I didn’t want to see Don Imus fired. I wanted to see him changed. I wanted him to just step back for a second and imagine working his ass off for something he really wanted and coming so damn close to getting it that there’s only one other group in the country better than you and how much it would suck to work so hard and turn on your television and find that the news isn’t how hard you worked, but that some big media personality thinks it’s funny to announce that you look funny and fuck for money, that no matter how hard you’ve worked, to him, you’re just the girls with the weird hair and the unbridled sexuality.
Maybe firing him helps and if that’s what folks need or want, fine. I don’t care one way or another.
I just wanted him to fucking get it.
And that’s not going to happen.
Same with Opie and Anthony. I get why Egalia and others are calling for them to be fired. I don’t give a shit if they’re fired or not.
I want them to get it–that making a joke about how their guest would rape Condoleeza Rice if he had the chance is vile.
It’s vile to sit around joking about raping anyone. It’s vile to suggest that an appropriate response to women in power who threaten you is raping them. And it’s vile the way that the commenters here are all like “What? It is funny. Imagine the look on her face.”
I don’t want any of them to be fired, either.
I just want them to get it, that it’s not funny, and that, if, when someone started talking about how funny raping someone is, they could say, “Hey, man, that’s not cool.” change the topic.
They run the show. They can control the content that way.
Filed under: America how can I write a holy litany in your silly moo, Fun with Feminism
There you go, getting all Pauline on me again.
This is wonderful. Kudos.
[...] I love how my Aunt B just cuts right to the heart of it all: I get why Egalia and others are calling for [Opie & Andy] to be fired. I don’t give a shit if they’re fired or not. [...]
But hey, now people can make porn titled “Nappy Headed Ho’s”, and be considered to be poking wryly at the status quo! That’s gotta count for something, right?
*eyeroll*
Oh for heaven’s sake. Lost another one to Akismet.
Kudos to Egalia, whom I don’t care for in the least (and I presume that’s a mutual feeling) for sticking to her guns even though Condi Rice–someone I’m sure she couldn’t care for in the least–was the target of the nastiness in question. Points for consistency at least.
I don’t believe there will be change until there are serious consequences for the misogyny. Firing high profile offenders would be a start.
Nice to see you too, Roger.
I agree with Aunt B. Change doesn’t come from threatening people with retributive consequences. Things won’t change until people really get it.
I don’t want them to be fired — I want them to go down with the rest of their show after people stop listening because it’s retarded and not funny.
Mm, I actually think it has to be both. We need strong public consensus…. that “hey, that’s not cool” response. But we also need to back it up with strong institutional consequences. And I don’t really think that we can just sit back and wait for one or the other to happen “first.” If we say ‘oh, well it won’t work until the public deserts people like this,’ but don’t change the framework they’re operating in… nobody has any incentive to change. Likewise, if we just say “well, they should be fired,” but we don’t address the social context that makes it read as “PC whining” or “overzealous and lawsuit-averse corporate politicking,” (instead of actual disapproval)… nothing is going to change. There’s no reason for it to.
I stopped buying Steve Earle records for this very reason.