Daily Archive

Michal Coren gets it wrong even at the best of times.  I can always count on the Sun Newspaper to annoy me enough to blog about the inanity that fills its pages.

I really want to agree at least once with Coren before I die and with the opening sentence of his article I though today would be the day.

“These are sad days for the American right.” intones Coren.

My eyebrow twitched, would this be the day?  Naa… It would be easier to smash an atom with my shoe then agree with Mr.Coren.  Case in point –  next sentence (italics mine):

“The Republicans have no credible leader, Rush Limbaugh has conquered the art of perennial outrage and the men in smart suits and women in shrinking skirts at Fox try to outdo each other in their use of hyperbole.”

Very nice ass-hat.  ‘Smart’ men and sexualized women.  Isn’t institutionalized misogyny great?

“The tragedy is that all this comes at a time when we have one of the most worrying presidents in American history. Then, just as we think it can’t get any worse, comes the dream ticket of Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean, both former beauty queens and both proving that jokes about beauty queens are somewhat justified.”

Ah, yes.  Beauty queens are always stupid.  Check.  Throwing a “somewhat justified” does not fix the message.  Just like after punching someone in the face then saying ‘sorry’ does not mitigate the initial transgression.

“Actually she is an ordinary, nice woman blessed with beauty, a devoted husband and a good family. It really should end with that. But no.”

Bra-vo! She should be constantly pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen too.   Sex class! Back to the galley with you and make me a sam’ich bitch.

“Palin wants power and is willing to close her eyes to the facts as she marches forward in glorious denial. Perhaps most chilling is how so many conservatives refuse to accept the obvious and twist into awful shapes trying to justify the woman’s failings.”

The ‘facts’: You are a woman and should never ever aspire to power.  The public sphere is not your domain and how dare you even contemplate running for the highest office in the land.  How could the Right even think of backing a female candidate?  Patriarchally speaking, we have not gotten past the  archetypal feminine “built in” flaws!  The horror.

“Her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy,[…] Yet, where was your relationship with your daughter, one that would have indicated to you in numerous ways that the girl was hiding and doing something that was wrong?”

Because mother daughter relationships are always open and communicative, if only you’d just play your role and tend to the children.  I guess Mr.Palin does not get the whole ‘girl’ thing and could not spend the extra time strengthening his role and bond with her daughter, his culpability is never questioned, while hers is immediately put front and center.

Awesome.  Could this patriarchal values 101 lesson get any worse?  Of course it does, the ass hattery kicks into overdrive as Coren trashes Carrie Prejean.  What follows is his cogent response against her arguments(insipid as they my be).  Hmmm…calculating the possibility my previous sentence being true…err… did I mention the smashing atom thing with my shoe… ?

“Carrie Prejean is an even more frightening example of right-wing hypocrisy. Her now famous defence of genuine marriage — only between a man and a woman [Wow, parroting the hetronormative standard. You go girl!]. […]  she has posed almost-naked for photographs and that she made at least one graphic sex tape for a former boyfriend. We’re also supposed to believe that her recent relationships with young athletes have all been entirely celibate.”

What?!  Pose nekkid for pictures?  How dare you, whore!  You are a public figure and you go off parading your sluty-slut-slut-lifestyle for all to see?  No, no.  You keep your sexuality ensconced  in terms of patriarchal expectations or it will be a extra slut-shaming lightning round for the likes of you, after-all it isn’t your sex life for heavens sake.

“What she does on her own time is her business, but a moral position demands consistency and so should the response of social conservatives. This woman has even less right to speak for the American right than does Sarah Palin. And that, I’m afraid, is something I thought I’d never say.”

If only the italicized phrase applied to women…

So the calculus is in.  If you have taken nekkid photos of yourself, and/or had sex with more than one partner (outside of marraige…ohhh the vapours take me now) as a woman that is an automatic disqualification from being in the ‘moral’ category.

The burning nuclear stupid burns!  No Mr.Coren the morality of women is not intrinsically tied to their ranking in the Sex class.  Women are autonomous beings capable of thinking outside of their imposed gender roles.

You should try it sometime.

I do not endorse what Mrs.Palin or Ms.Prejean represent, it is social conservatism of the most repugnant variety.  Would it be too much to ask that we tackle their arguments as opposed to their gender?