After being called out by conservatives for refusing to speak to Fox News about Bill Maher's vulgar insult of Sarah Palin, Lisa Bennett, Communications Director for the National Organization for (Liberal) Women issued a statement that failed to condemn Maher, and instead attacked conservatives for daring to notice their silence on the issue.Read the rest here
Her statement starts by asking progressives to "please" not use vulgar slang the way Maher did:Listen, supposedly progressive men (ok, and women, too): Cut the crap! Stop degrading women with whom you disagree and/or don't like by using female body terms or other gender-associated slurs. OK? Can you do that, please? If you think someone's an idiot or a danger to the country, feel free to say so, but try to keep their sex out of it. Sexist insults have an impact on all women.
A couple of observations. First of all, for someone who holds the title of Communications Director, Lisa Bennett is an appallingly bad writer. Secondly, where was NOW when Palin was receiving death threats? For that matter, where were they when it came time to defend Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick, to name the recipients of just one democratic President's indiscretion. Perhaps they were too worn out from their attempts to prevent the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee who made jokes about pubic hair to be bothered with the possibility of something so banal as a rapist in the White House.
Oh I almost forgot about Bill Maher. What can you say about someone who conjures up something stupid, attributes it to someone else, and then proceeds to make fun of that person's intelligence for what he is pretending that person said, and then uses a derogatory, sexist term to refer to that person? I would guess that puts him in the same league as Letterman, Behar, Garafalo, and all the other cheap shot artists.
I'll leave it to Christopher Hitchens to offer some more perspective on Maher and his audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment