Mar

9

Offensive Remark of the Week: Obama is Like an Abusive Spouse Edition

Filed Under 2008 election, assholes, media, misogyny, offensive remark of the week, patriarchy, politics, social conservatives, violence against women and girls | 9 Comments

I try to stay as far away from World Net Daily as possible, but via Media Matters comes this outrageous excerpt from a column that appeared on the site on March 4. After explaining why he thinks that Obama is already a completely colossal failure, Burt Prelutsky writes:

Frankly, I don’t know why anybody continues to hold Obama in high esteem. Maybe it’s like those women who marry charming fellows only to discover after the vows have been exchanged that he’s an abuser. In spite of the black eyes and split lips, the ladies are just too embarrassed to call the cops and have their friends and relatives discover what a dunderhead they’ve been.

Prelutsky’s bio at the end of the article describes him as a “humor columnist.” Har har. Har.

Well then, we now have President Obama, who we have no reason whatsoever to believe has a history of abusive behavior, compared to a perpetrator of intimate partner violence.  And then, much worse, we have women who end up in abusive relationships being called “dunderheads” — not to mention the reason that more women don’t report such violence being written off entirely as “embarrassment” rather than, you know, fear.  And of course, there’s no self-reflection over the fact that statements such as these are indeed the very reason that many women do in fact feel embarrassed and to blame for the abuse.

I know I’m laughing.

Nov

22

Radio Host Endorses Reasons for Murder of Transgender Woman

Filed Under LGBTQ, assholes, bigotry, gender, human rights, media, offensive remark of the week, patriarchy, social conservatives, trans, transphobia and trans misogyny, violence against women and girls | 13 Comments

Right-wing Minneapolis radio host Chris Baker decided to tie together a story about Thomas Beatie — “the pregnant man” — and another transgender person, Lateisha Green (or Teish Cannon; I’ve also seen her name spelled “Latiesha”) who was murdered in a hate crime just a few days ago. I came across this story on Wednesday but have waited until now to run it, because I did not want to publish hate speech like this on, or the day before or the day after, the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Please be aware that the text below contains truly vile and potentially triggering hate speech.

This is what Baker had to say, after going on and on about how Beatie is “really” a “she.”

There’s a very sad story about a transgender man. It’s a guy who thinks he’s a woman, just so we clarify. Shows up to a party and some guy with an extensive criminal record, by the way, and a history of weapons charges, shot him, killed him — terrible story. My question is: One, why is this guy with the extensive prison record, or shall we say, criminal record, and extensive list of weapons charges, why is he not in jail in the first place?

Second of all, I believe that the fault, and I know, ’cause already I’m seeing quotes and comments and, “Oh, it’s hate. It’s a hate crime. It’s a horrible hate crime.” Doesn’t some of the blame lie with the American media who enables this fraud? Doesn’t some of the blame — I would say a majority of the blame does not lie with the nitwit that shot him, other than the fact that he’s a nitwit and a guy who should have been in prison in my opinion, who shot him. But to me, this is the — this is an example of how, by enabling people and trying to push this false reality, leads to horrible crimes like this, by — by telling people, “Oh, well, you know, he — did he get pregnant?”

Putting aside for just a single second the inherent and extreme offensiveness and disrespect in referring to Lateisha as a “he” over and over again, let me ask — what exactly does Baker mean by those of us who support trans people and their rights enabling the murder? After all, how could we be enabling the murder by calling for respect? Unless, of course, the hatred is valid and acceptable, and encouraging people to live their lives authentically and as they see fit is akin to provoking that entirely legitimate violent hatred.

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Jul

22

Offensive Remark of the Week: Bill O’Reilly is Getting Desperate Edition

Filed Under 2008 election, Republicans, assholes, bigotry, discrimination, media, misogyny, offensive remark of the week, patriarchy, politics, reproductive justice, sex and sexuality, sexism, stereotypes, women’s health | 25 Comments

You may have seen Planned Parenthood’s new ad with John McCain staring uncomfortably and helplessly for 8 full seconds when asked about whether or not health insurance should have to cover birth control if it covers Viagra. And of course, they would have been inexcusably negligent to not produce such an ad — McCain handed us gold there.

Well Bill O’Reilly is very displeased that someone is trying to take away the male right to have sex when clearly it was something only ever intended to apply to women. (Bill O’Reilly only supports straight sex, but this contradiction has been overlooked for centuries now.) See the video, with key transcript below:

“Viagra is used to control a medical condition; that’s why it’s covered. Birth control is not a medical condition. It’s a choice. Why should I, or anyone else, have to pay for other people’s choices? [very irrately] Do I have to buy you dinner before you use the birth control? Give me and every other taxpayer a break, Planned Parenthood.”

Oh my. Check that shit out. Bill O’Reilly not only managed to argue that penises have inalienable rights but vaginas don’t, he also managed to call women gold-digging whores. The clear anger and frustration he was expressing as he made the “dinner” remark, though, makes me think that he might have a personal axe to grind.

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Jun

20

Offensive Remark of the Week: Sometimes Media Matters Alerts Make Me Hate Humanity Edition

Filed Under LGBTQ, assholes, bigotry, homophobia, media, offensive remark of the week, religious fanaticism, social conservatives | 8 Comments

Shorter Michael Savage: “I am bigoted piece of shit who doesn’t deserve the life given to me by this “God” I supposedly believe in.”

Verbatim Michael Savage (to a caller who was whining about two men holding hands in front of his kid): “You’ve got to try to explain to the children why the — why God told people this was wrong. [. . .] You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that’s going on. The children’s minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that’s my position. They’re raping our children’s minds.”

Verbatim Cara: #@*!$*@#%(&@#%&#(%&! . . . *brain explodes*

Jun

9

Offensive Remarks of the Month: Defense Attorneys Gone Wild Edition

Filed Under assholes, courts, misogyny, offensive remark of the week, patriarchy, rape and sexual assault, slut-shaming, violence against women and girls | 18 Comments

Via SAFER, I’ve just found out about an abhorrent rape trial that’s been going on in the area where I live. Good job not reading local news, Cara. (Though actually, a search on the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s website didn’t turn up any coverage, and it’s the area’s biggest newspaper.)

In short, Preston Wido is accused of raping three fellow classmates and sexually assaulting a fourth. But the person whose actions are currently making me nauseous belong to defense attorney John Parrinello. He made it clear that he wasn’t going to defend his client so much as viciously attack rape victims with insult after insult, during the unusually long jury selection (emphasis in all quoted text mine):

In his questioning Tuesday, Parrinello revealed some of what his defense might be: Cracking away at the credibility of the four girls who say Wido, 20, of Latham, Albany County, raped or sexually abused them while they were students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva between September 2005 and February 2007.

“Would you take into consideration that none of these young women, when they were removed from the situation, called 911?” he asked a potential juror. Parrinello asked other potential jurors if they would consider that there were “no eyewitnesses” and “no DNA” and that none of the alleged victims had gone to the hospital to have what’s called a “rape kit” examination for signs of assault and evidence.

[District attorney] Tantillo, meanwhile, asked potential jurors if they would consider that the girls might have been too scared to immediately report what had happened to them or even confused.

Parrinello later asked the panel of potential jurors: “Does anybody know what’s so confusing about whether or not you’ve been raped?”

But please. Saying that any woman who does not immediately report her rape just must be a liar, therefore using the very kind of language that causes rape survivors to blame themselves and be “confused,” while denying that the phenomenon exists? That’s only the beginning.

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May

22

Offensive Remark of the Week: Rush Limbaugh Is Still Rush Limbaugh Edition

Filed Under Republicans, assholes, feminism, media, offensive remark of the week, politics, race and racism, social conservatives | 18 Comments

You know, most of Rush Limbaugh’s words barely even enter my brain (only fair, since they seem to barely enter his own before his says them). His offensive comments end up coming to me from Media Matters every other day, so they’re par for the course, and generally roll right off my back. But this . . .

This I think I’ll just let speak for itself (original emphasis):

LIMBAUGH: You know, the feminazis forgot one thing. Well, one of the objectives of the feminazis over the last 20, 25 years has been to dominate the public education system so as to remove the competitive nature of boys. You know, there’s a crisis of young man-boy education in the schools. And they did this on purpose, to eliminate male competition in the work force. This is part of feminazi grand plan.

They forgot affirmative action for black guys. And because of that, every bit of their plan has gone up in smoke now, because they — if — they had to come out in favor of affirmative action for black guys, and that’s — see, this is one of the things that really irritates the women. And there are women all over this country fit to be tied — trust me on this. And it’s — one of the things is affirmative action is exactly — it’s, you know, liberals eventually are going to be devoured by their own policies. And it has happened here. Because Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate. There’s no question, the way he is being treated by the drive-bys and so forth and so on. The way he’s been puffed up here with the magical, messiah-type message with no criticism allowed.

So, it’s just — they just forgot that one thing: affirmative action for black guys. And if they had remembered to oppose that, then they wouldn’t face the situation they face today.

Apr

9

Offensive Remark of the Week: Beating and Raping Women Doesn’t Mean You Hate Them Edition

Filed Under assholes, bigotry, human rights, media, misogyny, offensive remark of the week, patriarchy, race and racism, rape and sexual assault, sexism, violence against women and girls | 11 Comments

NY Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof muses on the differences between misogyny and sexism. And I’d be really grateful if someone could honestly tell me that this is some kind of bizarre parody and he can’t be fucking serious. Instead, we do get to play the ironic game of determining which category Kristof falls into! Emphasis mine, and try to control your blood pressure:

Then in the reporting for this column, I spoke to evolutionary psychologists who emphasized the distinct origins of racism and misogyny/sexism. Racism seems based in a hard-wired tendency of ancient humans to divide into groups to improve odds of survival, and it was an evolutionary advantage to be able to identify strongly with your own tribe and to fear or kill members of other tribes. That may be why even very small children — even infants — draw racial distinctions or other in-group/out-group distinctions.

In contrast, the evolutionary origins of attitudes toward women were based presumably less on hatred and more on desire to control them and impregnate them, so as to pass on one’s genes. Acquiring and enforcing a harem, so as to improve the odds of one’s own genes being passed on, might involve ruthlessness, enslavement and brutal beatings, but there was no evolutionary incentive for gender hatred as there was for hatred of different tribes. And of course much of the anti-women behavior around the world, from genital cutting to bride burnings to sex trafficking, is typically overseen by women themselves, and it’s easier to see their behavior as opportunism or deeply-embedded sexism than as hatred of fellow women. So that’s why I wonder if sexism, in the sense of discriminatory attitudes toward males and females, isn’t a better way of thinking about the issue than misogyny, in the sense of hatred toward women.

Other anthropologists I spoke to also noted that the most discriminatory restrictions against women tend to come not from those who profess to hate women, but from those who profess to honor and protect them. Think of Afghan society, for example. After interviewing many men who beat and lock up women and threaten to kill them if they take a false step, I’d say that their attitudes for females are a mix of bizarre honor and contempt, but not usually hatred.

My head hurts.

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Mar

23

Offensive Remark of the Week: White People Just Don’t Get Enough Credit for Stopping the Whole Lynching Thing Edition

Filed Under 2008 election, Barack Obama, Republicans, assholes, bigotry, discrimination, media, offensive remark of the week, politics, race and racism, social conservatives | 33 Comments

Clearly, it should go without saying that Pat Buchanan is a fucking nut. Really, I try to ignore these types more than anything. I just don’t have the time to follow the disgraceful career of every racist, misogynist, homophobic, nationalist, religious fanatic puppet of the Republican party.

But this time . . . oh, this time. Buchanan has written a column as a response to Barack Obama’s recent speech on racism in America (all emphasis in quoted text is mine). And as far as I can tell, Buchanan’s feelings are really hurt because Obama didn’t take the time to personally thank him for the fact that slavery ended and rich white dudes like himself only continue to demand slightly more subtle forms of oppression. It’s a good point; for everything else he’s said, I don’t remember Buchanan ever remarking (in public) “that slavery thing was a pretty sweet ride — why don’t we bring that back?” Why the hell aren’t all those uppity black folks sending him thank you cards?

Really, read the whole thing; it’s a fucking doozy.

The “white community,” said Barack, must start “acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds … .”

And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?

The “white community” must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with “ladders of opportunity” that were “unavailable” to Barack’s and the Rev. Wright’s generations.

What is wrong with Barack’s prognosis and Barack’s cure?

Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, “everybody but the rioters themselves.”

Was “white racism” really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said — that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

Aww. Buchanan feels he isn’t being listened to and has to remind the entire world that he presumably has a white penis. I’d feel so terribly bad for him if a single word of it was true. But please, wait, because that’s the intro. It gets about ten times worse.

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Mar

12

Offensive Remark of the Week: Geraldine Ferraro Swears She Isn’t Racist Edition

Filed Under 2008 election, Democrats, assholes, bigotry, offensive remark of the week, politics, race and racism | 9 Comments

I’m pissed off about the Spitzer thing, if you haven’t noticed. Happy that he resigned, but still really pissed. And so right about now, my patience for Democratic politicians who are going to act like absolute fucking morons is virtually non-existent.

Sorry about that, Geraldine Ferraro and those hellbent on defending her for absolutely no good reason. I’m not going to play it nice.

Regardless of my mood, the comments that Ferraro made are outrageously offensive. If you somehow haven’t heard them, here you go:

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

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Feb

16

Offensive Remark of the Week: Glenn Beck Thinks He Can Call Other People Ugly Edition

Filed Under Republicans, assholes, beauty myths, feminism, media, misogyny, offensive remark of the week, patriarchy, sex and sexuality, sexism | 6 Comments

'If we don't tell anyone I'm a douche, they'll never figure it out!'

If you’ve ever heard conservative TV and radio host Glenn Beck’s name, you undoubtedly know that he’s an asshole. Simple enough, no big shocks there. He’s also dumb as a bag of rocks. The other night, I was out for pizza, the restaurant TV was unfortunately tuned to CNN, and Beck was talking about the condoms that NYC handed out on Valentine’s Day. He made the ridiculous argument that handing out condoms to teenagers is encouraging sex, blah blah blah, but then took the stupidity up a notch — I kid you not –with saying that NY is a dirty city and it’s not a good idea to hand out condoms on the street because people should be having sex in more sanitary locations. I kept waiting for an indication that he was joking, and not actually so dense as to think that the moment you hand someone a condom, pants are dropped and fucking ensues right there on the sidewalk. It didn’t come.

This is generally harmless asshattery. But he often takes it up a notch and decides to implicate other people in his ignorant rantings. He did just that on his radio show, the morning of the same day that I watched him make his above comments. Media Matters only highlights the last paragraph here, but I think that the preceding paragraph they provided for context is just as offensive. Here are Glenn’s thoughts on a story he found called “Surprising reasons you’re not having sex”:

BECK: I mean, here are some other reasons. “You’re ugly.” Hello! I’m not a sex expert but I’m — you know, I’m thinking, you know, you’re ugly and, you know, that’s a tough one to overcome especially if you’re a woman. If you’re a guy, that’s not hard to overcome. I’m sorry. That’s just the way the world is. Have you — how many ugly guys have hot wives? Take me, for example. I don’t know why she married — I think it was low self-esteem. I do. No, really I think it was low self-esteem. I got in — you know, you buy when the market is low. You know what I mean? While everybody else is selling, you buy. And I think I got in there right at the right time. Low self-esteem, low, wait a minute, could go a little lower, she might come down to my price. Hang on, OK, sold! Now her self-esteem is going up. And if my income wasn’t going up, she would have ditched me long ago. She would have gone, “Wait a minute, I think I was depressed when I married you.” I’m just — look. I’m not Tania, but I am a thinker. I’m on to you, Tania!

OK, so anyway, I was talking about ugly people. Ugly people, if you’re a guy, you can get past it. I don’t think you can as an ugly woman. I don’t — no, I don’t. If you’re an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you’ve got a double cross, because if you’re an ugly woman, you’re probably a progressive as well. Oh, jeez. I’m sorry. Today’s just not your day. But you know what? If you believed in God, you’d know that there’s going to be another chance for you. You don’t have to be ugly in heaven. You’re going to be your perfect self, and there will be another perfect somebody waiting for you on the other side.

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