Probably the clearest illustration of the two sides of the linguistic double bind presented itself in 2008, when Hillary Clinton campaigned for president at the same time as Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate. The juxtaposition of these two women was so extreme it was as if a gender studies professor had dreamed it up specifically for argument’s sake. As 1984’s winner of Miss Wasilla and Miss Congeniality, beauty queen Palin was a tailor-made foil to Clinton, whose very laughter, according to several male commentators, made “her sound like the Wicked Witch of the West.” The
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