WAITE: Palin's nomination step back, not forward

Should Sarah Palin end up with the Vice Presidency, she'll still be barefoot in the kitchen, working on number six.

Palin is in this election to capture the votes from evangelicals McCain can't save, and from bitter Hillary Clinton supporters who refuse to accept the Democratic party's choice. It's an undoubtedly brilliant political move: Sarah Palin is anti-Hillary.

Whereas Hillary speaks with authority and commands attention, Palin speaks with the grace and cadence of the former Beauty Queen she is. While Hillary places her legitimacy as a candidate in the androgyny of politics, Palin searches for her ethos in society's expectations of her gender: those well-manicured hands, unending odes to her nurturing and care-taking side and, of course, hyper-feminine skirts and tops.

With Palin, the McCain camp attempts to switch the focus of this election from the feminism in Hillary's campaign to gender and femininity in Palin's. With Hillary, the question became, "Can a woman lead our country?" With Palin, the question becomes, "Will we let a girl do it?"

Since the first wave of the feminist movement, women have worked to gain respect and authority in positions outside of the home. In 2008, we see the potential for a woman to epitomize this goal, to take her place in the highest, most esteemed of all extra-domestic positions: (ironically) the White House.

Palin may be the closest a woman has come, reaching beyond Hillary to a place on a ticket. Unfortunately, even if she wins, Palin will keep house in the White House more than she will run it.

As a self-described "hockey mom," Palin vocalizes her role in the domestic sphere, placing emphasis on her roles as a doting wife and loving PTA-attending mother. Where she could use these multiple roles to advance women's causes and rights, Palin focuses instead on reinforcing the status quo and expectations of women.

CNBC's Donny Deutsch, discussed Palin's relative potential as a candidate in a Sept. 4 interview. He's not only smitten, he wants her to come to dinner, and end the night next to him in bed. Deutsch claims Palin is the new Ronald Reagan - and that's as homoerotic as it is problematic. Likeability doesn't trump policy - as it did during the Reagan tenure.

According to Deutsch, "…there is a new creation that the feminist movement has not figured out in 40 years of the feminist ideal - that men can take in a woman in power and women can celebrate a woman in power.

"Hillary Clinton didn't figure it out - she didn't put a skirt on," he adds.

Deutsch, along with Palin and the Republican camp use her public persona to subvert 'feminism' to mean 'reinforcing the status quo.' They want you to believe that to be a woman who succeeds in a powerful position, you need to be appropriately feminine, proper and a sex symbol.

Republicans like Deutsch admit that Palin doesn't have the political wherewithal, the ability or capability, but. Because she is sexy and ultra-feminine (not too smart, not too intimidating), she can be liked.

"It's a slam-dunk," said Cathie Adams, head of Texas Eagle Forum, a conservative group, on Palin's nomination. "It will energize those women who think, 'My goodness, if this lady can be a wife and a mother, a PTA member, and go from there to being a mayor, a governor, and now a vice presidential candidate - certainly she's got her priorities straight.'"

Her priorities or her hair? Palin sends the message that by embodying the persona of the1950s June Cleaver type womanhood in 2008, women can make money but never as much as men, be leaders but never overshadow male leaders and speak out on the issues but never in the strong, authoritative way that our male counterparts do.

"It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the hardest, highest glass ceiling in America," Palin said during her acceptance speech, in response to Hillary's quote on breaking the glass ceiling with her campaign. "But it turns out that the women in America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."

Palin uses the rhetoric of a strong, independent woman, but the only strength and independence in this comment is in the reference to Hillary. By reinforcing how women should behave, dress and act she's not challenging the forces that created the ceiling, she's simply stating that it exists.

While Hillary broke down barriers and crashed into the glass ceiling, Palin takes some Windex to it and asks the men above her if they can see enough cleavage as they look down.

Outside of embodying patriarchal and regressive gender standards, she holds despicable stances on women's rights and choices. Palin:

-opposes reproductive freedom. She's pro-life in every case except when the mother may die in labor.

-opposes contraception through affiliation with Feminists for Life (FFL) a clearly anti-feminist group.

-opposes funding for resources for teen mothers, as when she used her line-item veto to slash funding to a teen mother's center. To be fair, she may have reconsidered since teenage reproduction hit close to him.

Sarah Palin may represent herself as a 'Feminist for life' but this woman does not uphold feminist principles. Where feminists work towards gender equity, she works at upholding the status quo that places women below men. Where feminists challenge gender expectations and fight for their right to choose in all matters, she reinforces archaic and patriarchal standards of femininity. Where feminists work to advance the rights and causes of women, she consistently speaks out against them and works against them.

If the U.S. elects Sarah Palin as Vice President, we won't be taking a step forward as (wo)mankind; we'll be moving backwards 40 years.

Cyndi Waite is a senior English and film studies major. You can reach her at opinion@dailynebraskan.com