Sarah Cantin | Nutcracker or Barbie?

It's been one month today since John McCain announced that Governor Sarah Palin would be his running mate. Does it seem like longer to you? We've already witnessed her rise, and it's safe to say that she's beginning to fall - or at least plateau.

Palin's initial popularity had little to do with policy. In fact, most of the convention speech for which she received such acclaim had little to do with policy. Instead, it seemed for a few weeks that all we needed to know about the potential Republican VP was her versatility - she's a former beauty queen and she likes gun-related activities!

As suggested by the popular Saturday Night Live skit, a comparison between the Alaskan governor and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton raises some disturbing questions, namely: Why do we call Palin a babe and a MILF but call Hillary a bitch (www.hillarythebitch.com) and the c-word? And why is either extreme OK in 2008?

Palin is traditionally masculine - and feminine - in all the right ways. She can hunt and eat moose burgers, but she can look demure in skirt suits and pumps. Hillary is masculine in all the wrong ways and never effectively harnessed or marketed her femininity - plus, she wore those despised pantsuits.

"She's a 'ball-breaker', and that's why she was so successful in politics," said professor Shannon Lundeen, associate director of the Alice Paul Center for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Palin is acceptable, Lundeen contends, because, "She's saying 'I'll follow this man' [Senator McCain]. If she didn't fit that feminine model, then perhaps she'd be perceived more like Hillary."

Perhaps this is how we want our female political leaders, then - like men in their hobbies, just not in their temperament.

Governor Palin can escape "bitch" status because she's not trying to take the number one spot that Hillary sought and felt she deserved. Through rhetoric and argumentation, Senator Clinton tried to convince us that she was as smart and capable as any man. Palin's appeal to many, Alice Paul Center co-director Professor Demie Kurz notes, is her "anti-intellectualism" - she's not professing to be superior to us, because she doesn't have to.

Her glow might be fading, but many are still claiming Palin as the latest and greatest model of the All-American woman, a trend that never seemed to catch on with Hillary. More than ever, Palin has made the relationship between a president and vice president resemble a retro sitcom marriage: She's the feisty wife who invigorates her stodgy husband, and though she knows her own mind, she'll let him rule the roost. Or, more bluntly: She knows her place.

The truth is, we've held both Clinton and Palin to double standards. Has anyone been dramatically concerned about Obama's ability to be a good father if he becomes president? Has anyone spent time critiquing the width of McCain's ankles? Hillary's watery-eyed moment in New Hampshire feminized her, and she was simultaneously damned for appearing too weak and praised for finally appearing compassionate.

Overall, as Wharton senior Jennifer Cohen believes "Clinton was made out to be heartless." If Hillary's campaign taught us anything, it's that a heartless woman is no woman at all.

Which is why we'll seriously critique Palin's qualifications and stances, but not her personality. She can be plucky without seeming pugnacious because she's only vying for second in command.

That she's a proverbial heartbeat away from becoming Commander-in-Chief is a troubling reality that's only recently begun to sink in.

Like all public figures of note, the two women have been commodified. The difference? Hillary's doll takes the form of a nutcracker, while Sarah's is a Barbie. Neither seems to be a good option.

Sarah Cantin is a College senior from Boston, Mass. Her email is cantin@dailypennsylvanian.com. Candid Cantin appears on alternating Mondays.

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