I usually enjoy watching Real Time with Bill Maher, but last night was very lacking. For one he had Nader on there and he keep grandstanding…and commentator Lisa Schiffren really didn’t add a thing. So it wasn’t the great. But what really bother me is Maher’s comments about Palin.
Now I can’t stand her….she is totally against all the things that I stand for, totally the opposite of women issues. She doesn’t have the knowledge to be a heart beat away from the presidency. She has never expanded her thoughts and experiences outside of her little corner of the world. She is in over her head, with no thanks to McCain, so is horrible and ignorant sounding in interviews, because she is.
So I have reasons for being against her and the McCain ticket, but what I really hate is the fact that people use her gender to argue against. Show how she doesn’t have the knowledge but do not call her a bimbo! I don’t’ tell me that can apply to a man…that is a cop out and bullshit. The pop culture definition applies it to women and that is sexist.
Bimbo is a term that emerged in popular English language usage in the early 20th Century to describe an often attractive, yet unintelligent woman. The usage of this term began in the United States as early as 1919. The 1929 silent film Desert Nights describes a cheap female crook as a bimbo. This word derives from the Italian bimbo, a word deriving from “bambino” (=child) a masculine term gender that means (male) baby or very young (male) child (its feminine equivalent is bimba). The 50’s song “Bimbo”, about a toddler, was one of the early hits for the popular American singer Jim Reeves. Its first usage in English was for stupid men; it now is understood to mean a woman unless modified as male bimbo, himbo or mimbo. Some still prefer the explicitly female variant bimbette, which has also entered The American Heritage Dictionary. Others use bimbette for a younger bimbo, because the suffix “-ette” signifies a smaller version as in French or Spanish “-ito/-ita” suffix.
An older comedy archetype of perhaps more direct resemblance to the bimbo is the dumb blonde —for example, the giggling, naïveMarilyn Monroe or, as she appeared on characters portrayed by such sultry actresses as Laugh-In, Goldie Hawn.
Do not refer to the fact that she has 5 kids…or say that she “shoots them out”. That is sexist. You don’t find the media making an issue out of the fact that male politicians have kids. So what if she has 5 kids…..the only issue I have is that she doesn’t believe in teaching conception and her daughter is pregnant….sounds like she should’ve talked to her about it. Otherwise who cares that her daughter is pregnant, this has been going on for centuries.
Another thing that really bothered me is how he talked about Alaska….as if they were stupid. Yes, they have her as governor….but like all politicians she lied and mispresented herself….what else is new? And they thought she would fight corruption not add to it.
Yes, Alaska has issues…what state doesn’t? But what people don’t fully get is that Alaska is still somewhat like the wild-west. It is sparsely popluated and can be very hard living. Most folks just want to be left alone, so it can be easy for the wrong people to advance……….but that is like so many states. So don’t diss Alaskans based on Palin.
Like I said, I normally enjoy Bill Maher’s comments and observations, but he really crossed the line for me last night.
Harold says that the problem with Palin is that she is female and that you can’t attack her without being accused of being sexist. But that is not true, you can attack her….attack her on her issues, her lack of knowledge, her horrible interviews….it is not until you use gendered basis attacks that you are being sexist. Using bimbo was sexist. But she is a politican, I don’t care that she is female, she needs to be examined and questioned like every other politican.
Well, Purdue lost. =( Penn St won….we are so dead next week, Penn St is great.
We were talking about what seems to be missing the last few years. And it is Drew Brees…not his skill, but his heart. Purdue doesn’t seem to have heart and everything we have read, Brees has the heart for winning. That seems to fit, because when you look at Penn St, hell Joe Pa has probably more heart then his whole team and that has a huge effect on them even during bad years.
If you haven’t already heard, we lost another great actor and philanthopist, Paul Newman =(
Here is an article I read in my Time that I got today : ‘Real’ Journalists Could Learn from The View I thought it had some very intersting observations. Mainsteam journalist could learn something from it.
sad