In the months leading up to the previous Presidential election (2008), before the party nominees had been chosen, there were many people asking if America was ready to have a black President. Or a female President.

Then we began paying attention to Sarah Palin.

And, slowly, she became the woman that we (we here meaning liberals, particularly those on the East Coast) loved to hate. She did everything wrong. She has a funny accent, she hunts, she has out-dated values and does not sound educated. And while I’m not denying any of this as fact, the way this information was presented reflected elitism at its worst (people still think that Palin said “I can see Russia from my house”, when in fact this was said by Tina Fey in her first SNL parody of Palin. What she actually had said was: “They’re our next door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.”)

Now, we’re listening to Michelle Bachmann, who is running for President. We’re writing posts like this one: Prayer to End Healthcare Reform, in which the writer calls Bachmann’s companions “creeps”, and dismisses her behavior as “gross”. As if the people in the video were part of a cult.

And maybe they are. Most dictionaries don’t seem to make a distinction between a cult and any other religion. But are ‘creepy’ and ‘gross’ the appropriate adjectives? Disconnected, ill-informed, biased, and perhaps deluded, but ‘creepy’ and ‘gross’ are words that we tend to reserve for insects, not people.

So, of the most recognized women most recently in the (potential) Presidential spotlight, we have the ‘bimbo’ (Palin), the ‘insect’ (Bachmann), and in ’08, Hilary Clinton (whose name we know because of her very famous husband). Outside the Presidential spotlight stands Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, we there are the Supreme Court Justices: Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan. For the post part, politics are still dominated by white men.

And while I don’t think that female politicians should be treated differently because of their gender, or criticized less than their male counterparts, the way we criticize them now seems to single them out. Bachmann is not the only presidential candidate to pray, publicly, against something she opposes. Sarah Palin is not the first candidate to answer a question poorly, or demonstrate a lack of historical background. She’s certainly not the only candidate that opposes strict gun control.

And another note: The dismissive way that people discuss Bachmann now (i.e. what idiot voted for her?) is similar to the way people dismissed Palin before she was confirmed as McCain’s running mate. Only instead of discouraging her, as I assume such belittling language was intended to do, Palin has succeeded in raising enough money to (potentially) campaign. Unlike Jimmy McMillan, who we laughed at during the 2010 NY Governor Debate, she has remained active and still merits attention. Perhaps, for that reason alone, it is inappropriate to laugh at Bachmann- she seems more like a Palin than a McMillan to me.