Are female Democrats held to higher ideological standards than male Democrats?

[Beet]

Marie Antoinette syndrome. Conservatism with a feminine face is particularly offensive to the left because women are also seen as beneficiaries of benevolent sexism, the prime example being the spoiled Marie Antoinette, whose luxuries were seen as the most pure form of monarchical decadence and frivolity, the greatest contrast to the fate of the commoners. It's more offensive for Hillary to vote for the Iraq war because she's a woman, sending mostly men to die. The fact that men die to protect women in wars is another expression of benevolent sexism.

The irony is that the worst brunt of it falls on left-of-center women, since women like Palin and Bachmann can thrive without any support from leftist men, but Democratic women find it hard to win without progressive support. For feminists, the answer is that benevolent sexism is not a privilege at all but a pedestal, a sort of prison with golden bars.