at a crowd in Bangor, Maine confessed that he turned out “to look at her.” “Just call me John Deere,” he added.

But other men were there for different reasons. Larry Hawkins, a former truck driver said, “They bear us children, they risk their lives to give us birth, so maybe it’s time we let a woman lead us. The sexual drives and big egos of male leaders have gotten in the way of politics in this country. Palin is our kind of woman.”

Doesn’t this view, if in any way generalizable, represent progress? Putting her qualifications and appropriateness aside, isn’t this the kind of cultural shift what we are looking for? To have so many men attracted to her politically, no matter what we think of her candidacy, suggests that gender (and of course race) may no longer in themselves determine who is fit to serve in high office.

If true, having this many men wanting to see her elected, though she may be the wrong woman, may be the right idea.