This opinion piece is a must read.
Kathleen Parker from the Washington Post:
Warning: This column is not suitable for children, and its content may be offensive to some.
In the wake of “Slutgate,” the operative argument seems to have devolved into a barnyard taunt: “My pig isn’t as bad as your pig.”
This pithy summation comes from Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, who has been leading the charge against vile language used to describe women in the public square. Among other things, Van Susteren deserves credit for single-handedly shaming the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association into parting ways with its headliner for this year’s dinner, comedian Louis C.K.
On her blog, “Gretawire,” she promised to boycott the dinner and invited others to join the protest. Her reasons should be clear with a quick scan of Louis C.K.’s shtick, which we’ll get to shortly. But first a word about some of the other offenders and why we need to have this conversation.
As many have observed lately, including Peggy Noonan, who this week wrote a powerful column about misogyny aloft in the land, Rush Limbaugh isn’t the only culprit to use the word “slut” and “prostitute” to describe a woman with whom he disagreed. MSNBC’s Ed Schultz called radio host Laura Ingraham a slut and later apologized. Limbaugh, who reserved his comments for a 30-year-old law student, Sandra Fluke, also apologized, if begrudgingly once sponsors began pulling away.
And, of course, everyone remembers what happened to Don Imus when he referred to a women’s basketball team, which happened to be mostly African American, as “nappy-headed hos.”
There isn’t sufficient space here to comb the history of slurs — or how we got to this point from the hilarious “Jane, you ignorant slut” skit from the original “Saturday Night Live,” though a quick note of distinction bears mentioning: Jane Curtin was in on the joke. And, remember, she countered with: “Dan [Aykroyd], you pompous ass.”
