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 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 last 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 OK 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 even made about her Down syndrome child.
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 gathering of journalists. Of Palin, he says: “her f——— retard-making c—-” and “the baby that just came out of her f——— disgusting c—-.”
If you’re not disgusted, please leave now. Similarly, though not nearly as graphically, comedian Bill Maher has called Palin a “dumb t—-.” 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 notably 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 sub-human, 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.
Kathleen Parker’s email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
A lion Mates for life and never cheats on its spouse,
However,
A Tiger Wood!
Why would they cheat? The male lion is a polygamist, so he “mates” with as many as he wants. Once a male claims a female tho, it is true they only mate with each other.
I am waiting for all the Limbaugh haters to comment on this very balanced piece of editorializing…Do we have anyone willing to take shots at Maher, Ed Schultz, C.K.??? How about Obama’s grandstanding hypocrisy?
Is anyone organizing a boycott of their advertisers?
wandini, I agree that this is a “very balanced piece,” and, in fact, thought it was one of the best that Kathleen Parker has written — and I already thought that she’s the best syndicated columnist who is featured in the BDN. I was cheering for Parker when I got to the end of the column!
It’s easy to be appalled by Rush Limbaugh. He is a mean-spirited ignorant loudmouth. His comments about Ms. Fluke were actually not so very unusual for him — over-the-top insults are his stock and trade.
Bill Maher’s comments were equally appalling — and it is embarrassing that liberals did not seem to criticize Maher for his piggish behavior. I’m embarrassed that I did not know about what Maher had said until the ruckus over Limbaugh’s comments. Fox News was right to call out Maher and the liberals — although they were wrong to let Limbaugh off the hook so easily. That’s a big part of the problem — liberals will criticize someone like Limbaugh, and conservatives will criticize someone like Maher, but no one wants to clean their own house.
Bravo, as well, to Greta Van Susteren!
Frankly, although I’m a liberal, I do not care for Maher, and cannot watch bitter, angry commentators like Keith Olberman. Olberman and others like him are bad for my mental health. I actually like Mike Huckabee, who has sometimes mentioned that he is a conservative, not just angry.
I like Mike Huckabee too. I voted for him in the NH primary way back when. He made me think of a Conservative Clinton, though I hope he was/is without the habit of assaulting and demeaning women. And, of course, I never felt Clinton was sincere…but that’s just my political bias, maybe.
Bill Clinton, of course, has his own record of treating women like dirt. I might have supported Hillary Clinton for president, but I didn’t want her husband sleeping in the White House again!
Hillary and Bill deserve each other. Just ask the former head of the Arkansas State police about “Hillary duty”
There isn’t an adjective low enough for those two.
Been there done that.
I consider myself a fiscal conservative (I have to do that “fiscal” thang so people don’t confuse me with the xtian right of which I am not a member)
I think Rush is a detestable cretin. Ed Shultz should have been fired by the oh-so broadminded (legends in their own minds) network he represents, and I wouldn’t listen to Don Imus if he was paying me to do so.
Comedy isn’t funny anymore. I had friends in junior high school who were far funnier and more talented Than Bill Maher C.K. Chris Rock and all the others who feel that all they must do to earn a paycheck is to reference the act of human’s mating, or pepper a rant with vile names for parts of a woman’s anatomy.
Young adolescents in a gravel pit can be forgiven for finding this type of potty-talk humorous. For them it is new, and forbidden (to them). Adults, particularly adult males should know better. Everyone had a mother, and I wonder how these women feel about their “successful” sons using this cloaked misogamy to bring home a paycheck. Maybe the same way a real father would feel when his daughter told him she planned for a career at the Mustang Ranch.
I wonder if people are upset about the right things in this. The term s–t is used as a derogatory word for a female who has multiple sexual partners. There really is no word that comes to mind for a male who has multiple sexual partners that conveys the same judgment that s–t does. That such a word should even exist and have the power to insult and offend women is a tribute to a double standard that apparently still exists. I thought it had died in the 80s.
Are people upset because Ms. Fluke is accused of having multiple sexual partners and they feel her “female purity” is being questioned, or are they upset that women who engage in sex willingly and frequently are still considered to be dirty, hence the naming of them as s–ts?
I hope I am making sense here….
It’s both, I think. I agree that a word like s–t should not exist — there is no male equivalent. Why? Bill Clinton, again, comes to mind, a d quite a lot of other male politicians in both parties. Why should women be given that label and not men? It’s a double standard. Women should not be considered dirty for doing what men do.
So that’s one part. The other part is we shouldn’t be calling anyone names like that, and for Rush Limbaugh or Bill Maher or Ed Shultz to talk about women in that way is just appalling.
Bravo to Greta Van Susteren and Kathleen Parker for speaking out!
The male equivalent is “Gigolo.” Of course they call it “The King’s English” for a reason.
I’m not defending any of those people: it’s a cheap shot and ineffective. However, you don’t think that there’s *any* difference between calling someone a name and spending 3 days accusing someone of *being* that name? You don’t think there’s any difference between calling a public figure a name, and a media figure slandering — and, for that matter, libeling on a website — a private citizen (cf. New York Times vs. Sullivan, decided 9-0 so it’s not a partisan decision)? Well, perhaps you don’t; however, the law *does*.
Personally I would like to see any one of these brave “comedians” be confronted by a husband or father of any one of the women who have been singled out. And hopefully that husband is ex – Special Forces of whatever branch of the service with an attitude towards anyone who might desire to impugn the character of his spouse. In any event that the “comedian” would be left with a new understanding that it is unwise to target anyone with such a disrespectful dialog.