Everyone’s Awful: Why “Slut” Finger-Pointing Ruined The Birth Control Debate

It’s hard to believe that it was less than two weeks ago when Rush Limbaugh first apologized for calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” during his show. The timeline is a tough thing to wrap your head around, due in large part to the unending wave of minutiae-laden tirades that have resulted from it. Yes, Limbaugh apologized, and then we all remembered that Rush Limbaugh is Rush Limbaugh and we had a laugh at the absurd idea that any of us had cared what he thinks about women anyway.

But the story didn’t die.

Kirsten Powers reminded us that liberal commentators also say sexist things (duh) and that Bill Maher is kind of a turd (yep). And then we were all talking the “slut” talk — 600 times in a single day!. Keith Olbermann made a retroactive apology (which was almost as bad as Limbaugh’s) for his trademark misogyny. Michelle Malkin fired back — as did S.E. Cupp — noting that Olbermann can be really awful sometimes (yes). Then Bill Maher decided to parse the relative awfulness of the “s-word” and the “c-word” (should we start ranking them?) as part of his own defense. Chris Matthews, hero that he is, attempted to claim that conservative rhetoric is somehow worse than the years of bile he’s chucked at women on both the right and the left. Katie Roiphe, not to be outdone, wrote a column yesterday, reminding us that liberals “slut-shame” just as much.

And what were we talking about anyway? Babies… or something? It might have been sex. Or was it aspirin?

There is only one conclusion to draw: Everyone is awful. Terrible. And not the least of which for a very simple reason — you’ve taken a worthwhile debate about women’s health and turned it into a pissing contest about who cares more about women.

I’m all for calling out misogyny — at The Jane Dough that’s kind of our bread and butter (get it?). But this debate has so clearly changed from genuine concern about sexism, and women and health to transparent, ass-backward political wrangling. The first time in this entire presidential cycle that a women’s issue (other than A. Sexual harassment or B. Infidelity) has claimed center stage and you’ve bludgeoned it with the spotlight.

The “slut” debate between the right and the left didn’t uncover misogyny (anyone paying attention already knew it was there). It equated being somewhat less sexist with being good for women. “We call you a ‘slut’ less often; that means we’re better,” was the message. And that’s not good enough.

TAGS: contraception | Rush Limbaugh | rush limbaugh slut | Sandra Fluke

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