Well, so much for diversity and appreciating and embracing "the other." I think that thing only applies when "the other" is pathetic or damaged in some way, or manages to wiggle their way into some victim class.
Or perhaps some pomo reader, if we have one, could help me distinguish between the "good other" and the "bad other."
It sure doesn't apply when "the other" is a regular American woman, albeit one with unusual energy and coping skills. Nick Cohen on When Obama's berserkers lost the plot. (h/t, Lucianne). One quote:
For once, the postmodern theories so many of them were taught at university are a help to the rest of us. As a Christian, conservative anti-abortionist who proved her support for the Iraq War by sending her son to fight in it, Sarah Palin was 'the other' - the threatening alien presence they defined themselves against. They might have soberly examined her reputation as an opponent of political corruption to see if she was truly the reformer she claimed to be. They might have gently mocked her idiotic creationism, while carefully avoiding all discussion of the racist conspiracy theories of Barack Obama's church.
But instead of following a measured strategy, they went berserk. On the one hand, the media treated her as a sex object. The New York Times led the way in painting Palin as a glamour-puss in go-go boots you were more likely to find in an Anchorage lap-dancing club than the Alaska governor's office.
Some animals are more other than others.
Addendum: Apparently those folks at the Guardian also view people like me as "the other" - and as a primitive, apeish ignorant "other" for whom they hold contempt. They have clearly never met me. I'm an Ivy guy, and I wear ties and like guns. Call me a knuckle-dragging redneck if you want to. Story at Jules.
Addendum: From our commenter "People on the left are breaking the teeth of reason on the irrefutable fact of Sarah Palin--the other--as they gnash the grinders in their dismay. They have attacked her strength and accomplishments with sexism; they have belittled her origins with classism; and they have mocked her beliefs, leaving only the shell of their multiculturalism. Thus the lie of identity politics and multiculturalism lay in ruins."
Addendum: The Palin Problem. Rick Moran. One quote:
Most women work because they have to in order to make ends meet or give the family those vital little extras not to mention the fulfillment many women get from the feeling of independence and pride that having a job brings. Politicians have tried for years to address these women directly with varying degrees of success. Democrats have offered child care, family leave, job protections for pregnant women, and the child health insurance program S-CHIP among other programs. Republicans haven’t ignored these women but have not offered much government assistance, preferring tax credits to ease the financial burden on the family.
Palin is the first Republican politician with which these women can truly identify. She speaks their language. She sounds like them. Her family looks like their family. And when she speaks of the mixing of her career and family, she can look directly at the camera and give them a knowing smile of solidarity – as if they were neighbors casually talking over the backyard fence.
Photo is our refined, sophisticated, Euro-sensitive, metrosexual editor Bird Dog. Just your typical American voter...
