Cal Thomas and Jell-O Wrestling
July 8, 2011
by Brooke Ezzat
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
Recently Cal Thomas of Fox News suggested that a Jell-O wrestling match would be a more appropriate venue for Michele Bachmann than the campaign trail.
Do the talking heads in the media think that it is open season on women? Apparently so, because virulent sexism was used to destroy Clinton’s campaign, and sexism was used with less success against South Carolina Nikki Haley.
Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have been treated to the sort of scrutiny that would have felled lesser folks.
The crux of the matter is that Neanderthals like Cal Thomas do not believe that women belong in the political arena. Or at least not at the levels that Bachman and Palin seek.
Well tough, Cal, it is our country, too. And we are not going anywhere.
I do hope, Cal, that someday soon you will be on the road to redemption, and you realize, paraphrasing Gertrude Stein, that a bigot is a bigot is a bigot. And that bigotry is incompatible with the values of democracy.
Brooke,
Thanks so much for putting a spotlight on this disgusting display of sexism. I heard it on the radio this a.m. and thought how could he be so obtuse about his misogynistic outburst, after the overt backlash by women from the treatment Hillary, Sarah, Michelle, Meg and Nicky received from the same motley crew?
It clearly shows how easily and willfully sexism flows trippingly from the tongues of the majority of male pundits, especially dinosaurs like Cal Thomas, who have clearly not learned or doesn’t accept that sexism, like racism, is just as wrong.
As long as men maintain most of the power in our society, the less likely they are going to change this kind of attitude, because they know they won’t have to pay any consequences for their prejudice against women. They know that women don’t have the power to assert any kind of real punishment on them for such behavior. Stomping your feet and getting mad just won’t bring about this major change in most men’s attitudes towards women. That will change when women finally accept that when they learn to respect and support each other with the same consistency, passion and commitment that men do for each other, we will begin that journey towards equality.
Corporate Media needs to be subjected to some scrutiny by The People. We need consumer rights when it comes to media and Corporate Media needs to be forced to compete in a free market where people besides rich old men can bring ideas to market and consumers are free to drop the old men’s channels that are offensively bigoted against women. If you have basic cable you are subsidizing this crap.
Saw yesterday that a Pawlenty aid apologized for suggesting that sex appeal helps Michelle Bachmann. the comments to this article were so outragiously sexist that I flagged about 10/12. So far, I don’t see discussion about any issues.
I am not an issue voter anymore. to me both women (Palin and Bachman) have guts, are capable to think out of the box and may have some ideas about problem solving and some pro women stances. that is more than enough to get my vote.
People who trash Palin and Bachmann do so out of complete ignorance. They do not know the political records of these two self made conservative women and they do not care. They get their information from Jon Stewart, SNL and Bill Maher. They have become so callous from surrounding themselves with pop culture misogyny that they don’t even acknowledge this kind of crap as misogyny.
I am particularly sadened that Fox News is now displaying this behavior. I stopped watching, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and all the other Soros funded media as well as late night comedians because they hate any woman that has the audacity to acheive political sucess- including liberal women like Hillary Clinton. Fox New was very fair and balanced during and after the 2008 presidential campaign. They never exploited the childish mistakes of political candidates children.
Bill O’Reilly was victorious in helping to over turning (I Believe it was New Hampshire’s) law which made it legal for under age girls to dance in night clubs. Over all the more conservative values of Fox News has been infinitely more kind to women and girls than any other news out let. But misogynists like Chris Wallace and this fool need to be fired. I have email Fox News asking for them to fire Chris Wallace. He is the worst offender at Fox. The Hosts such as Hannity, O’Reilly and especially Gretta have been quite supportive of female candidates including Hillary clinton, even more so than her own party. They have also diplayed the courage to call out the breath taking misogyny of Islam and I salute them for that.
Media Matters put out this video. I would be careful in supporting the agenda of Media Matters which is a Soros funded foundation that promaoted Soro’s agenda which is in no way good for women. Look into Soro’s track record yourself. He handed the democrat primary to Obama on a silver platter. The man’s fianancial team is made up of entirely men and there are several of them. Media Matters is a partisan far left outfit and the far left has never ever been good to women.
Somehow I don’t see anyone making such comments about Ms Pelosi, HRC, Wasserman-Schultze,it is always conservative women who bear the brunt of such “jokes”
Sorry Bruce, but I disagree. Have you forgotten the 2008 election? We had the HRC nutcracker, the “Iron my shirt” signs which I am convinced to this day were planted by Obama supporters. We also had Tweety making snarky remarks about the sounds of HRC’s voice. If there have not been as many nasty remarks about liberal women lately it is probably because they have bowed out rather than put of with this sort of crap. If there is a viable female candidate on my side of the aisle, it will only be a matter of time before “Tweety” or Olbermann start in on the sound of her voice, or call her a dingbat, or ask someone to take her into a room and make sure she doesn’t come out, call her a bad mother, etc.
I think conservative women are getting the brunt of it. Part of that is because there just aren’t any liberal women in the forefront at the moment, but it’s also because conservative women are a threat to many liberal and Dem men. The Dem party has acted as if they own women for many years now, if one steps out of line and appears in public as a conservative, it threatens that hold they think they have on all women. They have to immediately dismiss anyone outside the party as stupid, crazy, etc, so other women will stay in their place. The message is clear, you can be a female Democrat or you can go outside of us and be mocked and ridiculed and called stupid and crazy.
Newsweek has Palin featured on the cover( it is actually a good cover from the quick glance I saw on C4PALIN July 18 issue…I am sure Tina Brown did a hatchet job inside though- she is one of the worst women in her constant attacks and sexism towards conservative women – Anna yes HRC got a large dose too- but I never hear anything about Pelosi,Wasserman-Schutlze, etc recently at least it has been only gop women who were attacked-When Pelosi was speaker- certainly on top, we heard something only once and TNA took the lead in showing us that attack, but other than that one time..never was she attacked…nor Ms Obama either
Bruce,
If you live on the left coast you should have heard all sorts of Pelosi jokes–like she can’t smile because of the plastic surgery and botox, the only thing she has done is her hair, her pearl wardrobe, etc.
They are now starting in on DiFi, asking if she is too old for reelection because she will be 85 when she is up for reelection. Robert Byrd was 200 and died in the Senate and that was OK. I think they want to clear the road for the Golden Boy Gavin Newsome and want her out of the the way. Even though DiFi has done so much for the country and the state of California.
I still can not believe that Chris Wallace asked Michelle if she was a flake. Can you imagine a talking head asking that of a man? I just think that the liberal dude nation resurrected sexism and used it and it worked so now conservative dude nation thinks it can adopt the policy too. I think that Michelle is perceived as being a real threat to the Republican establishment so they want to give her and Palin the HRC treatment instead of paying attention to what they are saying and the fact they symoblize the discontent of the public.
All I am saying is that people need to grown up and stop paying attention to the issues and not packaging. Here we are with a looming and catostrophic financial issue–debt ceiling and what is the media focused on? Casey Anthony.
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