This week's cover
My thirteen-year-old daughter picked up Newsweek the other day at the orthodontist’s office and said, “Why on earth is she dressed like that?” She was referring, of course, to the photo of Sarah Palin on the cover, dressed in short running shorts and looking like a model for a running shoe company rather than a former vice presidential candidate.
I sighed. (The use of the phrase "out of the mouth of babes" seems a little loaded in these circumstances, but that those are the words that popped to mind.) I’m not a fan of Sarah Palin’s policies. I’m not a fan of Sarah Palin. But the cover is a problem, and I had to explain why to my daughter.
For as much as I wish Sarah Palin would just go away, someone at a major magazine (if we can still call them “major”) manages to persuade me that once in a while, she does have a point. A couple of months ago Levi Johnston, the father of Palin’s grandson, paused on his indefatigable march to his Playgirl centerfold to critique Palin’s parenting abilities for Vanity Fair. It was absurd. Now while we’re waiting for the next installment in Levi’s career of quasi-celebrity (why do I feel a reality TV show with Tonya Harding is inevitable? And I shudder to think of the co-branding possibilities with Balloon Boy Dad), we have another media misstep: Newsweek’s cover of Palin, in which they’ve recycled an image of her posing for Runner’s World in shorts, paired with the headline, “How do you solve a problem like Sarah?”
I told my daughter that Palin denounced the photo as “sexist” and “degrading” on her Facebook page, to which Newsweek’s editor, Jon Meachem, replied, "We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do. We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."
Gender-neutral? Let’s begin with the headline, a reference to the Sound of Music’s “How do you solve a problem like Maria,” a song my daughter knows well. In it, the cloistered nuns wring their hands over Maria, the “flibbertigibit,” “will o’ wisp,” and “clown,” only to be reassured by the booming voice of Mother Superior that she’s just “a GIRRRRRRRRRLLL.” My thirteen-year-old's eyebrows shot up.
And as for the image conveying what Newsweek is trying to say, well, I pointed out, the article is about Sarah Palin the politician, not Sarah Palin the exercise fanatic.
Tina Brown, the founder of The Daily Beast, insists that Palin’s accusations of sexism are unfounded, that if she didn’t “want the moment captured on film, don’t show up in sporty hot pants for a photo shoot.”
Puh-leeze. Palin wore the outfit to a Runner’s World shoot, not one for Newsweek, which in spite of its increasing irrelevance (according to the Washington Post’s third quarter’s earning report, Newsweek’s subscriber base is expected to drop to 1.5 million in January 2010 from 3.1 million earlier this year) is still considered a serious magazine. Palin wouldn’t have worn running shorts to a shoot for their cover – and in fact Newsweek was so set on using the leggy pose that it didn’t even get permission from Runner’s World. According to their web site, “the photos from that shoot are still under a one-year embargo, and Runner’s World did not provide Newsweek with its cover image. It was provided to Newsweek by the photographer’s stock agency, without Runner’s World’s knowledge or permission.”
Some have defended the use of the photo by saying that Palin’s looks and sexuality are a part of her appeal as a politician, but that still seems like a stretch. It’s not as if she showed up for the debate or campaign stops in miniskirts and plunging necklines. As Joan Walsh wrote in Salon, “let’s be clear – this wasn’t an article about Palin’s sex appeal, or the role of her gender in the campaign – this was an article about her political assets and flaws.”
Palin's prominence and what it means, or may mean, is a newsworthy story. But as Joel Achenbach wrote in the Washington Post, "in a single editorial decision, Newsweek has called attention to its own editorial judgment rather than to the Bizarro-World rise of Palin as an allegedly credible leader of the world's most powerful nation." Whether or not you think Palin is a breath of fresh air or a frighteningly incompetent former governor with a memoir to hawk and unknown political potential, Newsweek's decision was bad and Meachem's explanation worse.
Comments
Palin is the one who's sexist, having posed for the picture in the first place. Clearly not a shot of her actually running a marathon, in which case shorts would be appropriate. Instead, a photo op, taken inside a well-appointed office, in full make up and coiffed hair, not a drop of sweat, glamor pose, leaning on a flag draped over a chair. And the point of the shorts in this "context", regardless of publication? Palin used her on sex to sell herself.
calling this a "families in the news" is a stretch. I agree with DC Reader- stick to your topic.
Is this article in the right section?
I'm the last one to sympathize with Palin - but Ms. Mahoney did make me pause. It was fair. As an aside, T., I think we get so much good stuff on families from this column, we can occasionally extend her a little leeway on the topic.
If you knew anything about parenting or Palin, you would realize that she is a pretty bad example. She chose running for an office she had no qualifications for over taking care of her children (one who was an infant with Downs syndrome) who needed her more than the country that certainly does not need her at all. This is a woman who whines constantly about everything and she's nothing wrong with herself.
Excellent stuff. And, yes it belongs in a parenting column. What other American parent has been as scrutinized as Palin?
Thank you lcarus....lets not forget the (can someone clarify are those school girl pigtails on a forty three year old woman?)and the freshly oiled spray tanned legs. Either be a pin up girl or a serious politician, you can't be both. Sarah, you are that woman who cries sexual harassment when things don't go your way. Otherwise you fully use your looks to your every advantage and love the attention it bring you but only on your terms. Behavior like that truly hurts woman who WORK for recognition. If Obama posed for a basketball publication oiled up in short shorts and a skin tight shirt wiping his sweaty face on an American flag do you honestly think it wouldn't be fodder for every Nobama Fox story under the sun. Of course it would. You posed for this while you were a public official. Put on your professional woman pants and accept some measure of responsibility for the sexy monster you yourself created. And for heavens sake quit sniveling, you'll smear your carefully applied mascara.
John....
Most Mothers don't use their kids as constant stage props. Am I the only one that shuddered for Bristol Palin, having to hear her Mother call the father of her child a porn star on national television? My god....if Sarah wasn't Sarah Palin, Bristol and Levi would actually have to work together on co-parenting the child up they brought into this world. But now? Ooooh, new shiny prop for the hockey (now) Grandma. A whole new base of pity votes. Sarah has decided that she and her illustrious career as Republican Barbie is more important then that baby being able to bond with his daddy. I have never seen more social issues wrapped up in one human being and the American public can't seem to get enough of her. Like attracts like I suppose.
Running World should sue Newsweek for using photo without permission
I don't like to give her any attention at all. Why bother bringing it up at all. You are giving her the attention she wants.
"Most Mothers don't use their kids as constant stage props."
J Larsen,
"Most mothers", yeah, but some mothers do. They use their children in all sorts of ways. Lots of mothers dress their children a certain way, involve them in certain activities or send them to certain schools in order that the children reflect well on them. Stage props.
And, in case you think I haven't noticed, lots of fathers do exactly the same. Some of them also use their children as props in political campaigns.
Also, if my daughter had a baby in the same circumstances as Bristol Palin did and I thought the father was no-good deadbeat, I wouldn't worry one bit about the father bonding with the baby. In fact, I'd be hoping he'd go away.
Now, having said all that, nothing I wrote indicated any approval for Sarah Palin's mothering skills. I thought Maura's article was appropriate for a parenting slot and well-written at that. I actually don't like Sarah Palin; she gives me the shudders.
I agree, this isn't a parenting issue Who cares about this?
give the poor woman a break, maybe she wasnt ready for vp, but the Left is really showing how hateful they really can be, so much for the party of inclusion!!!!!!!!!!!!
I see you re-wrote the article to fit the category. Clever.
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