Sarah Palin Sexism Watch, Part 28

The actual cover of Newsweek's November 23 issue. If you can't view the image, it's a picture of Palin in running shorts and a workout top, bare-legged and in sneakers, accompanied by the headline: "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" (As in "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" from The Sound of Music, in which an assertive woman is a "problem" to be "solved.") The interior photos are, if possible, even worse, showing Palin's disembodied legs trailing down to high heels in front of an audience of gaping young men and the Sarah Palin Action Figure, discussed in part 12.

I've really got nothing to add to what Media Matthers' Julie Millican says here in her great deconstruction of the ten metric fucktons of Newsweek's fail.

Meanwhile, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham defends the cover, saying: "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."

Yeah, well, if the picture does accurately reflect what you're trying to say, that's a problem, too, now isn't it?

And in fauxgressive news, Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, appearing on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell, said, in response to Palin calling the picture "sexist" and "out of context":

Well, I mean, I think it's funny that she's benefiting from all this; she's making millions from it. And she's complaining about it all the way to the bank. I mean, this is a woman who basically is the Tonya Harding of authors. She came out and kneecapped every single person who helped her along the way. And she's making millions of dollars for it. She has no right to complain; she has no reason to complain. She can complain all the way to the bank.

If a woman is "bad," that justifies using sexism against her and she had no right to complain. The fauxgressive mantra.

Keep it up, Democrats. Keep it up.

[Sarah Palin Sexism Watch: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven. We defend Sarah Palin against misogynist smears not because we endorse her or her politics, but because that's how feminism works.]