Bernhard Bagged in Beantown
October 2, 2008
by Amy Siskind
|There’s vile and then there’s vile. Sandra Bernhard’s misogynistic comments about Gov. Palin have gone beyond the pale of acceptable comedy.
Bernhard was supposed to be a keynote speaker at fundraiser for a domestic abuse shelter in Boston. Apparently, her joke about Gov. Palin being gang-raped by a group of black men is not so funny after all. Many of us are just sick and tired of women attacking women!
Comedian Sandra Bernhard has lost her slot as a keynote speaker for a women’s shelter in Massachusetts after attacking vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on abortion. In a monologue criticizing the Alaska governor, Bernhard made crude comments about rape that cost her the gig.
The comments came in a one-woman stand up show Bernhard did last month in Washington, D.C.. During the event, Bernhard said Palin would be “gang-raped by my big black brothers” and the comments came in a diatribe against Palin’s pro-life views.
Bernhard was supposed to be a featured speaker at the October 16 event “Funny Women … Serious Business” put on by the Boston-based Rosie’s Place, a domestic violence shelter for women.
Public relations director Leemarie Mosca told AP about the cancellation and said the comments were offensive to many of the victims the shelter helps as well as its staff and volunteers.
“In light of our mission, we don’t think violence against women is a laughing matter,” she said.
Yes, gang raped by men sure fits the bill of violence against women. The line is drawn pretty high though, given the sexist trashing of Palin done on talk shows with a national audience and little opposition voiced by both genders.
Hurray for the cancellation! Women need to stand by women in asserting that rape is no joking matter. Sexist trashing against Palin also needs to be denounced, and has been, and will be, but unfortunately partisan bias gets in the way as well as sexism.
Hear, hear! I think I’ll send them a check – unfortunately, a small one – but still a show of support for their principled action.
I haven’t seen what Bernhard actually said, verbatim. I’m not asking you to post it here, but could you point me to a link where I could find the actual language?
And by the way, what is up with the reporter saying this concerns abortion? How did abortion become part of this?
Wow. Her gangrape “joke” was distasteful on so many levels. So this is what passes for comedy now? Where was the feminist outrage? This is ridiculous.
I’m sure now Sandra will propel herself forward towards however many nano-seconds of fame are left for her by portraying herself a “victim” for losing the gig.
Sometimes it’s hard not to think the whole world has gone insane.
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