February 26, 2013

"I am tired of being called a shrieking harridan for pointing out inequalities so tangible and blatant that they are regularly codified into law..."

" I am tired of being told to provide documentation of inequality...."
As though feminist academics haven't filled books (decades of books) with answers to that shit already.... I am so fucking fatigued by this anti-intellectual repetitive shell game...

A famous man making sexist jokes on a primetime awards show watched by millions of people is so banal and status-quo in our culture, that to me—a woman professionally committed to detecting and calling bullshit on sexism—it just feels like a drop in the bucket. Luckily, there's nothing better than a depressing dose of apathy to remind you to FUCK THE BUCKET....
Just some item about the Academy Awards show over at Jezebel. I thought you should know.

79 comments:

ricpic said...

Hillary's soul sista.

Crunchy Frog said...

a woman professionally committed to detecting and calling bullshit on sexism

So she has a vested interest in finding things to get pissed off about. And we're supposed to give a shit what she has to say because...?

Go fuck a duck, lady.

Sorun said...

It's the hormones talking.

YoungHegelian said...

Because, Lord knows, those family values conservatives exist for no other reason than to make life miserable for women.

Like that Seth McFarlane, who runs the Family Research Council in his spare time, right?

Methadras said...

Leftists continue to be humorless Richards.

Anonymous said...

But, but, this is Hollywood! They're so patriotic! They're so caring! They're so tolerant! They're so fair!

Sam L. said...

Whole bunch folks noticed! Twarn't jest her!

But, hey, that's Hollywood for us. It's more of that Dem/leftie War On Women, doncha know.

tiger said...

Since NOW is all about equality I'm waiting for them to complain about the way MEN are treated in the media/films/television and the brunt of jokes.

Men are regularly portrayed as stupid/unfeeling/hatefilled/stupid/
poor parents/oblivious to their family responsibilities/ and did I mention 'stupid'?

Automatic_Wing said...

Has she heard the one about the feminsts and the light bulb?

YoungHegelian said...

@Maguro,

We got the "That's not funny" one the other day, but how about:

Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: 100. One to change the bulb & 99 to write about how the bulb is exploiting the socket.

edutcher said...

Honey, he made an ass of himself and destroyed whatever cachet the Oscars may have had.

(well, him and Moochelle...)

Anything that bad pretty much takes care of itself and most people were turned off.

So what exactly is your problem here?

PS Women who want to make themselves sound tough or angry or committed (or should be) need to find a better way than talking like sailors fresh off a tramp steamer.

Women do not sound tough or cool or anything like that when they use bad language.

They sound cheap.

In fact, except for sailors fresh off a tramp steamer, probably the only people who can talk like that and have any credibility are military types because they seen stuff that bad.

Christy said...

I don't disagree. I'm also wondering if we see a decline in nude scenes scenes by any serious actress.

Christy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JAL said...

Hey and Lindy West is one of Sarah Palin's BFFs and liked her FB page. Woo hoo!

Oh. She isn't and didn't?

Mmmm.

YoungHegelian said...

They matter only insofar as they are beautiful or naked, or preferably both. This wasn't an awards ceremony so much as a black-tie celebration of the straight white male gaze.

Hello, this is Hollywood! You think that they let ugly guys in front of the camera?

This is an example of what has always pissed me off about feminism and its ills. It seems to always want to sweep under the rug the idea that the female side of culture works its own special evil on men, women, & children in its own unique way.

I mean, jeezo-peep, the guys are responsible for a glamor-fest? What's more feminine than a love of glamor?

What's next? That the guys are responsible for menstruation?

Unknown said...

Whatever people on the left decide is funny is funny.
When will we ever learn.

JAL said...

And anyone notice how often guys are portrayed as total douches and dads are total jerks for "entertainment"(!)?

Chip S. said...

OK, what reason would she like us to give for calling her a shrieking harridan?

jr565 said...

I just saw a commercial, I think on the academy awards even where this muscle bound guy starts taking off his shirt and all the women start staring lewdly.... And you don't dont see me getting my panties in a bunch!

augustus said...

She does not seem to fathom that she could be correct and still be a shrieking harridan. (Not that I think she is correct.)

Also, feminism in its current form is itself anti-intellectual, so whatever.

MadisonMan said...

Was there anything in the song that was false?

MadisonMan said...

I mean, that's what I'd ask a feminist complaining about it.

What would her response be? That we're just not supposed to talk about it, or we're not allowed to?

edutcher said...

Christy said...

I don't disagree. I'm also wondering if we see a decline in nude scenes scenes by any serious actress.

No serious actress does a nude scene anymore.

There's a land office business in body doubles and has been for years.

JAL said...

And anyone notice how often guys are portrayed as total douches and dads are total jerks for "entertainment"(!)?

White guys, white guys.

When was the last time you saw a black guy or a ghey or, particularly, a Moslem portrayed that way?

Read the background of why the character of Ben Cartwright was created the way it was. This has been going on for about 65 years.

George M. Spencer said...

Here a few current headlines at Jezebel:

"How I Became a Feminist Porn Star"

"Fuck Yes, I'll Eat Some Horse Meat. Give It to Me. I Love It."

and, my personal favorite....

"Kangaroo Making Out with Dog Isn't Right, but It's Okay."

Henry said...

I really appreciate Althouse for extracting the thesis and summation and leaving out the middle three paragraphs of harangue.

Ms. West has a point. But I sure hope she gives her cells a chance to quit processing outrage for a every once in a while.

There's a really simple solution. Find friends and family you like to be with and kill your television.

pdug said...

Why is Jezebel so amazingly awful?

George M. Spencer said...

pduggie--

Race to the bottom. The skeeziest rag wins the most eyeballs...which means higher ad revenue.

Audience is teen girls. Key group for advertisers who want to lock them into brand loyalty for life.

Saint Croix said...

A famous man making sexist jokes on a primetime awards show watched by millions of people is so banal and status-quo in our culture

Our two sexes aren't actually equal when it comes to sex itself. Women get pregnant. Men do not. Motherhood is biologically certain. Fatherhood is biologically uncertain. These are profound biological differences. And there's nothing equal about it!

Feminism is so boring because it doesn't see--or refuses to see--the ways that women have power in our society. It's always helpess women and superior men. Boring, boring, boring. And dishonest!

For instance, sex has always given women power and authority over men. Feminists deny this, or they don't want to think about it. Possibly because many feminists are not sexually attractive, and so do not enjoy this power. But many women do enjoy this power.

Feminists see Seth McFarland as this man-bully who is mocking women. Well, yeah, he is mocking women. But he's mocking their power over men. He is undercutting women who use sex for advancement.

The response to McFarlane is quite authoritarian. "How dare you?!"

He is literally saying, the queen has no clothes. And boy the queen is pissed off about it.

Gahrie said...

What's next? That the guys are responsible for menstruation?

Wellll...you know....if Adam had grown a set of balls and refused to eat the apple....

ampersand said...

Has anyone pointed out that Jezebel has gone to the dogs?

Chip Ahoy said...

I agree with the things that she pointed out while I lasted. But she's tired of telling people who don't want to hear it and yet took a good while to say whatever it is I'm missing down there because I dropped off when I started visualizing all those women in gowns, and then in their acting roles, and then generally, showing me their juggling norks all the time all over the place and I'm not complaining. Often directing my attention directly to them. Just so. And sometimes less thoughtfully just so. Like a dress that is cut low then buttoned as if modestly closed but creating a gap expressly and expressively for cleavage to show to the world not just me.

The lunch sport bar near my home has stools and I was sitting there with my legs spread apart as they must for my feet to be on the cross piece of the stool and the waitress was staring right at my crotch I was sitting there talking to her ordinarily about the menu and the whole time I was thinking, "HelloOo. My eyes are up here."

But I liked it. Is the complaint we're all pervs? Guilty.

Freeman Hunt said...

I don't think the mental image of a woman attempting to have sex with a bucket was intended, but there it is.

Freeman Hunt said...

Remember when rhhardin suggested that The View include a segment where a man comes on to answer science and math questions from the women. I still laugh about that.

In a perfect world, Jezebel would allow rhhardin to do a guest post each day, sort of point-counterpoint.

Unknown said...

When a character in a movie takes her breasts off, I mean clothes off, revealing her breasts, am I expected to think, ah, those are the character's breasts?



Kirby Olson said...

Now there are sexist jokes because it's a taboo and the harridans just making.

Kirby Olson said...

just make it funnier.

Patrick said...

Can it really escape this blathering idiot that the Boob song pokes fun not at the breast baring women, but at the men who go sophomorically apeshit at the sight if well formed breasts?

Men like breasts. Always will. Nothing wrong with that. Women in film take full advantage of the fact that men enjoy watching beautiful women, especially when they are topless. Nothing wrong with that either.

Buncha damn puritans.

KLDAVIS said...

McFarlane successfully mocks an entertainment industry built on PYTs flashing their tits...he does it to their faces at their biggest event, and feminists are pissed at him? He didn't create the Hollywood culture that feeds off these women exposing themselves. And, he didn't write any hippie theses telling them they were empowered by their bodies. His funny little song was a cutting indictment of both our modern film industry and the supposed feminists that regularly ignore the ways it denigrates women, because it's art, or sufficiently laced with liberal theology. Thank you, Seth.

chuck said...

The lady is definitely unequal, but which side of '<' she belongs on I'll leave to the reader.

Elle said...

I loved the Boobs song.

I know, I know. I'm just a SAHM raising two more white males. No actual opinion here.

Synova said...

I wonder how much sexism towards men she could detect if she'd dedicated her life to it the same way.

"When was the last time you saw a black guy or a ghey or, particularly, a Moslem portrayed that way?"

The Proud Family?

Though I don't know if that's on any more. (Kid's cartoon. Dad's black.)

Big Mike said...

The multi-billion dollar company I work for just replaced a perfectly competent female CEO ... with another perfectly competent CEO.

Women certainly can compete for and succeed at the top jobs in today's corporate world.

Lindy would like to complain that she'd be way ahead in her career except of stinking sexist men. But the reality is simple. She. Just. Isn't. Good. Enough.

Big Mike said...

Replaced a perfectly competent female CEO with another perfectly competent female CEO.

It's late and it's been a long day.

Synova said...

So I pop over to AoSHQ and find this -

"The former celebrity Morrissey then went on to opine:

"War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men. They even get medals for it. Women don’t go to war to kill other women. Wars and armies and nuclear weapons are essentially heterosexual hobbies.
"

Uh huh.

Bob Loblaw said...

Sure thing lady. Now explain why, when there weren't many women going to college it was a sure sign of sexism but now that the situation is reversed it's proof men are lazy.

Of course she's probably documented all kinds of sexism against women... and completely ignored sexism against men.

Bob Loblaw said...

War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.

Apparently not everyone made it to class the day they covered Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi.

JohnBoy said...

Yeah, women in the first world west have it rough.

Better to go elsewhere. Saudi Arabia. Chad. Pakistan.

SteveR said...

Its art, its inspiring people all over the world. Its inspiring young people. This is America the most tolerant people in the world. Its what we teach our high schoolers and college students to be like.

Synova said...

I wanted to say, speaking of AoSHQ... it's a "male" environment in every way and rude too without the least bit of gentlemanly tolerance for shrieking harridans.

And while the rough and tumble is certainly not for everyone, I find more actual *respect* there for women as equals than many other places, most certainly including those places where the shrieking harridans hang out.

Because NO ONE can disrespect you for being female like another woman can. No. One.

Kevin said...

Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but Lindy West is kind of a cunt, right?

Synova said...

"Apparently not everyone made it to class the day they covered Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi."

The whole statement is laughably irrational. There's "men" and then there's "women" and "honorary-women"? Seriously, he's saying gay men aren't *men*. And then the bit about women not going to war to kill each other... pfft!... who does he thinks sends the men out to raid and welcomes them back with their treasures with lots of extra sex and a big party? DUR!

rcommal said...

Like you're under sedation! Again!!!!!

n.n said...

Synova:

Most men do not fit the feminist constructed stereotype. Their claims to the contrary do suggest an ulterior motive, if nothing other than deflection or displacement to compensate for internal inconsistencies.

Unfortunately, the policies which artificially discriminate between men and women, between individuals, ultimately, actually serve to increase entropy in the system, which is realized mentally as cognitive dissonance, and increasingly with somatic symptoms.

In any case, the mind is first to take leave of its fitness, followed shortly by the body, which together motivate a progressive aggression. The consequences suffered are probably exacerbated when they are sponsored by your own poor judgment.

Well, she, and other generational feminists, wanted a war between sexes, and they now seem surprised when the enemy does not simply submit in blind obedience. It was their mistake to underestimate the resilience of individual dignity.

rcommal said...

Except that, 30-odd years later, I think that song from RHPC is positively not just perspicuous, but also catchy.

Some good commentary there, too, even if I don't agree with goodly chunks of it now any more than I did then. *shrug* **whatever**

Still, I recommend thinking over the implications.

rcommal said...

Also, for what it's worth--and I, myself, know it won't be seen as worth much, given all that I know--I find the whining of the Lindy Wests of the world to be utterly reprehensible and with very little redeeming merit. A couple of decades hence will tell.

Moose said...

Aw - she had me at "shrieking harridan"...

Rusty said...

Fix your own damn flat tire!

Lyssa said...

She seems delightful. I don't have any idea why so many young, ambitious women reject the label of "feminism."

Dante said...

This woman wrote:

3. Michelle Obama
It's not that I love her, it's that I'm literally IN LOVE with her.


Well, that's odd. I wonder if she has a personal relationship with her? She's a feminist, so I assume her view is that the stalking behavior men have is similar to the ones women have. Should she be psychoanalytically evaluated? To make sure she ought to be allowed to have guns?

I mean, what would happened if MO ended up in the sack with Hillary. It might set off the ticking time bomb in her brain.

Shanna said...

Blah blah blah, if you don't watch it there is nothing to complain about!

Anonymous said...

Lyssa, I agree.

It makes me wonder why many conservative and even liberal women are letting this sexism slide. Do you think Sarah Palin wouldve?

SGT Ted said...

They matter only insofar as they are beautiful or naked, or preferably both.

Possibly because many feminists are not sexually attractive, and so do not enjoy this power. But many women do enjoy this power.

Rush Limbaughs undeniable truth about life number 24:

Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society.


SGT Ted said...

Feminists need to grow a sense of humor and retake human biology classes.

And yes notice how the problem isn't women showing us their tits on film, but the guy making fun of them in a witty way.

More proof that feminists are just sexist supremacists.

Phil 314 said...

Well at least he made fun of Christians too.


And Mel Gibson, definitely Mel Gibson.

dbp said...

" I am tired of being told to provide documentation of inequality...."

The price for claiming inequality is to be willing to provide proof. If you want to claim inequality and not provide proof, then you risk rightfully being called a "Shrieking harridan".

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I'd like to give a shrieking harridan an orgasm to hear what it sounds like.

Lyssa said...

Inga said: It makes me wonder why many conservative and even liberal women are letting this sexism slide. Do you think Sarah Palin wouldve?

What sexism are you referring to? The frat-boy jokes of a cartoonist who makes vulgar cracks on everyone at an awards ceremony most people didn't watch? Folks are probably ignoring that because it's stupid, not sexist.

Sarah Palin still exists. Is she ignoring whatever sexism you're referring to? I catch her on Facebook periodically, and she seems to generally be focused on issues far more relevant than the Seth McFarland and the Oscars.

Rusty said...

Mitchell the Bat said...
I'd like to give a shrieking harridan an orgasm to hear what it sounds like.

Thread winner right there.

pst314 said...

I didn't watch the Oscars at all, but Seth McFarland gives me the impression that he despises people, not just women.

Delayna said...

"As though feminist academics haven't filled books (decades of books) with answers to that shit already.... I am so fucking fatigued by this anti-intellectual repetitive shell game..."

Let me fix that...

"As though conservative academics haven't filled books (decades of books) with answers to socialism already.... I am so tired of this anti-intellectual repetitive shell game...

Welcome to my world, Lindy.

Known Unknown said...

Kevin won.

Known Unknown said...

When was the last time you saw a black guy or a gay or, particularly, a Muslim portrayed that way?

The phone one at the bus stop with the girl and black guy playing a game. Can't find a video online right now.

But it is rare.

Captain Curt said...

My teenage daughters immediately figured out that the "I Saw Your Boobs" song was satirizing the MEN who think that way. Why couldn't she?

President-Mom-Jeans said...

"Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but Lindy West is kind of a cunt, right?"

Kind of?

More like full blown malignant.

n.n said...

Delayna:

Except that conservatives are right. There are two reasons why socialism is a failed philosophy: dissociation of risk and authoritative monopolies. The first engenders corruption and the second prevents accountability.

Delayna said...

n.n.:

Sorry, I was being too brief. I should have gone on to point out things like Dem politicians acknowledging the Laffer curve when they pretend to sound reasonable before the election, then declaring that taxing the rich will help the economy when they're in charge.

And, of course, the usual trolls and dimwits who pretend that it never happened, nope, no way, you haven't proven a thing SQUIRREL!!! when you try to point it out.

Amartel said...

Her whole purpose in life is "detecting and calling bullshit on sexism" yet she's offended and tired (?) of having to provide objective evidence, rather than her own subjective reactions. As though feminist academics, credentialled ladies!, haven't already filled books (decades of books) with subjective reactions already! The NERVE of these littel people!

Amartel said...

Ha! Synova @ 9:35.
There's men.
There's women.
Then there's Progressive Creature.

MarkD said...

Oh, the Oscars. Nevermind.