In one of my summer classes a few months ago, I conducted a study about the contemporary conception of the "American Dream," incited and proved largely by a very different kind of research - Google search results. The project came to mind when I searched for the term "American Dream" intending to find information about a hip-hop performer I like by that name, and came across dozens and dozens of websites about money, real estate, cars, and, yep, even Internet dating. While I did find information on the rapper I was looking for, very few sites illustrated what I believed was the "classic" American dream. With this in mind, I applied the same logic to the "idea" of Sarah Palin.
The media circulates all sorts of information about sexism, feminism, political platforms and women's rights pertaining to the 2008 election. First with Hilary, then Michelle and now Sarah. Though the case may be different each time, I wonder what matters most when it comes to women in politics? Google search results will tell us...
On the very first page of results, after Wikipedia and the McCain-Palin official websites, the six links above were listed. "Hot photos" were the topic of three, while the others focused on her more serious traits, like parenting, personability and popularity. Where's that other P-word that seems so important.. ya know, politics? I guess it just isn't. Whatever it proves, these results definitely add a new dimension to the discussion of media sexism. Is it them or us? It seems the need for stories uncovering the "more than what meets the eye" part of Palin would be unnecessary if we weren't so blinded by our eyes.
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