Okay, my conservative sex monkey (you know you LOVE it) Here's what I like and don't like about this list. Things get out of hand and get pretty wild on both sides but I'm not sure all of these things qualify as misogynistic or even outrageous. Hear me out, I'll explain more at the end:
1 - Chris Matthews attacking Hillary Clinton during 2008 Dem campaign
Thank you for sending me the link when I asked for it. I remember sexist claims from 2008 but, reading these, I don't quite see it. I don't feel that acknowledging that Hillary Clinton (who, by the way, was my candidate all the way) is female is actually sexist. This one we may not come to any agreement on (there were plenty who felt it was), but I think Chris would have been just as hard and said similar things (and has) about a male candidate.
2 - Ed Schultz saying Sarah Palin set off a "bimbo alert" and saying Laura Ingraham was a "right wing slut"
No disagreement here. I find Schultz to be a left wing wannabe Sean Hannity (and said as much to you, somewhere) who often has his heart in the right place but just as often comes across as a screaming boob. There WAS outrage about this though, from both sides (as there should have been.)
3 - Keith O said that conservative commentator S.E. Cupp should have been "aborted by her parents" and called Michelle Malkin a “mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick.”
Mean? Yes. Outrageous? Yes. Misogynistic? I don't see it. Again, there's nothing here that Olbermann wouldn't have said about a man (except for the lipstick part but I don't see how acknowledging that Malkin wears lipstick can be considered hating women.) Was Keith talking about her attractiveness or her character?
4 - Matt Taibbi, he of the Andrew Breitbart obit "death of a douche" hates woman conservatives as well - he said of michelle malkin “When I read her stuff, I imagine her narrating her text, book-on-tape style, with a big, hairy set of balls in her mouth.”
Ugh!!!! The WORST! You win this one hands down.
5 - bill maher called sarah palin a "dumb twat"
Did he call her a twat or a cunt? I thought it was cunt. Anyway, I think this really depends on your tolerance level for that word. The word doesn't offend me, personally. I think it's a word that freaks people out and has a lot of power beyond its definition. I love that. As others have said, it is a word that is a metaphorical pejorative like dick, asshole, and douchebag. Is it a nice word? NO. Do I blame NOW for taking him to task for it? NO. Does it bother me when I hear someone use it? NO it does not.
I have a female friend who uses the word as an adjective for anything "too fancy," posh or chi chi (eg "I LOVE this restaurant, it's soooo cunty!") Makes me laugh every time.
I have ANOTHER female friend who hates and is completely offended by that word in any form. She considers it misogynistic and hateful (and LOATHES Maher for using it.) That is her right and I "get that" too.
I only bring this up to illustrate that it means different things to different people. If you use the word, you do so at your own peril and have to take the consequences. I will not defend the use of that word to you if that word offends you, however, I don't personally find it offensive or consider it misogynistic (any more than I would consider calling someone a 'dick' to be anti-male.)
That being said, you have to agree that Rush Limbaugh has said many negative things about females over the years (elected officials and women in power positions) without the accompanying firestorm that we see today.
Rush knows that a woman (or man) in the public sector is fair game and has attacked (as has the left) without any of us going on a crusade or screaming for his dismissal.
He's been calling Nancy Pelosi both "botox-filled" and "Queen Nancy" forever. There are well known sexist Rush remarks on record about Barbara Boxer, Sandra Sotomayor, Sarah Palin and I won't even start on what he's said about Hillary Clinton over the years. All of these women are fair game and no one has gotten into an uproar about it (at least not to this level) before.
What's different? Rather than being metaphoric and hyperbolic pejoratives, the words he used were (though milder and more socially acceptable) specific descriptive nouns that point to action and character and he did it to a private citizen who (he thought) had no way to fight back.
So, in short (sarcasm) I don't see as much of a double standard as much as this just being different from previous nasty attacks that both sides are capable of launching.
I doubt we'll agree on this, but we'll always have Alex Waters!!
