Last month, conservative women gained political ground.  Across the nation, conservative women like Carly Fiorina, Nikki Haley, Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, and Meg Whitman arose victorious in primary battles, prompting pundits to label this political cycle the “Year of the Woman.”  But as media attention has fallen on these women, it has come with the onslaught of unwelcome sexism.

Newsweek writer Julia Baird aptly pointed out this emerging trend in the coverage of conservative women last week.  In “The Palin Effect: Why We Sexualize GOP Women,” Baird points to numerous nauseating examples of the media’s sexualization of these rising conservative women.  Nikki Haley, for example, faced a full-fledged “slut-baiting” attack campaign in her run for governor of South Carolina this year.  And last year Playboy published an article listing the “Ten Conservative Women I’d Like to Hate F—k.”  Unbelievable.

Strangely enough, some readers interpreted Baird’s article as a call to blame the women politicians themselves for this emerging sexist trend.  Baird, however, clearly attributes this trend not to the women themselves, but those sexualizing them.  As Baird notes:

“It’s odd to see how some men insist that when women start to grasp power, we should think of them primarily as playthings and provocateurs. Is this the best way to explain their success? They aren’t challenging the status quo. They’re being wild! They’re not trying to lift the ban on offshore drilling. They’re being naughty!”

By portraying these norm-defying women as sexual objects, the media diminishes the threat these women pose to the male-dominated status quo.

Though this rising trend is certainly significant, it is nothing new.  It’s merely the newest chapter in the age-old saga of the resistance women face in striving to become leading public figures. While the media seems to applaud conservative women for being sexual objects, it bashes progressive women leaders for their supposed failure to do the same.  Progressive figures like General Elena Kagan, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Secretary Hillary Clinton faced countless sexist attacks in their rise to high-profile media attention.

Either way, it’s the same story. As WMC cofounder Gloria Steinem puts it, “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke… She will need her sisterhood.”  (Perhaps this is why Sarah Palin recently made a grab at claiming the feminist label.)   Women insolent enough to have an opinion and voice it publicly will face attempts at denigration.  They will be judged on their breasts, not their education policy.  On their makeup, not their stance on the Afghanistan War.  Their appearance, not their opinions.

This demeaning and infuriating focus on women leaders’ appearances distracts from the real issue at hand – women’s perspectives, or lack thereof, in the public sphere.  As Baird notes in her article, “But all of the excitement about these wins, the supposed rise of the ‘mama grizzlies’ of the right, has obscured where things really are with women in politics.”  To this day, women make up only 17% of Congress.  And since 2002, the number of women holding state-wide executive office has dropped from 88 to 72 of the 315 positions. So while women leaders’ “smoking hot bods” or “grotesque” appearances certainly receive their fair share of media limelight, their voices do not, prompting us to ask a classic feminist question – “Would a man be treated the same?”

What do you think?

To fight back against this trend, report the sexist media coverage you see to WMC’s Sexism Watch.  Hold your media to a higher standard.  And sign up for WMC’s Action Alerts to stay informed on our upcoming campaigns – Women’s Media Center will be aggressively monitoring and reporting incidences of sexism in the media coverage of women candidates.