Mom Jeans in the Oval Office . . . Or, Emasculating Obama

While Putin's busy invading Crimea, and Fox News is busy congratulating him on his bold foreign policy, no one seems particularly interested in the deeply misogynist tone they've adopted.

On March 4th, Politico carried the story that Sarah Palin had criticized the President to Fox News's Sean Hannity.  According to Politico, the former vice presidential candidate based her criticism entirely on President Obama's weakness--other nations only understand "peace through strength."

The source of his apparent weakness?  Wearing "mom jeans" in the Oval Office while on the phone with the Russian President.

Aside from being an oddly inappropriate condemnation of maternity, the blatantly ad hominem attack was more than just a rhetorical salvo direct at the President: it leveled the attack directly at Obama's manliness.

Politico's writer, however, used the comments as jumping-off points to other concerns, including linking Russian belligerency to energy independence, and Palin's pet project to push through the Keystone oil pipeline.

The same day Palin made her comments, former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani slathered praise on Putin.  In an interview with Fox News's Neil Cavuto, Giuliani called Putin's impulsiveness true leadership.

The next day, Bill O'Reilly challenged the strength of the West and lauded Putin's alleged ability to play on that weakness.  Ralph Peters later announced that "Russia has a real leader," and chastised President Obama for his inability or unwillingness to lead.

While chastising a sitting president for his seeming insouciance is no new thing--Eisenhower, who we now know was no foreign policy slouch, was criticized for wiling the presidency away on the golf course--or questioning his competence (Carter and the Iranian Hostage Situation, anyone?), it's far less common to directly challenge that president's (ahem) cajones.

But putting mom jeans on Obama does just that. 

Eric Bolling and Charles Payne took up Palin's talking point and ran with it, comparing the virility of a shirtless Putin to an emasculated Obama.

Jon Stewart, normally more trenchant, completely missed the mark when he responded to Conservative attacks on President Obama's manhood by insisting that instead of acting like the epitome of manliness, Putin was engaged in childish antics.

Responding the Giuliani's praise of Putin's quick decisions, Stewart shouted "That's not what you call a leader!  Makes a quick decision and everybody reacts?  That's what you call a toddler!"

Later challenging the utter inanity of the 24-hour news cycle echo chamber, Stewart suggested that conservatives would next gush that Putin had "smacked the teeth out of a great white shark and made it blow him, while Barack Obama just sat there, wistfully, wearing Capri pants and a baby bonnet."

Hitting the mark about the Capri pants, Stewart neutralizes conservative attacks, however, by insisting it's a simple attempt to infantilize Obama. 

Even socially-conscious political commentators like Salon missed the blatantly gendered attacks.  That they were leveled by a woman against a man doesn't dismiss their heavily gendered meaning.

Insisting that Obama is not "man enough" to combat Putin is a cheap shot, but the way it's been picked up by Fox News and other commentators on the right indicates a deeply gendered reading of the President, as well as lifting the curtain on the conservative worldview.

It seems appropriate to respond to nineteenth-century nationalism with atavistic rhetoric, but by falling back on time-worn misogyny, the Republican organ demonstrates once again why the party can't seem to gain traction among women and Millennials.