THE WORD "LIPSTICK" IS HOLY, APPARENTLY
(now updated)

Fox Nation link to a new Sarah Palin Facebook post:



The quote in context, from Palin's post:

The President has wrestled control of the health care debate away from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid by finally introducing his own plan. Unfortunately, the White House's proposal includes everything we found untenable about the old Senate bill - only this one is even more expensive! This is what you might call putting "perfume on a pig." ...

"Perfume on a pig"? Not "lipstick"?

Well, if you agree with Barbara from the Mahablog that Sarah Palin, to her followers, is a goddess -- and I do believe that -- then you have to assume that Palin used "perfume" rather than "lipstick" because lipstick is a sacred attribute of her goddesshood.

Barbara takes this idea from Buddhism, but it certainly shows up in Christianity (think of the Catholic saints, who have attributes that are well known to devout followers) and Greek and Roman mythology (think Dionysus, the god of wine, who carried a phallic staff called a thyrsus). Barbara writes that Palin

is a near-perfect embodiment of an ideal. She is (to a rightie) beautiful, sexual, and maternal; she is powerful enough that the Evil Ones who live in Washington and who speak seditious things on the Teevee must kowtow to her. Through her folksy speech and shooting skills she evokes other American archetypes from more wholesome, earlier times, like Daniel Boone. But she also wears modern clothes and has a Facebook page.

Like most tantric deities, Palin has has both benevolent and wrathful aspects. As a wrathful goddess she gives voice to her followers' deepest fears and hates and resentments. But she also has a bright smile and sometimes carries a baby, showing a benevolent side. Her followers both love her and identify with her; she is an archetype representing their own deepest selves, or at least the selves they’d like to be.

As Barbara adds, because Palin is effectively sacred to her followers, it doesn't matter if she reads notes off her hand or can't answer certain questions -- "Whatever she does is exactly right, because it is her doing it, and she is a goddess."

Makes sense to me -- and it makes sense that the hockey-mom lipstick is something she regards as a sacred attribute.

... Or, perhaps, as a part of her branding -- a trademark of sorts that helps make her a successful product.

Then again, Palin is sort of a Randian, and I suppose if you believe in Randism, then branding and being a successful product are sacred, aren't they? A trademark or slogan is a sacred attribute, no?



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UPDATE: And for those who believe that I'm "overthinking" this (or that Barbara is), don't forget that many Palinites regard her as a modern-day equivalent of the non-divine but still holy Esther from the Bible. See, for instance, this link and this one and this one. It's been reported that Palin herself takes this comparison seriously. People who talk this way regard the biblical Esther as a beauty queen.