It’s common knowledge that women tend to hate prettier women. (Don’t believe me? Check out the links below.)
My question: Will female voters consider Sarah Palin’s run for VP based on her qualifications, character, and such, or will they reject her outright solely because she’s so beautiful?
When Other Women Hate You Because You’re Beautiful:
No one really talks about it, but one of the main issues preventing women from getting along with other women is jealousy. In the professional world, it breaks down to one of two things: jealousy over how good you are at what you do or jealousy over how good you look doing what you do. These related but distinct problems each deserve their own post, so I’ll start with Green Monster #1: when you’re prettier than the average woman. 
Many of you reading this are probably already feeling an aversion to the topic—none of us likes to admit that other people are better looking than we are or, even worse, that we resent them for it. In fact, many of us don’t admit it, not even to ourselves. Instead, we channel the jealousy into resentment and let it lurk inside of us until the object of it does something that we can interpret maliciously—and then we hate them for that reason.
Why Women are Catty:
First, we can hate another woman instantaneously – without anything more to go on than what she is wearing. 
You’ve all heard it or seen it before. The way a younger, more attractive, smarter, funnier, prettier, sexier woman (it only has to be one, but can also be a combination of these traits – the more she has, the worse the reaction) walks into a room and the other women all turn to look at her. It’s like we have a sixth sense just for knowing when competition is in the room. “Look at her,” we think, “she thinks she is hot stuff.” Then, the deadly venom: “But she’s not.”
From this point, the woman is our enemy.
Jealous of Other Pretty Women? A Tip for Improving Your Body Image:
There can be a sort of snide competition between women, where we allow other women to be beautiful….to a point. Other women can be pretty, as long as they’re not too pretty. A woman can be beautiful, but if she’s also smart, organized, and a great mom? Forget it. We gossip about her and secretly love seeing her slip up. We alternate between wanting to be her and, well, hating her.
For an organization like the GOP that counts on divisiveness to succeed, they got this one wrong. Sure, it worked for Hitler blaming Jews, but we’re talking about gender conflict here.
Women are unlikely to vote for a presumed beauty queen if that’s the mask used to cover her fatal qualities.
Women remember to vote in the USa?
Since when?
Short answer: Yes, if she’s hot enough. There are people who are attractive enough to attract people of the same sex, even those not sexually inclined in that way.
Dunno if Gov. Palin is either exceptionally attractive or even really pretty, though.
I am not voting for a Republican in November Period. They took power and abused it. Time to pay the piper.
God, I hope people vote for her based on her character and political positions. But, I suspect, though, that too many people share her right wing, extreme, Christian conservative views as well as will love her, now apparent, willingness to flat out lie about her opponent.
And it is not specifically about experience. I think the question of experience is tiresome. To argue that a few terms getting earmarks for a small town is “better” preparation for the presidency than being a senator (or a community organizer) is fatuous. But who knows? Maybe she would be just fine as president (in a technical sense.)
But the Republicas will argue that because being a small town mayor (and partial term govenor of a small state) is not automatically disqualifying that she is, therefore, qualified. Because it is mean to ask Palin about her qualifications, she must be qualified!
The women who’ll vote for the ticket only because she’s got no Y chromosome will balance out the ones who’ll not vote – and there’ll be some – for it ’cause she’s hot. In other words, a wash.
And @Ducky: “Dunno if Gov. Palin is … even really pretty, though” What the hell? She’s not just pretty, she’s flat out gorgeous. I’m sorry, Gorgeous, with a capital G. And that skirt. And those glasses. Sigh.
I’ve got a crush on her of the kind I previously thought was only possible for 22-year-old Americorps member Obamabots to have on the junior Senator from Illinois. I can’t vote for her because of the whole creationism in schools thing, but man I like looking at her.
I don’t know. Most women aren’t are dumb enough to look at only the cover.
Rant:
I wouldn’t vote for the Repubs or Dems even if my mom was on the VP ticket (and my mom is one of the smartest natural managers I’ve ever seen). Both parties have both managed to screw so much up it isn’t funny anymore.
We need a 3rd party candidate in office who isn’t tied to either party. You want to see how much these two parties are working together now? Just get a 3rd party candidate in office. The whole world will see, too. It isn’t a republic when you are only shown two sides of the same coin.
Why are there default selections (Yes) on these polls? Is someone trying to steer us towards an answer?
I don’t think linking to “opinion pieces” is proof of anything except that you can find websites supporting any opinion you can think of. So–do the opinion pieces reflect reality or the urban rumor?
OTOH–I’m trying to think of any guys that were “jealous” in this way of other guys==and I really don’t have a single example. Just the opposite I would say, guys admire and want such guys as their friends, for a variety of reasons. Thats my experience, but I wouldn’t call it “the truth.”
Only an idiot would say that women will vote based on the looks of the woman.
Women will vote for a woman if they represent or can identify with what women seek.
Ghandi, Thatcher, Meir, etc. were elected because women saw them as being themselves.
Clinton got votes because she was for families, healthcare and women’s rights.
Palin will garner votes because she is a working mom, is for family and shows that a girl from podunk town in Alaska can make it in a man dominated world.
Palin and Clinton are the poster girls of the result of the Sufferagettes and the ERA movements.
Palin is also more palatable to women as she has not shown herself as a greedy, grasping and self-centered person. Many do not like Clinton because she wants to upstage everyone.
There is a vast difference between shinning and grandstanding.
Personality, Palin can bring them in. But alas all of them are plutocrats that will only carry on with status quo politics.
Cursor_
There are always Neanderthals when it comes to appraising others. I would think the more secure a person, the less likely they are to be jealous of another.
I’ve had women bosses before and they hold no more special traits than do male bosses. True, they might nor laugh the same at a ribald joke, or care to join the crew for a beer, but on the job they are just as good.
Jealousy of other women? LOL !!! Men can be just as jealous. Men size up other men as potential competition on first sight probably more so that do women. And men also discuss men behind their backs.
Sarah Palin is beautiful? I find she’s just average.
Oh yeah…I live in Montreal…NA’s beautiful women capital.
Women will only act “catty” when there is perceived or real competition. Lucky guy?
Where are all the desultory polls about Obama or Biden?
Sad to say, but I am going with No.
#11 and #13
Mark, she’s good looking for a hillbilly. 😉
Cursor, you gotta go to Montreal. It’s not just their looks, it’s their attitude.
I’m waiting for another Angel Wong GILF Republican lesbian comment…
#13 Bwahaahaha
I counter with this:
http://tinyurl.com/6286eq
Montreal is #2 after Sin City
Just take a walk anytime around downtown Montreal.
So, if they would vote for that PIG Hillary, the Dems now hope she won’t vote for an intelligent, totally refreshing, sparkling Republican. You guys are funny. I am sure Barry is shaking in his Adidas.
Data point.
My wife was on the fence between not voting and voting for McCain. After Palin’s speech last night McCain/Palin racked up another vote.
Cursor,
Montreal is among the best cities to see very attractive women. I haven’t visited every city out there, but where I have been, none have surpassed Montreal.
*
If anyone thinks Palin is “hot” then they need a life. No wonder she came in second in some backwater “beauty contest”. But she could still be better looking than your mother.
Why don’t you men find something better to, like play with your small little man parts. (That is probably the most action y’all are getting since you are more worried about these silly polls than pleasing the women in your life.)
#22 Stephanie, we’re actually more interested in what you have to say about the subject post, than the small hidden truth about ourselves.
Plus, you spell your name the French way, meaning some ancestry from Québec.
So, does an intelligent (and of course beautiful) woman like yourself influenced by what SN (#0) posted? Or pure BS?
I say BS – women electorate are most likely able to vote properly – according to moral values – than according to looks.
I find the JFK reference above – that women voted for him just for his looks – not accurate. The man had other redeeming qualities.
Probably because I’m old, but Ms. Palin AND Ms. Clinton are both good looking, IMHO….
Really bad criteria choice 😀 ….
‘Course, I’m a guy. I don’t know how my wife, for example, would react. She probably doesn’t know either (another stereotype).
She will promise to vote for whoever I tell her, and then muck that up (or think for herself, Heaven forbid) in the voting booth.
If she ever sees this, I’m toast, but she’s a computerphobe.
Regards
Ok well here is my two cents:
Palin is attractive in both appearance and in her assertiveness. I just don’t agree with her stances on prayer in school, gun control (or lack thereof), the war and abortion. I am not an atheist (as it seems many on this board are) but she is too evangelical for my taste. I am very middle of the road on most issues.
I didn’t vote for Hillary for several reasons. As an outsider looking in, I resent that their marriage looks like a sham that is only used towards keeping them as a power couple in politics. Any woman that stands by their husband during the “affair press conference” ought to be hit over the head with the Manolo’s their husband’s bought them to shut them up. Every woman that sees a woman standing by their man during a time like that has a sense of pain for them and it is high time that women stop acting like obedient little servants. F that. I also didn’t vote for Hillary because this country does need a change and although Bill did some wonderful things for this country, I don’t want another 4 years of Bill anymore than I wanted 8 years of Bush senior.
Stephanie is actually Greek for “crowned one”. I have no history of being French-Canadian as far as I know.
Yes, I am hot though! 😉
Woo-Hoo!
#27 seconded
Sifting through 208,000 Stephanie Facebook entries… (just kidding)
Democrats are focusing excessively on her ability to pull in women. This shows their poor gamesmanship. Getting women is only a tertiary goal.
real list
a. She is feisty like McCain. He likes the way she stuck it to the AK GOP.
b. She is a political newbie and hot, just like Obama. When Dems say she isn’t ready they are making the case against their OWN man! Have none of them realized it? There is a reason they lose so often.
c. Energize the base AND peel off some women in the rust belt.
Last on the list, and the least important. Hillary strategists were RIGHT when they said that if they could change the vote of one-in-ten women because of her gender they would win in a walk. McCain wins, all other things equal, if he can change the vote OR discourage from voting a similar proportion.
What about the possibility that women will reject her because she is a clueless dipshit? Doesn’t that enter the calculation?
Seems to me that Americans are still more willing to vote for a senile oil industry stooge and a gun toting god botherer that an intelligent black man.
The Republicans will be counting on the racism (overt or otherwise) of the electorate in order to win, not the good looks of the VP.
Sadly a non-white would also have a snowflakes (no pun intended) chance here in Australia.
Not a member of Facebook! 😉
Any woman worth their salt would rather be complimented on their intelligence rather than looks. As Judge Judy says, “beauty fades, but dumb is forever”.
Any woman should hope that they look that good in their mid 40’s and be as in shape as her. But the bottom line is that I can’t agree with the GOP. Watching the convention last night just affirmed that for me. The referred to member’s as the “Sam’s folks”…. ugh, God forbid anyone puts me in a category with Walmart! One of the speakers last night was talking about his pro-life beliefs and to me that has nothing to do with politics. I am definitely aware of the consequences of having sex and the risks that go along with it (from STDs to pregnancy). So if I was to get pregnant I would accept the gravity of my actions and raise the kid. BUT if I was to get attacked, raped and life was conceived from that, I can’t say that I would feel the same way. And I cannot make that choice for ANY other woman by telling them to carry a child for 9 months that was a product of rape or incest. No man even has the right to tell me or any other woman what to do with our bodies. Maybe that wouldn’t bother Palin if it was one of her daughters and good for her. America is not comprised of people who all believe the same way though. That is what makes America supposedly a great country, freedom of choice on who to vote for, where to live, where to work and what we do to our bodies.
Women shouldn’t be able to run around getting abortions as their preferred method of birth control, nor should it be allowed past the first three months except for in cases where there are extreme circumstances. Partial birth abortions should never be allowed. There is a middle road but Palin is too far on the other side to see it.