Double Standard

Somehow, in one of those frenzies I get in that involves my bulk mail and getting free stuff - you know the mornings of wishful thinking and hope that maybe, just maybe, you might win one of those bloody free i pods, especially now that after a year of trying your really old mac is up and running and online - I ended up with a sub to the amerikkkan version of Time magazine. Holy Moly. Most weeks it is crap, but this week it is actually OK, if you ignore the cover with the picture of what's-his-face-racist-pinhead of the moment with the sticky covering his mouth, implying he is being muzzled, or or gawd forbid - censored!

So I read this rag front to back and then I write some poetry and then I go on blogher thinking I can use that site as my host site, but while I am trying to sort myself out about that, I read another cool blog (I don't have the site, I know that is bad blog protocol but bear with me for a day or two) where she is talking about Jon Stewart being a sexist and racist pig to Halle Berry, and I go HA! that's what I am going to write about.

Here goes.

So butthead radio guy says nasty sexist racist things about adult women and gets hauled on the carpet and suspended for once. Yay. But Jon Stewart- just last night I was thinking why isn't the black reporter ever the Washington Sr. Correspondent? - anyway, he sexually harasses Halle Berry (after the week she had, too, jerk) and no one says a bloody thing. Our Jonny-boy was being a sexist and racist pig to Halle and she just has to grin and bear it.

Now I love Jon, and Time magazine does too because the guy that wrote the story about the radio guy referenced JS in the article, anyway, I do, and I am not going to boycott like some of my radical feminist and radical lesbian friends ( though I support them in doing so) because well, this radical feminist lesbian would rather watch JS and get mad at his liberal white ass then try to mediate the rest of the media I am bombarded with. And his show is the only way I know my son is paying attention to the world and is getting it about what is funny and not...

But I repeat the question - how does JS get away with saying the n-word when Seinfeld guy doesn't and also sexually harassing Halle Berry in front of an even larger international audience than the radio dude? His ass should be kicked. And Halle deserves an apology. Al Sharpton should insist and so should everyone else that loves JS. Because it is the right thing to do and because white men still run the world, no matter how funny and astute and relieving to the soul they may occasionally be.

JS reinforces this power hierarchy every time he invites women on the show and ogles them. Grow up, man! Come to think of it, I can only think of two women, both white, he had on as guests that were not involved in movies or TV or entertainment in some way.

This is my challenge to Jon:
Invite a whole bunch of women writers and researchers and thinkers onto your show and promote their books and their good works and you better make sure to invite some Black women and Latino women and some Asian Women. How about if you start with Winona LaDuke? You had Ralph Nader on. How about Winona?

And I dare you not to giggle at their boobies and infer that you want to bonk them. Let's just say it is a given that you want to bonk them. And let us also affirm sexual harassment is not funny or anywhere near acceptable behaviour in any situation. At all.

Oh - I also double dare you to not make jokes about prostitution including no making 'pimp and ho' jokes for one week, preferably longer - you got street cred, so cut it out already. You are cool, Jon, you don't have to be a classist, sexist, racist pig to prove it.


I also gotta say re: Time Magazine. Three women's opinion pieces were printed - two black women and one white woman. The white woman, in a piece essentially dripping with white guilt, got double the space. The more things change (three women's opinion pieces in Time?) the more they stay the same (all three pieces combined equalled one page of text...)

peace