Crisis pregnancy centers on campus? Also, public opinion shifts on Prop 8 and a state trooper decides to humiliate a pregnant woman for no good reason.

 

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Links in this episode:

Vote on Media Matters’ poll

Prop 8: The Musical

Keith Olbermann interviews the cast

Princeton parodies Prop 8

Rachel Maddow on HHS regs

Campbell Brown on the state trooper situation

Michael Savage’s free form misogyny

This  episode, I’ll be interviewing a journalist who did a story on an under-covered aspect of crisis pregnancy centers.  Also, public opinion on Prop 8 shifts after it’s too late, and a segment on how some people are just obsessed with controlling and humiliating women for any reason at all.

I just want to take a moment to give a shout-out to the intrepid media watchdog organization Media Matters.  Without them out there collecting video and audio and print examples of all the misinformation spewed by the right wing media and their mainstream media allies, doing work like this podcast would be a lot harder.  They’re having a contest for the most wretched moment in punditry in 2008.  Here’s my vote. 

•    obama bowling *

Because, to my mind, of the most egregious things the mainstream media does is perpetuate these awful gender stereotypes about how you have to be a Real Man to lead.  That sort of soft misogyny only reinforces the harder misogyny out there that leads, for instance, to anti-choice activism. Real men bowl 200 and they don’t let mere women decide when they’re going to have babies.

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Part of the reason that people are reeling after Prop 8 won in California is that the good guys were up 15 points in the polls until the last minute, when a rush of misleading ads closed the gap by all but implying that straight people would be forced into same sex marriage.  I realize I devote a lot of podcast time to the issue, but honestly, I think it’s a fascinating example of a real time worldview switch going on in this country.  I suspect, in the end, that the anti-gay forces will have won this battle only to lose the war. 

The impetus for covering the issue this week of course is the incredibly clever, star-studded video from Funny Or Die called “Prop 8: The Musical”.  It has Neil Patrick Harris, Andy Richter, Margaret Cho, Rashida Jones, Allison Janney, and John C. Reilly in it.  And of course, Jack Black playing Jesus. 

•    prop 8 musical 1 *

It’s caused a lot of sputtering on the right.  But interestingly, not the sort of sputtering that actually addresses the arguments in the video.  Michelle Malkin whined that no one is making a church lambasting people who criticize churches who contribute money to hate campaigns.  I personally was unaware of the laws that allow churches to act as political agents without being criticized as political agents.  But she couldn’t really muster up an argument against anything that Jack Black says here.

Here’s something for the homobigots out there to consider: If your entire argument against gay marriage is neatly dismantled in a 45 second song by a guy who has written songs like “F-word Her Gently” and “Dude I Totally Miss You”, then you don’t have an argument.  All you have is sputtering hate. 

It took off so well that Keith Olbermman had Jack Black and John C. Reilly on to discuss the video, which has been viewed millions of times, and has thousands of comments on it, though most of the comments are a bitter battle between the bigots and a few brave souls who are willing to spend time arguing with them.

•    prop 8 musical 2 * 

Another reason right wingers can’t do much but grumble.  They’d have you believe that the only people supporting gay marriage are an easily marginalized minority, but in fact you see people like Jack Black and John C. Reilly, and their very appeal is that they’re everyday straight dudes.  The same straight dudes that homophobes rely on to get all anxious and weird about homosexuality love these guys.  And really, while there’s still a lot of problems with the younger set, especially how they use the word “gay” to mean “bad”, things have improved dramatically.  Young people are increasingly on our side, and it’s in no small part because they’re plugged into messages like this. 

I’ll add that while Jack Black was crush-worthy prior to this election, he went through the stratosphere this time out.  It wasn’t just this, but also that he helped make a pro-choice video that went viral.

•    prop 8 musical 3 *

But this wasn’t the only parody video that mocked how ridiculous the right wing view on this is.  Students at Princeton made a video arguing that freshmen shouldn’t be permitted to use the sidewalk, using the same arguments that are used against gay rights. 

•    other prop 8 *

Merely engaging anti-same sex marriage arguments is ineffectual, because they have no good arguments.  I’m happy to see people applying creative strategies against old-fashioned bigotry.

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•    insert interview *

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In last week’s column, I mentioned that one thing that’s so shocking to people about the Bush administration’s attempts to rewrite HHS regulations to empower your everyday health worker to obstruct women’s reproductive health care access is how mean, petty, and vindictive it is.  A couple of weeks ago, Rachel Maddow had Princeton University professor and reproductive rights advocate Melissa Harris-Lacewell on to talk about this individual to individual attempt to dismantle women’s rights, or at least humiliate women. 

•    hhs regs *

The focus, in other words, is shifting from large scale government actions to oppress women towards empowering the individual to believe that any random woman they come across is public property.  And that you’re within your rights, nay, that you are obligated, to harass and humiliate women whose personal behavior you somehow disapprove of.  Or who offend you by smelling good or having a vagina your can’t see.  Or maybe because they’re in a skirt, though you are equally obligated to be offended if they’re in pants.

I was put in mind of this when I saw a Campbell Brown report on CNN about a state trooper who humiliated a pregnant woman because she and her husband were pulled over for speeding. 

•    pregnant humiliation *

So already you know the guy’s on a power trip.  I mean, obviously most people that are in a frantic labor situation are going to be a little edgy and perhaps hard to deal with.  But show some compassion!  I would think any of us could muster a little understanding for how scary it is to be in labor and be stuck in traffic.  I’ve been known to get close to a nervous breakdown when I’m stuck in traffic and I have dinner plans.  If another person was about to make an entrance on the scene—in my pants—I’d be completely freaking out.

But it gets worse.

•    pregnant humiliation 2 *

Okay, so it’s kind of funny, but I’m sure it wasn’t at the time.  But the story is a remarkable illustration of the sort of attitudes towards women that are promoted by the anti-choice community.  Here is a woman who is in a scary situation, and she needs compassion and help.  Instead, she’s treated like anti-choicers believe all of us should be treated.  She’s accused of lying.  She’s treated like a criminal.  Her body is treated like it’s public property, and like any random person can just demand to see it.  Her humiliation is deemed at best a necessary evil. 

I’m glad that Campbell Brown didn’t use the trooper’s name.  Because she’s right—this isn’t just about what one individual guy did.  This is a society-wide problem, this utter lack of respect for women’s basic rights.  And using our ability to get pregnant as an excuse to demean us and control us and treat us like criminals. 

I think that’s why these stupid right to refuse service laws are so infuriating. Already people believe they can treat random women like they’re pubic property and available for random humiliation.  Why on earth is the government in the business of condoning this behavior?

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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts.  I’m in love with this next clip by Michael Savage because it so clearly demonstrates that even he doesn’t believe his own nonsense. 

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He continues to rant about how weird and crazy women look, drawing on his own imagination that has nothing to do with the real world.  It’s free form misogyny.  Women these days!  With their purple skin and spikes where hair used to be.  They’re hardly women at all!

Tune in next week as we start to wind down the year and get ready for 2009.