This has to stop. More than that, it has to be forcibly denounced by everyone.
Hustler ran a photoshopped image of conservative pundit S.E. Cupp with the headline, “What Would S.E. Cupp Look Like With a **** in Her Mouth?“:
S.E. Cupp is a lovely young lady who read too much Ayn Rand in high school and ended up joining the dark side. Cupp, an author and media commentator who often shows up on Fox News programs, is undeniably cute. But her hotness is diminished when she espouses dumb ideas like defunding Planned Parenthood. Perhaps the method pictured here is Ms. Cupp’s suggestion for avoiding an unwanted pregnancy. [Hustler via Mediaite]
If you don’t get why this is so very, very wrong, please turn in your Progressive card. This sort of behavior is abhorrent on every level, and my heart breaks for Ms. Cupp. This image exists. It doesn’t matter that it’s PhotoShopped. It exists, and will be sent across the internet. Can you imagine how Ms. Cupp feels (how you would feel) knowing that her friends and family will see such a thing, an image that will never go away? I’m not a lawyer, but I hope she’s able to sue Larry Flynt for every penny he’s worth.
Lindsay Beyerstein sums it up:
I’d like to think that the scumbag(s) behind this feature hate reproductive rights as much as they hate outspoken women. How better to tarnish two objects of contempt at once? The more disturbing possibility is that the creators think of themselves as feminist allies.
The fight for birth control isn’t just about freeing up women to service men, as the guys at Hustler fervently hope. It’s about freeing women to participate fully in all spheres of life, including the public arena. We value women’s reproductive freedom because we value women’s freedom in general, including the freedom to express unpopular, offensive, and just plain ignorant views. Using sexualized attacks to silence women is antithetical to the struggle for reproductive rights.
Here’s the deal: If you think this sort of behavior is okay because it’s directed at Ann Coulter or Sarah Palin you are NOT a progressive. If you think you can use sexist attacks against women who you don’t like and excuse the behavior by making me the exception you are NOT a progressive. Why don’t you try using the N-word in front of your black friends and then telling them that you didn’t mean them?
I have had it with this crap. And I don’t want to hear any nonsense about pandora censoring you. Been there, done that. I get that’s the go-to argument when this subject comes up. I get that rather than addressing the situation at hand it’s easier to get your free speech righteousness on. There is no justification for this. None.
Emily L. Hauser says it best:
Here’s a radical notion: If you’re a man and you call yourself a Progressive, you can’t sling sexist insults at women.
Any women.
Not just Progressive women. Not just women you like. Not just your mom.
If you want me to take you seriously and believe that you are genuinely committed to the Progressive agenda, you may not take sexist swipes at Conservative women, either — not even the really awful ones.
[…]
It’s everywhere, this treatment of women, everywhere. And it is most certainly not limited to Famous Men. It’s in conversations, and on Twitter, and on reddit, and in blogposts, and among comments on blogs, and on Youtube, and at the work place, and at school, and on the street.
It’s exhausting. It’s demoralizing. It’s heartbreaking. And it’s fucking everywhere.
If you are a man somewhere on the left side of America’s political map and you don’t understand these facts well enough to understand that pulling old-school sexism out of your back pocket and wielding it against Conservative women is just plain wrong — you’re betraying me. You’re betraying me, and all the Progressive women in your life, and any daughters you may have, and ultimately, the cause of Progressives everywhere.
If we don’t speak out for Ms. Cupp then we don’t speak for Progressivism. It’s as simple as that.