Some parts were creepy and some were cute. I would have liked it better without the email harassment.
“I want to rear my little head”? “Why won’t you answer my emails?” “I’m looking at you every day” “I want to fly into your airspace” I don’t know. I guess I can see the humor here but if we are looking at sexism, that’s what this is. This reduces Sarah Palin to a lust object and suggests that its okay to stalk her. Palin isn’t a great supporter of women’s rights at all, but I don’t think this was a really good parody or joke. Something like what Tina Fey has done is a good joke, because its non-sexist parody, but I think we really need to be careful about the type of humor we endorse. The whole point of this was two men being obsessed with Palin and saying they “love” her even though they haven’t met her and that they watch her every day and they want to have sex with her (complete with pelvic thrusts). It seems funny because its mocking someone we don’t like, but we should think critically about it. What *is* humorous about it? The ideology (that this kind of obsession, treatment of another person as an object is acceptable, etc) isn’t really funny at all, its pretty scary. And I really don’t see a large difference between it and the Mitchum man jokes in terms of sexism. They still promote the concept of the female victim. Palin doesn’t have to defend my rights for me to support and defend hers.
I genuinely do not believe that one can be victimized by a fantasy like that (humorous context or not), so I cannot agree, Amy.
It’s not just a fantasy, they’re stalking her. Complete with (presumably increasingly desperate) emails and spying. While the ridiculousness of the Russian guys was kind of funny, I did think it was remarkable that this sort of thing would be appreciated/go largely un-denounced on a feminist blog.
I think it wouldn’t be funny if it didn’t have significant political context. The humor relies on two things: 1) Palin’s own assertions about Russia, that they threaten to “rear their heads” and “fly into our airspace” so we’d better keep an eye on them and as such she personally keeps a close watch on the Russians (dum dum dum). Taking the threatening edge off of her quotes gives them a hefty amount of innuendo, and frankly, sometimes innuendo is funny, as I think it is here. The quotes, the email references, that the subjects are from Russia, that they’re subjectifying Russians (as opposed to how Palin presented Russians), all have timely, political relevancy. 2) Palin the heartthrob — Bill Kristol’s term, not mine. Other bloggers have discussed the use of femininity on the campaign trail by Palin and how that has been received, but there is undeniably an aura of flirtatiousness *wink wink* that is present in many of approaches to an audience. Many folks are genuinely attracted to her — and I agree that a lot of the leering commentary about her is frank sexism. But I don’t think the dudes in the video are saying that they literally want to have sex with Palin because she’s an attractive public figure, they’re mocking those that do. I can see how some would be turned off by the “watching” in the video, in that it could appear to be a stalking fantasy. The fun is the idea that not only is Palin “keeping an eye on” Russia, they’re watching her back. If the subject of the song was, I don’t know, Angelina Jolie or, um, some other random celebrity, it wouldn’t be funny because it wouldn’t have any political or commentative relevancy, and moreover because it wouldn’t make sense. Just my thoughts. I’m willing to be swayed.
It is scary how obtuse some people can be. This video clip is obviously made to be comical and is makign fun of Palin’s Public Persona she is trying so hard to project — “a betcha-doggoneit all-American beauty star who is very strict in her morals and is watching those naughty Russians”. So Russians are pretending to play along to show how ridiculous her image and “foreign policy” are. It is most certainly not about Palin-a-Woman (they could pick a prettier and sexier girl for that). Also, a thought that this video promotes/condones some negative stereotypes about Russians is equally baseless. For one, it is made by Russians, so they have a lot of lattitude to make fun of themselves without having the viewers believe that they really think of themselves badly. Also, this is a comic video, a video about ridiculous stereotypes, especially those that Palin is trying to pull over the American public (stereotypes of both naughty Russians AND stereotypes of what a woman who runs for a public office must be like — cute, flirty, and you-betcha).
Youtube is pretty much the primary thing that’s kept this election bearable. I love this stuff. Another pretty funny video I came across earlier tonight that I’d be interested in a feminist-based reading of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1dudz3SKjQ From the description: On August 29th, McCain introduced Sarah Palin to try to sway white women voters away from the Democratic ticket. But he forgot one thing that is even more powerful to women than another woman… …a boy band.
Well, I can’t speak for anyone else from the former USSR, but I didn’t see this as a negative stereotype at all. It was nicely done, with great little touches (like the rug under their feet, simply perfect – I actually have no idea where it was bought, but my grandma has one almost exactly like it). They didn’t strike me as horrible creeps or perverts either, they were making fun of Palin’s ridiculous assertions on the campaign trail. Palin is a warhawk, and I am damn near sick of her russophobic BS. I’m glad to see it’s being made fun of, because it deserves to be made fun of.