And by "other stuff" I basically mean if anyone's going to be in New York any time soon and want a theater recommendation, "Boeing Boeing" is where it's at. I saw it last night, which pretty much makes me a terrible child since my father won a Tony as a producer on it (Best Revival of a Play) and it's been open for about a year at least (I think, I'm not 100% sure and don't feel like checking it on IBDB right now, but if you guys want to fact check me search the "Boeing Boeing" revival on the Internet Broadway Database). But it was hilarious and I'm glad I saw it, and you should see it too!
So, back to the debate. Sarah Palin and everything surrounding her is driving me crazy. The moderator (whose name I cannot remember right now but reminds me SO much of "Chief" from those two shows Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and the one about history (Where in Time...?), mostly because of her voice but also because of her haircut) just mentioned how Joe Biden and Sarah Palin both have sons in the military. The issue here is a little confusing to me. Not regarding the question, but regarding what it made me think about.
The whole Palin thing has got me thinking a lot about sexism. I'll elaborate on that later, but what I'm thinking about right now with regards to Biden is that Palin has been exploiting her motherhood as a qualification to be a national leader. Which it is not. But is it sexism that allows her to exploit her motherhood of her family of five including her special needs son and does not allow Biden to exploit the tragic death of his first wife and his single fatherhood as a young freshman senator following that accident, or is it just classiness on Biden's part? I think a bit of it is sexism, since no one cares that Barack Obama seems to be a great dad but Sarah Palin's mom-ness is fair game, but I think it's mostly just Biden being classy and their campaign managers taking the high road and not exploiting one man's personal tragedy.
But in terms of sexism, we can't win. Attacking a woman (i.e. Palin) is labeled as sexism, which in itself is sexism because it assumes that anyone attacking a woman's character is only doing it because she's a woman. Also, on a recent episode of House it came down to that debate popular culture seems to just adore - career vs. family. If a woman chooses to raise her family over a career she has no ambition and is stuck in her "traditional" role and is old-fashioned. If a woman chooses to pursue a career over raising children and a family, she's amoral and against family values for everyone just because she doesn't want it. If a woman tries to do both, people just think she's crazy. That's all just stupid.
I've just been thinking about this a lot and these ideas aren't really in a polished form yet but I just felt like I should share a little bit since this debate is going on.
Also, gay marriage just came up as a topic in this debate. Palin said she is opposed to gay marriage (not civil rights, thank god), and believes that marriage is between a man and a woman period end of story. Biden, however, said that civilly he wanted committed gay couples to have the same rights as committed straight couples (Palin seems to pretty much agree with this, as previously mentioned), then said he and Obama did not want to redefine "marriage" from a civil standpoint because that was a religious issue and should be decided by the individuals and their personal religious communities. Then he and Palin agreed that they both don't support gay marriage. Except that for Palin, gays should not be married period. And what Biden says is that they can if they want to and their community wants them to (which hopefully it should if they have chosen a supportive community), if I'm interpreting him correctly. Palin wants to define marriage as man/woman, babies, the end. I hope that Obama and Biden chose to hold that definition for themselves but do not intend to impose that definition on the country. I went to my first wedding this year. It was a lesbian wedding, since California just began allowing same-sex marriage, and it was beautiful and moving. The same wedding for a straight couple would have also been beautiful and moving, but different. The two brides' friends came up and in sections they told the entire story of this relationship, a 30-year saga. It was amazing to see how much these people love each other. Straight people love each other just that much, and straight people have impromptu vegas mistakes (Britney Spears anyone?) and I think gay people should be able to have impromptu vegas mistakes as well. It's not just about love, though that's the reason it really deserves to be acknowledged nationally, but it's also just about civil rights. I mean, interracial marriage, though not really illegal to the extent of my knowledge (I don't know this, if you need to know for sure feel free to fact check me), but it was intensely frowned upon and now it's not a big deal at all. It's not even a deal any more, it's just a man and a woman getting married. If marriage can become color-blind, can't it become gender-blind? And no, crazy people, it will never become species-blind (addressed to crazy people who oppose gay marriage because they think it's a gateway for inter-species union, and crazy people who want to marry goats).
The very last thing I have to say is that right-wingers talk a lot about radical left wing people. And yes, the majority of protests and social movements have been from left-wing groups. But the majority of high-profile, conscious raising assassinations in the United States have been of charismatic leaders standing for liberal ideals:
John Kennedy
Bobby Kennedy
Martin Luther King
Abraham Lincoln
John Lennon (not American but shot on American soil... though by a deranged fan, not because of his beliefs. But still.)
Harvey Milk (Is anyone else excited for Milk?)
Among others.
That's about it, I'm not very eloquent about this stuff but I've just been thinking a little. This is a really crazy time in the country and a really historical election. And it's my first vote -- very exciting :)!
AND THE WORD IS NUCLEAR!!!!!
Obama/Biden '08!
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