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.”
Like most women in the media, I’ve grown accustomed to vile and vicious attacks. It’s part of the marinade in which we swim now. I’ve always figured, well, that’s the game. Get tough. Hit delete. Deal. But my feelings, raw as they may be at times, are not what matters. What does matter is that our children are growing up in a world that believes it’s okay to denigrate women. They are witnesses to adults laughing at jokes about women being sluts, whores and worse. When the object of derision is Sarah Palin, “jokes” are made even about her child with Down syndrome.
Which brings us back to Louis C.K., whose “jokes” are so beyond anything we should find funny that it’s hard to comprehend how he was selected to amuse a group of journalists. He calls Palin a “retard-making [expletive]” and refers to “the baby that just came out of her [expletive] disgusting,” um, birth canal.
If you’re not disgusted, please leave now. Comedian Bill Maher similarly insulted Palin, though not nearly as graphically. Palin supporters and others concerned with decency have wondered where the outrage was then. Fair question.
Many also wonder why President Obama, who found time to call Fluke out of concern for his own daughters, never raised his voice for Palin. Or why he’s accepting a $1 million contribution from Maher to his super PAC. Like any candidate, Obama doesn’t control his super PAC, but he does control his voice, and it has been silent about certain women.
Let’s be clear: Demeaning women for fun and profit may be legal and permissible in a free society, but it shouldn’t be acceptable. The argument that comedians fall into a different category is valid to a point, but journalists and public leaders don’t have to be parties to their act. It isn’t funny, even if some women apparently think so.
Therein lies at least half the problem. As long as women are yukking it up alongside men while women are reduced to disposable sexual objects and their children regarded as subhuman, well, we have a ways to go. And though such remarks may not hurt successful women like Van Susteren, who is the longest-sitting news anchor on cable TV, they do hurt young women and little girls.
And they also hurt young men and especially little boys, who adore their mothers and who, provided the right example, are capable of becoming the honorable and decent men everyone, including the president, hopes their daughters will marry.
In the barnyard we call American culture, a pig is a pig is a pig.
I would like to suggest that the disrespect for women begins even sooner. How many people routinely yuk it up over dumb blonde jokes. Are the jokes ever about men? Yo mama isn’t about your father. It needs to stop. I expect to hear a chorus about “there you go Moon. Hasn’t this PC BS gone far enough?”
Ask if you want your son to become a pig and if you want your daughter to think its ok to marry one.
The real war on women lies behind all these doors where everyone is just laughing, giggling and yukking it up over Rush, Bill, Chris, Dave and a host of other people in the media who profit from making disgusting remarks. Behind the doors are the houses on Main Street and Elm Street where is is ok to tell dumb blonde jokes and make cracks about big boobs and no brains. That is where someone learns its ok to make laws that affect only women and somehow paint those women as bitches, sluts and whores if they fight back.
I always thought blond jokes applied equally to men. In fact, I was a little scatter brained in high school and college and in the summer my hair was somewhat bleached due to the combination of pool water and outside summer jobs. My sister used to take great pleasure in directing blond jokes toward me.
Women have largely brought it on themselves. When men see women viciously attack and endorse attacks on conservative women and display what could only be false outrage at any slight toward liberal women, we really don’t take y’all seriously. Sorry
You know that the whole point behind “yo mama” jokes is that it hurts more than “yo daddy” jokes ever could? Back-handed compliment, I know, but “yo mama” jokes aren’t because it’s a woman…..it’s a very specific woman.
@slowpoke,
Why is this always a good conservative getting attacked by a bad liberal thing?
I am not so sure I agree that its all women and that men sit by polishing their halos.
So if we’re playing in a sandbox, and I throw sand in your face, you have no right to throw sand in mine, because, really, you should just get over it. And if you do throw sand in my face anyway, you’re a REALLY bad person compared to me.
I get it now.
done. Still feeling like an alternate universe.
It isn’t always that……but it is in this case!
In which case? I feel like I just stepped into an alternate universe.
According to the left, there was no crisis in civility until conservatives stepped up and started protesting against Obama’s “fundamental change in America.” Nope, not when the left was ridiculing George Bush’s appearance and intellect. Not when they cheered every time Dick Cheney was admitted to the hospital for his cardiac issues and wished for his demise and torture in the afterlife. Not when the left was screaming about Bush/Cheney “war crimes.” Not when the left booed the Bushes as they were leaving the White House on Inauguration Day 2009. Not when other high-profile libs like Maher and Letterman deride women and their children. Nope, it’s only reached a crisis when conservatives speak up or slip up. Then the left is up in arms with righteous indignation. And you wonder why people won’t rush to condemn Limbaugh? He’s no different than many of the scuzzballs on the left who say that and much worse. Nope, only the right has bad manners, evil, racist intentions and hatred against women. Perhaps the left needs to get the log out of their own eye before they start going after everyone else’s specks.
The truth is that many on the left and right are more concerned about policing the speech of their opponents than their allies.
Moon, I agree with you but I don’t know how we reverse this courseness in society. I try to watch PG-13 movies these days and the s- and f-words routinely get used. You used to be able to see those with no concern because use of such language inevitably guaranteed an R rating.
I bought a book a couple of years ago on writing humor to get some tips for public speaking and material I write for my business. One of the chapters is on writing for stand-up comedy and it encourages the use of foul language, sexism, etc. – whatever works for you to get gigs. I’m glad I never considered that as a career field.
Years ago I was a Rush fan but haven’t listened to him since the 90s. To me, he became just stupid and tiring to listen to. Regular MH readers know how I feel about Glenn Beck. How I miss the days of William F. Buckley and intelligent discourse on both the right and the left, and when people actually read instead of just watching blithering idiots on TV and listening to them on the radio (right and left). Also when the middle had a voice and wasn’t drowned out by the nonsense and radicalism on both sides. My two 20th century heroes, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan are probably looking down on us and crying for what we’ve become.
@Emma
Emma, you are really consumed with dislike, aren’t you? I don’t know anyone who made fun of how George Bush looked. What’s wrong with how he looks? I always thought people thought he was nice looking. I know I have been extremely flattering about Laura Bush since I like her and have a great deal of respect for her. I believe I did a thread on how dignified the Bush family was when the Obama moved in. I also remember doing a thread on Letterman being totally out of line over remarks about Palin’s daughter. In fact, I have spoken out a lot about what I consider to be inappropriate, remarks made about public figures or their families.
I would not consider myself the left but I don’t hear or see every ugly remark made. I don’t troll left or right ‘places.’ I feel that I am very consistent. Nasty is nasty, regardless of the political position of the person saying the words.
@Need to Know
Shhhhh I would never admit to liking Rush any time, even with a gun pointed at my head.
Cleaning up how we talk about others starts with not yuking it up and laughing at things that are inappropriate. When our friends start talking smack about other people in sexist terms, glare at them like they are rodents. How many times has each of us laughed about things that make us go ewwwwwwww because we didn’t want to fall out of favor with our friends.
That’s not to say that we can’t ever tell a dirty joke. Its ok to have parrots walking into bars and saying bad things. It’s ok to have little Johnny shooting off his mouth. It isn’t funny to have women, general or famous, as the butt of jokes.
A good test is to put your wife’s name or your daughter’s name in as a subsitute. Nothing brings greater moral clarity.
My husband, many years ago threw a co-worker…ok it was a boss…into a table for calling me a testy broad. I was appalled and asked him why he did such a thing. He said you never call anyone’s wife a ‘testy broad.’ I was being a testy broad, I thought. He told me he didn’t care. You didn’t say that about other people’s wives.
Alienating half the population is bad politics.
So stop already!