SAVE SARAH PALIN FROM HER OWN DECISIONS! AS A FEMINIST ACT!

I would have thought it was sexist to tell a grown woman -- middle-aged at that -- that she needs to be protected from the consequences of decisions she freely made. Apparently not. Apparently it's sexist not to want to save Sarah Palin from herself.

Last summer, Sarah Palin -- of her own free will -- made the decision to do an interview with Runner's World, which was accompanied by a series of photos for which Palin posed -- also of her own free will. One of the photos, arguably, was low-level cheesecake.

Now that photo is used on the cover of Newsweek:



Palin fangirl Amy Siskind* is livid:

... The worst thing is this disgusting cover from Newsweek, who as you see has decided [sic] to run a picture of Palin with lots of bare leg.…

So they resort, in desperation, to sex and sexism to sell their magazine? Editor-in-chief Jon Meacham should be ashamed of himself!! This magazine ... is another Exhibit A about why the liberal wing of the Democratic Party is no refuge for feminists. It has become a refuge of sexist scoundrels. Phooey to them!!!

More from David Brody of Pat Robertson's CBN:

Newsweek Photo of Palin Shows Media Bias and Sexism

... This cover has got to be a new low right? They don't use a photo of Palin on the campaign trail. No instead they take the sexy Runners World photo. Yes she posed for it but don't tell me they didn't purposely use that photo to make a point? I predict this cover will become a bigger story over the next 24-48 hours and let's face it. This isn't JUST about media bias. This cover should be insulting to women politicians. Where's the sexy photo of Mitt Romney? Why not a picture of Tim Pawlenty with an unbuttoned shirt relaxing on a couch in the Twin Cities?

Funny, I don't recall these folks having an outraged reaction to this:



Or, for that matter, to the billion uses by admirers of the George W. Bush codpiece photo.

This picture wasn't the work of a paparazzo, nor was it some photojournalist's least flattering shot from a news event. Palin posed for this photo. She's never complained about its appearance in RW, and neither have her fanboys and fangirls. And you know what? She's not the president. She's not even a governor anymore. In fact, she doesn't have a job. Maybe a president deserves to be portrayed in the national press with a bit of class -- I'm not sure I'd go even that far -- but she's not the president; she's just a private citizen selling her story. She sold part of it to Runner's World's readers with that photo shoot, and now she's selling another part of it. She lowered the dignity standard, not Newsweek.

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*UPDATE: My error -- the linked piece is by Siskind's co-blogger Cynthia Ruccia. Siskind herself does, however, cite Ruccia's post favorably here. (H/T: Betty Cracker in comments.)