Calling Sarah Palin A “Narcissist” Isn’t The Most Original Insult In The Book
Posted by: Jessica Wakeman
Filed in:
news
11:20AM, Wednesday July 15th 2009
Between her double-digit ethics complaints, her unpredictable behavior, and actually, her behavior in general, we’re not the biggest Sarah Palin fans around. But this week’s New York magazine really made us think about how gleeful we’d felt when we read in Vanity Fair that some people believe her to be a clinical narcissist. Several members of the McCain campaign, independent of each other, told a reporter they had researched the clinical definition for “narcissistic personality disorder” after clocking in some hours with Mrs. P. Ah-ha!, we thought. That explains everything.
Emily Nussbaum wrote a great piece New York pointing out how throughout time, people have found various clinical diagnoses to label difficult women. Calling Palin a narcissist, to her, seems like just another way “to diagnose people we don’t like”:
“There was borderline-personality disorder in the nineties, applicable to all crazy ex-girlfriends; repression in the seventies, good for anyone who wouldn’t sleep with you; not to mention frigidity in the fifties, the handy label for all women unhappy with marriage or babies. These are moral judgments cloaked in a white lab coat.”
How’s that for a good point? Armchair-diagnosing Sarah Palin a narcissist may or may not be accurate, but it certainly is a fashionable way to insult a feisty broad. [New York]
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Squidtermz
wrote on July 15 2009 @ 11:41 am: [report]
How about selfish? All I know is that during her resigning speech every other word was “me” and “I” granted it was a speech about her resigning, but she was mentioning her lawyer bills are her husbands flight plans. Like nobody else has bills. Her disregard for the American people is what concerns me the most.
*sam*
wrote on July 15 2009 @ 11:41 am: [report]
While I, (and as I’ve noticed, most progressive-minded modern women) can’t *stand* Sarah Palin, I can see where Ms. Nussbaum is coming from. (random question, is this Emily Nussbaum in any way related to the philospher Martha Nussbaum that I read a lot about in my Global Ethics class by any chance??? just wondering..).
Throughout the ages, women have been disproportionately diagnosed with certain psychological disorders than their male counterparts (anxiety and depression coming most readily to my mind… as well as most personality disorders, with anti-social being the largest exception). Moreover, in harsh climate that was early ‘psychology,’ disorders where invented to explain all sorts of feminine maladies (i.e., the wondering uterus).
Therefore, while I still personally despise all that is Sarah Palin and *sincerely* hope that she will lose her appeal to those who, for whatever reason, feel she is ‘a new light’ (barf!!) and someday (**SOON**) fade from the national spotlight… I cannot concede to people throwing tacking on a psychological disorder to her name—unless of course they’re a trained professional and have enough sound evidence to back it up
Riley
wrote on July 15 2009 @ 11:49 am: [report]
Feisty broad? Is that perpetuating feminist ideals?
retro chic
wrote on July 15 2009 @ 12:03 pm: [report]
Clinical or not – in captivity or out, don’t underestimate her. Self delusions can go a long way for true-believer constituents, and she knows how to work them. Besides, being grandiose in some form is a requirement for political survival.
I agree with *sam*: women get slapped with the crazy label as a way to subdue or marginalize a woman of independent thought or action. Men haven’t enjoyed the same focus of psychiatrists’ attention.