This is already shaping up to be a crap week for women in the media.
For starters, Bill O’Reilly is on a mission to prove to humanity that he is an utter waste of space. He has already burnished his credentials as an unrepentant victim blamer and slut shamer and he has embarassed himself publicly by claiming to be a better feminist (re Sarah Palin) than actual feminists. Now he’s sending minions to harass women who dare criticize him on their vacations. Amanda Terkel dared to note, as we did here on Harpyness, that it was a wee bit absurd to have O’Reilly speak at a fundraiser for the It Happened to Alexa Foundation, a rape survivor’s advocacy organization, considering that he has repeatedly drooled over the frankly irrelevant fact of women’s outfits in reporting on rapes. (Also he’s just fucking gross but that doesn’t strictly disqualify anyone as a rape survivor advocate, I suppose.) And so O’Reilly’s producers decided to ambush her to prove some kind of point about… Bill not being an asshole? Methinks they think that the nature of assholity is something other than what it is. In aid of their poor reading comprehension skills, I offer the following review: rape survivor blaming = assholity. Stalking reporters who call you out on rape survivor blaming = assholity. Fin.
See how simple it is, Bill?
Meanwhile, over at that “I’d totally expect better of you” bastion of liberality the New York Times, the recent hiring of Ross Douthat, a conservative blogger over at the Atlantic, has all the white liberal dudebloggers of the world applauding his brilliance. Even Ta-Nehisi seems to be defending him, much to my dismay. (Though where I come from, “better than Bill Kristol” is not a true compliment.)
Readers, I know some of you are saying to yourself: “Who the fuck is that? I’ve never heard of him.” Well, he has a little blog over at the Atlantic where he talks about social conservatism and how great it is. Can’t imagine why you wouldn’t have that one in your RSS feed. I’d lift some choice quotes for you, but Katha Pollitt does a pretty good job here.
All of this back-patting of Douthat, therefore, seems to arise from the fact that these blogger dudes would totally have a beer with him. (And we saw how well that went the last time Americans ran with that line of thinking.) See, because Douthat is rarely outright mean, and because his writing style is more or less detached-intellectual – he is prone to asking questions rather than answering them – he has somehow become the favoured foil of the Liberal White Guy Poly Sci Jockery brigade. He’s a “thinking conservative”! He totally quotes all the guys they read in their intro to political theory courses! So they’ve admitted him into their tiny closed circle of Voices That Matter and therefore, despite the fact that he insanely thinks that young women should fear getting kicked out of the house when they are pregnant because “[t]he fact that shame provokes an impulsive response is a feature, not a bug, when you’re trying to deter bad behavior that is itself impulsive.” No mention, of course, is made of the dude who got her pregnant – no need to deter that behaviour!
But that’s hardly surprising. The truth is, like most dudes who think the “we” and “I” they speak from is universal, there’s not actually a whole lot of consideration of the thoughts of actual women in Douthat’s writing. As such, he can write a whole article on abortion politics, for example, without ever actually using the word “women.”
But, you know, the NYT is all about diversity of viewpoints. So thanks, guys, that’s just the kind of thing social politics needs: the views of more white men in the mix.
Oh another conservative white guy! I can’t wait to hear what new and exciting ideas he brings to the Grey Lady! I do hope it’s more articles about how upper class white women hiring Indian immigrants as surrogate mothers so as not to interfere with their botox regime is more proof that feminism is responsible for the economic crash. That perspective is sorely lacking in the opinion class.
Commenting remotely here: How is it that the NYT is commonly referred to as “the Grey Lady,” when it’s ever clearer that it doesn’t give two lazy shits about women?
much less grey ones.
Funny: I thought O’Reilly had already proved what a waste of space he is beyond a reasonable doubt.
Consider this insurance, Ratinski. Why they don’t fire this lawsuit-inspiring jackass is completely unclear to me.
There’s not a day goes by that I don’t step back from an article or a news item and wonder “What do the middle-aged white men think? Are they being adequately represented?”
Douthat sounds like a douchebag.
(I’m sorry, that’s the extent of my eloquence for this afternoon — the news, it broke my noggin.)
Someone brought this to my attention re Douthat and readers, my lip curled a little further:
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/03/fear-of-reese-witherspoon-look-alikes-on-the-pill.html
Oh, and Douthat is 29. And older women ask me why I’m not getting married!
Can you even imagine the NYTimes or WaPo even considering a 29 year old woman as an opinion maker on anything except the styles section?
Yeah, it’s a total double st- oh, hey, great shoes, JD, where did you get them?
Oh, that abortion article was hilarious. Was that a reprint from The Onion?
Pilgrim Soul, thank you for linking that, i love the comments on that blog.
Is it wrong that I kind of want you to have a run-in with the O’Reilly-ites? They wouldn’t know what hit them.
It would be extremely challenging for me not to resort to physical violence were I to discover myself face to face with O’Reilly’s stalkers.
I fear that they would be unable to understand anyone who speaks in complete sentences.
I have pretty much stopped reading the NYT op-eds anyway. I don’t quite know why but most of them make me roll my eyes. Idk I think the internet has ruined me for that sort of writing.
I can’t believe O’Reilly is actually stalking people now. I really feel like one of these days he’s gonna lose it and go on a rampage. everyone will be like, we should’ve seen it coming.
Also, totally off-topic, did you like the Galapagos? Would you recommend?
Once when my mom and/or stepdad had Fox News on again, I stormed out of the room screaming “FOX NEWS IS FULL OF SHIT!”
There are times when I regret that. Now is not one of those.
I’m coming out of the woodwork because I feel the need to proclaim in a public place how truly crushed I was to read (in, yes, Parade) that Mary Tyler Moore is a fan of O’Reilly. And of Fox News in general. Say it ain’t so, Mary Richards!
And I fear that giving Douthat such a prominent forum will mean that other like-minded idiots will be excused (and praised) for their behavior.
Douthat is an asshat.
Surprised no one else made that astute observation
I just really want to point out that the Alexa Foundation is amazing. Ok? I know Bill O’Reilly is an asshole of the nth degree. But they are good people. I hate him for tarnishing their good name. They are seriously hurting for money right now (crap economy doesn’t slow sexual assaults, just donations) and I think that this was a Big MoneyMaker for them. They couldn’t ask him to leave without risking a big donation from him as well as from the people who bought tickets to see him. I think they weighed the evils and decided that practicality had to win out over avoiding the ickiness.
I’ve volunteered for them very briefly, and I know Alexa and her family. The co-head of the organization is kind of like a giant, very very focused, very very efficient, very well dressed (in an anne taylor kind of way) harpy who can only think about this organization and the girls she’s helping. (I deliberately use girls, because many if not most of the victims who’ve used their services have been girls, not women.) And even though I want to smoosh O’Reilly’s face in smelly poo, I cannot blame them for their decision to keep him as a speaker in order to raise funds. This woman would do anything to help the people that contact her, and she is pouring everything she has into this organization. She’d even deal with Bill O’Reilly being a gross pig if she thought it would help them.
(Just saying)