A more serious statement.

Sarah Palin’s looks don’t matter, and she shouldn’t be mocked for being pretty or ugly. She should be roundly mocked for her hatefulness, Jacobin revanchism, and her proud ignorance.

But it really matters that so many of her supporters like to point out she’s “smart and pretty.” Because they’re not just complementing her, they’re setting up a (deeply sexist and tribal) distinction of “real woman” Palin…who is feminine, because pretty is feminine…and any and all female liberals who they wish to mark as not only not pretty, but as not-women.