And what’s the best way to do that?  By calling women whores and making commentaries on their looks/sexual proclivities, of course!

Degrading women is funny and edgy and it’s okay to do if you’re liberal, cause omg! you totally can’t be sexist!

In a similar vein to a piece on Feministing, how on Earth can someone compare having a non-consensual act of physical violence inflicted upon them to a consensual act of sexual expression?  I’m not going to sit here and graphically describe my sexual exploits.  For Chrissake, my family members have access to this blog.  Instead, I can tell you that when I engage in naughty time with my other half, none of it is degrading.  I am making the conscious, consensual decision to engage in whatever I want, and I’m going to guess that it’s likely Ms. Hilton does the same. I’m also going to go out on a limb and suggest that she’s like me and doesn’t want to be assaulted when out in public.

Regardless of your feelings about Paris Hilton, it is irresponsible for journalists to perpetuate the idea that a female’s worth is dictated primarily by her looks and sexual desirability. This is doubly true when it comes from a liberal commentator. You know what? I expect this shit from conservatives. I understand that most conservatives argue for freedom but don’t really trust me – a woman – to be able to make decisions about my own body, much less want me to break through the glass ceiling. I understand where the conservative’s perspective and focus is, and I can work with that or ignore it, because of one crucial difference: they often don’t feel the need to speak for me. It’s that much more patronizing and degrading what it comes from someone who supposedly supports feminism (or the LGBT community, or non-Christians, or the poor) to see shit that is completely counter-productive to that goal. I get it, no one wants to be known as “that famous asshole who hates woman” (though Olbermann’s arch nemesis doesn’t seem to be hurting for viewers, fame, or money). I get it, but I’m sick to death of seeing this “even though I’m a sexist pig, I can’t admit to being a sexist pig, so I’ll just stick to making my pot shots at stupid bitches no one likes” bullshit play out.

And yeah, I already know this is a three year old blurb; however, I’d like to point something out: I have never received an email from the Democratic Party decrying the enlightened, educated, and wise Keith Olbermann for his sexist shit. This is the exact reason why I can’t take my most recent email from Democrats.com seriously. The email, entitled “Boycott Fox News Advertisers,” is a melodramatic mess of shit wherein the Democratic Party proves that they can be just as big on the “you’re with us or against us” mentality of Bush & co. In it, they make a bunch of wild claims that are tantamount to “Republicans rape puppies and hate ‘Merika, while Democrats are awesome and are nice and would never be mean to anything ever and we swear this has nothing to do with the fact that we’re in power!” Here is a brief snippet of the email:

FOX News has always been the prop aganda [sic] arm of the Republican Party, willing to twist facts and even lie to promote the Republican agenda.

But the election of President Obama in 2008 pushed FOX News into outright hate-mongering and incitement of violence, which is intolerable in a democracy.

[...]

Here are some examples of intolerable hate speech and incitement to violence:

6/30/09 Glenn Beck agreed with guest who urged bin Laden to attack U.S. with nuclear weapons.

There were four or five more examples, but I honestly ignored them because this was the only one I’ve watched. I’m already angry that I had to sit through Glenn Beck once. I’m even angrier that I have to not only defend the jackass, but also had to sit through the clip a few more times just to make sure I got a quote correct. When I initially saw a longer version of this video pop up on Digg, I had to wonder if Democrats, Republicans, and Third Party/Independent voters each got different links to click, because I clearly saw a different video than the Republocrats did. This is the slightly shorter version of what I viewed:

Obviously, the version Republocrats viewed featured Glenn Beck, Osama bin Laden, and Michael Scheuer re-enacting lemon party while torching a Whole Foods.  They finished by alternately crapping on American flags and doing their best Yosemite Sam impressions.

I mean, come on, I’m not a Glenn Beck fangirl by any means, but even in that incredibly shortened clip, there is no proclamation that bin Laden should attack the US. Hell, he and Michael Scheuer even end the clip (right at the 1:00 minute mark) with Beck saying “which is why I was thinking, this weekend, if I were him, that would be the last thing I would do right now.”

I wonder why I view both parties as slight variations of the same damn thing. Let’s see, they’ll both happily use sexism when it’s convenient; using sexism against Palin is worse than coveting thy parent’s murder, but it’s cool to refer to Clinton as a dyke because she’s not super feminine. See, with the GOP you get a two-fer of sexism and homophobia! Score! For the most part, neither side wants to decry the bullshit thrown around by their own party members; a notable exception to this rule is Meghan McCain. “[T]wist[ing] facts and even [lying] to promote the Republican agenda” is something straight out of the Republican handbook, but what the hell did Democrats.com do in this email?

I realize it looks as if I’m making some conservative shift as of late, when the reality is that I don’t have much of a desire to nuke the impotent dead horse that is the Republican party. This is one of their off cycles, and I’m sure they’ll sweep Congress again in 2010 (unless third parties pull their heads out of their asses, which I doubt), making the second half of Obama’s first term about as effective as a T-Rex’s tiny little arms. Then while rabbling about how each side is terrible, they’ll work together behind the scenes to pass or reauthorize horrific legislation and screw us even more.

Don’t worry, when that occurs, I’m sure the Republicans will once again give me plenty of material to blog about. Maybe I’ll be able to back off of the Democratic Party again and shed a tear for Barry O. I think it’s more likely that I will be shedding tears over “President” Palin, but who knows. Maybe the world will collapse and all of those damn paranoid conspiracy theorists at Lew Rockwell will be right, and I’ll have years of militia soup and canned baked beans to look forward to.

At least Libertarian Boyfriend and I aren’t anti-gun.

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