Maybe I'm a bit too touchy, but in my channel surfing last night I ran into the ever classy Bill Maher on Leno, and he was off on this tangent about how the people who were trying to get rid of wall street corruption (Elliot Spitzer) and who are trying to address poverty (John Edwards) were needlessly taken down by sex scandals. In the process of arguing the point with Leno, and trying to argue that pontificating about prostitution is exploitative is absurd, he said "a lot of girls in America, jay, are just hos, they wanna be hos..." I was really disgusted by these comments, as I was with Maher discussion of rich people, as though he is not one of them. I understand what Maher is trying to say, but I'm not sure I understand why women have to be taken down in the process, but apparently according to Maher, boys will be boys. Tell me what you think. All I could find was was the whole show at NBC.com it is the October 7th show in "chapter 4." I'm curious to know if you all think I'm crazy or maybe Maher is just a hack?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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3 comments:
Bill Maher is a misogynist. He always has been, which is why no matter how much I agree with some of the things he says, I will never be able to like him or respect him.
I don't think that's touchy at all; you're ire makes perfect sense to me. I haven't gotten a chance to watch the actual clip yet, but it's always disheartening when people degrade women--often unwittingly (which is almost worse)--to try to make some other point. Why is that necessary?
And I'm so sick and tired of the "boys will be boys" argument being used to defend, well, almost anything. It's like saying men have no self-restraint just because they're men. That's stupid reasoning. Shouldn't men be equally pissed off by the implication that they lack control?
Aviva's point about "boys will be boys" is excellent. The fact that men don't get upset with that defense just brings home the double standard that men who pay to sleep around are seen as manly and virile, while women who accept money for sex are simply dirty and asking to be screwed in more ways than one. It's never seen as men's loss of control, but always women's.
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