Bill Maher is a misogynist assbag

[mrreowwr_kittty]

Re: Offensive misogynistic humor. This was part of a post I put on wicket's thread but it was long so I wanted to give it its own.

A few nights ago I was watching Bill Maher's HBO special with my b/f. I was kind of ambivalent about seeing it because I've got some problems with Mr. Maher's attitude about women, though I find myself in a agreement with him on a lot of political issues. So there I was, actually enjoying the way he was skewering Bushco, fundie anti-choicers, and the powerful corporate elites. Then at the end, he just HAD to do his obligatory woman-bashing. And jesus, what a grab bag of tired ass male-ego-inflating cliches he pulled out for the occasion! You know, the usual tripe about how women talk too much and how poor, beleaguered men are forced to listen to us when they really just wish we'd shut the f*&k up. How men who tell their wives they love them on their cell phones on the plane are "pussy whipped" etc. etc. Oh, and don't you know that ALL women immediately want to simper "what are you thinking?" after we have sex. GMAFB. Ya know, I've been getting laid for over 20 years now and I can honestly say that I've never given a shit what the guy was thinking as soon as we were done but that particular bit of self-deluding bullshit persists in the collective male consciousness. Seriously, guys, get OVER yourselves. :eyes:

My b/f noticed that I was stonily silent and visibly irritated during that part of the show. At the time, I didn't feel like trying to articulate why Maher's jokes about women were substantially different than the other ones, and no, it wasn't just my personal perspective. But now I realize that I don't need to explain it because it's pretty frickin' obvious: The stuff he said about Bush and other powerful figures was not just funny, it was 100% true. The stuff he was saying about women was mostly bullshit, though there was a kernel of truth to it if only because women sometimes do behave the way he describes as an adaptive social strategy or in a futile attempt to please asswad guys like him. Maher making fun of women for that is akin to making fun of Black men in the Old South for being shuffling and subservient.

Misogynist comedians, and their blogular admirers, will denigrate us whether we comply with the prescribed female scripts (concern for our looks and weight, being more emotionally expressive, wanting "the ring" etc.) or we deviate from them. Imagine if all of a sudden, masses of women became steely-eyed stoics who acted indifferent to the men in their lives, ignored our appearance, stopped caring about the cleanliness of our surroundings, and belched and farted indiscriminately. You bet your ass that Bill Maher would be doing monologues about what callous disgusting unfeminine bitches women have become. You know, as opposed to the vapid, neurotic, and annoyingly clingy nitwits we are now. As it is, he probably dates the most stereotypically fembot-ish women he can find so that he constantly reinforces the ideas upon which he bases his self image.

[Branjor]

1. Re women "talking too much"

That's a reversal. Men interrupt women much more frequently than vice versa and hold forth at length while women listen to THEM. It's part of the "feminine" role, "listening to him". There's no "listening to her" in the "masculine" role. Maher's misogynistic drivel is just a device to silence women even further.

I'm afraid bill maher has us mixed up with his own sex.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

2. Yep

Men interrupt me constantly and shout over me. What's more annoying is when I hear one of them repeat something I said earlier, only now it has credibility because a man said it.

[Scout]

3. I've had that happen many times....

on the board of the Litho Club ... I or another woman would make a suggestion, it would be bandied about then shot down .... next thing you know it's being suggested by one of the guys and suddenly it's a good idea!

[ThomCat]

4. And yet, if you say that shit like that happens, even with links

to prove it, you get shot down as an instigator and a troublemaker posting flamebait.

It is shit like that, that makes me wonder how anyone in their right mind can deny that sexism is a wide-ranging and common problem.

[bliss_eternal]

5. I can't stand to hear his voice anymore...

...and frequently turn the sound off if he's on tv, or turn the channel. I'm sorry to hear that you suffered through his special. He won't get any of my time...not anymore. Not after having Coulter on his show and calling her "his friend." Not after saying women would rather have diamonds than books. :puke:

Like you, at one time I did agree with much of his political stances. He and his show were there for a very difficult time in this administration, I'll admit it, it was a comfort during some dark times and for that I'll be grateful. But he can take the rest of his crap and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

His show and all the great rants in the world can't make up for his other bullshit considering this is the man that voted for the racist, sexist Arnold Schwarzennegger in CA. :puke: And, yes--he openly admits he voted for him. :grr::mad: The man that also skirted the Imus issue with comments like,"...the world is becoming 'too pc'...oh but yes, of course what he said was horrible and wrong--yes." :wtf:

Thanks EVER so much for that crumb, Bill--you who makes a habit of dating and being seen with beautiful African American women. :grr::mad: (Do see my post on this forum about "I can't be racist because I have interracial sex." :eyes:)

(Nice post, catburglar. ;))

[ismnotwasm]

7. 'too pc'

Way to often just means someone looking for an excuse to be an asshole. I was in a Ethnic studies class one time when I made the (admittedly) pompous statement that I refused to have a conversation with anyone who used the term "politically correct" more than twice. This was before the "politically incorrect" show, and before it had quite become the battle cry for for the AU--Assholes Unite--movement it is now.

[bliss_eternal]

11. LOL!

I agree! :hi:

Translation for "too pc" battle cry:

How dare you make me THINK about the fact that I am standing on someone else's shoulders, mining the experiences of others lives and experiences in an attempt to be funny. How dare you take away my right to point and laugh at the differences of those unlike myself, because my meaningless, bland experience as a straight, white male just lacks any form of humour.

[efhmc]

6. I have said this often and continually, here and anywhere his

name comes up. He is a mcp of the highest caliber. I will not watch him, no matter how right he is about bush.

[ThomCat]

8. mcp?

I don't know that abreviation.

[spooky3]

9. ah, you youngster, I think she means

"male chauvinist pig" - a term more commonly used in the 70s than today.

[ThomCat]

10. Ah, a term I haven't heard in many years at least.

I can't claim to be a youngster. :P

[OzarkDem]

12. Me, too

It makes you wonder whether Maher and his ilk who are considered "liberal" by some are the source of so much sexism that still exists among Dem men. Is it getting reinforced by shows like Maher's?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

14. Absolutely

There's a whole cadre of lefty male pundits/entertainers who do it. Hell, even Stewart and Colbert succumb to it on occasion. I think the appeal to liberal guys is that the misogyno-pundits assuage their insecurity about identifying with the "sissy" left.

[ThomCat]

15. There is definitely a lot of backlash that guys get

for supporting feminism and/or women's rights. A lot of people immediately start using gender loaded comments/insults. We immediately get a small taste of what women put up with.

It would suck if they're responding to it, and that's why they're occassionally using sexist material in their shows.

[femrap]

13. No matter what a woman does,

it is always WRONG. Maher must have to put a bag over his head to get laid. That's one dog-butt ugly face. I think I'll send him a mirror and bag with a cute boy on it and tell him to wear it when he goes out tonight.

[iverglas]

16. lovely post

Many years ago, before much feminist analysis of anything had started, I was taking a course in deviant sociology. I was also a volunteer program director at the Elizabeth Fry society, assisting women appearing in the courts; E Fry is a feminist outfit based on the recognition that women offenders have a whole different set of problems from male offenders.

So I chose that as my topic, and it came to me: women criminals are doubly deviant. Woman criminal, criminal woman. Criminals aren't supposed to be women, women aren't supposed to be criminals.

Women are deviant by definition -- all that old stuff about how for "people", positive qualities are assertiveness, self-confidence, etc., while for women, positive qualities are self-effacement, politeness, etc.

Criminals are deviant by definition.

A woman criminal starts out by being deviant by virtue of being a woman, and then becomes a deviant woman -- by not having all those nicey-nicey, put-others-first, obey-the-rules characteristics that women are supposed to have.

Anyhow, just came to mind when you talked about what if women didn't do all the intolerable things we do -- acted like men instead.

When what you're supposed to do is by definition deviant -- people don't ask their partners what they're thinking after sex, people don't want their loved ones to say "I love you" -- you just can't win for losing. Damned if you're a good deviant, damned if you're a bad one.