Deep South sexism and racism live on in Limbaugh
Posted on March 2, 2012, 9:27 am By

police officer standing over black woman Civil Rights Era

I’ve been reading At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. The book is about the Civil Rights Movement as a response to sexualized violence against African American women, and one of the go-to defenses for the white men accused of rape between the 1940s and the 1960s was to say the victim was a prostitute or a slut. It was an attempt to impugn the victims’ character, remove their credibility and shame them into silence.

No, Limbaugh’s comments aren’t about rape, but the motivation is the same. He doesn’t believe women—apparently any women, but I get more enraged when I think about what he would say if Sandra Fluke were black—are equal to men. Notice that he doesn’t apply the terms “slut” and “prostitute” to men who have their Viagra subsidized by everyone who pays health insurance premiums. (And I’m willing to bet that his medical history would show he’s a hypocrite, too.) See, he’s applying a long-standing double-standard: Men can enjoy sex, even need it. Insurance companies believe doctors who say that if men can’t have sex, it’s abnormal. It’s a disorder. It’s a health problem. But women—whose alleged sex medicine  is actually made to do many other things—are made to feel ashamed about normal, healthy sexuality.

Limbaugh has gone beyond a debate about religion, big government and cost. Because his small mind has never entertained the notion that married women use contraception and that contraception is used by many women for reasons other than birth control, it’s clear that for him, the debate has never been about women’s health. He doesn’t believe women have or deserve, just by being in the human race, the same rights as men. He doesn’t believe they deserve to be heard. He loves patriarchy, and to preserve it, he’ll stoop to the levels of some of the most ardent white racists of the Deep South. And his comrades in the Republican Party will defend him.

People, know your history. Learn from it. And don’t let it repeat itself in 2012.

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2 comments Categories: America, best of, Feminism, History, Politics, Women Tags: , ,

2 thoughts on “Deep South sexism and racism live on in Limbaugh”

  1. Agree with you on the racism in the deep south. But Certainly not on the sexism claim. clearly you are trying to piggyback. The fact is that the deep south is purely Matriarchal. Men have few rights i nthe south and more households are headed by women in the south. In addition most advanced positions are held by women and the overall majority of those involved in academia and education in the south are women. This too coupled with the obscene rates of male loneliness, employment and incarceration rates would lead few to believe your claim that the deep south is somehow an oppressive environment for women. In fact it is clearly the opposite as is most of the usa. The one thing you will find in the deep south are large pockets of lesbians and anti-male resentment. Which is quite fashionable in the usa today. There is no “War on Women”, However there is a war on MEN. That fact is supported by the countless documents that show the disparities of young, especially black american men across this pathetic country. However, unlike you, there is no social movement, tv special, media support for their plight. In fact it is simply ignored. But the coming civil war shall help to shed light on the truth and expose the lies. I dount that 160 million men will simply disappear because all of the social and economic benefits in this man hating country are given to women. War is on the horizon but you do not have to take my word for it. If you want to see the enemy all you have to do is look in the mirror. That is the face of the true oppressor.

    Reply

    1. Clearly you lack comprehension, observation and grammatical skills. You addressed nothing in the post, and your comment is so delusional, I wonder if you’re a real person. If you are, you may want to look up the organization Menswork, Inc., or just Google statistics on violence against women. Sexism comes in many forms, and the number of women in college or with a job in any region may diminish sexism’s existence, but it has yet to eliminate it. If you choose to live in the world you’ve created, good luck with your delusions.

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