Feminism

WSJ and WashPost's Marcus Agree: Bill Clinton's Sexual History 'Is Fair Game'
By Tom Blumer | December 29, 2015 | 11:46 PM EST

Just one week after CNN's Don Lemon shut down a guest who dared to raise the issue, there is now an agreement across the ideological spectrum that if Hillary Clinton is going to use her husband Bill as a campaign surrogate and go after her opponents' real or imagined sexism, then, as the headline at liberal Ruth Marcus's Monday evening Washington Post column says, "Bill Clinton's sordid sexual history is fair game."

Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal editorial, while citing Marcus's column, agrees: "if Mrs. Clinton wants everyone to forget about Bill’s harassment of women, she ought to stop playing the sexism card, or drop Bill as surrogate, or both."

WashPost Columnist Whines Black Character Isn’t Main Hero in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
By Curtis Houck | December 28, 2015 | 2:57 PM EST

READER WARNING: The following post contains spoilers pertaining to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
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Writing in the December 24 print edition of The Washington Post, Style section columnist Lonnae O’Neal expressed her disdain for the hit film Star Wars: The Force Awakens due to how Daisy Ridley’s character Rey emerges as the lead heroine of the film who saves the day instead of black British actor John Boyeda’s Finn.

Sharpton Suggests OK for Hillary to Have Attacked Monica Lewinsky
By Mark Finkelstein | December 28, 2015 | 8:13 AM EST

What's more sexist: Donald Trump saying "schlonged" to describe the way Hillary Clinton lost in 2008, or Hillary herself orchestrating a campaign to discredit and destroy women, including Monica Lewinsky, whose "bimbo eruptions" threatened Bill and Hillary's hold on power? 

According to Al Sharpton on today's Morning Joe, Trump's offense is the graver. Sharpton suggests that Hillary's attack on Monica Lewinsky should be understood as a woman "dealing with someone who was in an indiscretion with her husband." Sharpton thus paints a picture of poor Hillary, the wronged woman, fighting her rival for the affections of her husband. As Trump said of Hillary playing the woman card: "give me a break."

Chris Cuomo Echoes Trump: Hillary 'Very Low Energy' In Newspaper Interview
By Mark Finkelstein | December 24, 2015 | 7:40 AM EST

About the last person you'd expect to have a Vulcan mind meld with Donald Trump is Chris Cuomo. But at a time when the focus is Star Wars, Cuomo went Star Trek today, sounding much like Trump in his description of Hillary Clinton. Trump of course made the phrase "low-energy" famous as he repeatedly battered Jeb Bush with it. Recently, Trump took a similar tack with Hillary, saying she lacked the "stamina" to be president, claiming that after brief, staged appearances, she disappears from the campaign trail to "sleep."  

On this morning's New Day, there was Cuomo saying that in her recent Des Moines Register interview, Hillary was "very low energy." Cuomo even echoed Trump's notion of Hillary disappearing from the trail, saying she's been "keeping a low profile as much as she can."

Networks Block Out Over 10 Minutes for Harping on Trump’s Comment About Hillary Losing in 2008
By Curtis Houck | December 23, 2015 | 2:01 AM EST

Just over two weeks after the major network evening newscasts spent 24 minutes obsessing on December 8 over Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S., the three programs returned on Tuesday night to devote ten and a half minutes to Trump’s declaration that Hillary Clinton was “schlonged” in 2008 by losing to then-Senator Barack Obama.

Gloria Steinem: Equal Pay Would Be 'Biggest Economic Stimulus Possible’
By Sam Dorman | December 22, 2015 | 1:37 PM EST

According to feminist icon Gloria Steinem, America’s best bet for stimulating the economy isn’t tax cuts or trillions of dollars in spending, but equal pay for women.

In a Dec. 15 interview with Fusion, Steinem claimed that “Equal pay for women of all races would be the biggest economic stimulus the economy could possibly have.” She specifically said it would be “way better” than the last stimulus.

Writer Rebecca Traister: Obama and Hillary Represent ‘The Death Throes of Exclusive White Male Power In the United States’
By Tom Johnson | December 20, 2015 | 12:16 PM EST

The current election campaign pits the forces of backlash (“the old and angry”) against the forces of frontlash (“the new and different”), and November’s vote will be “a referendum on the existence and civic participation of Americans who are not white men,” contended Traister in a Wednesday piece for New York magazine.

Traister posited that “Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton…represent an altered power structure and changed calculations about who in this country may lead,” but warned, “While the resistance may be symptomatic of death throes, a rage at the dying of the white male light, it nonetheless presents a very real threat…Imagine Ted Cruz or Donald Trump or Marco Rubio in office with a Republican Congress and Supreme Court seats to fill. Voting: restricted. Immigration: halted. Abortion: banned. Equal pay: unprotected. Same-sex marriage: overturned.”

ABC’s Nightline Blasts ‘Bloody’ GOP Debate; Touts Lib Comedians, Chides Christie for Bus Stop Remark
By Curtis Houck | December 16, 2015 | 3:16 AM EST

The early Wednesday morning edition of ABC’s Nightline provided the first look at the network reaction to Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate and featured correspondent David Wright ripping it as a “bloody” affair with help from liberal comedians and scolding Chris Christie for remarks about Los Angeles mothers placing their children on school buses only to have classes canceled due to a terror threat.

ABC and Cokie Roberts Celebrate Gloria Steinem in Softball Fest: 'Led a Movement' for Women
By Melissa Mullins | December 15, 2015 | 5:01 PM EST

On Sunday's This Week, they concluded the show with a feminist tribute. ABC’s Cokie Roberts sat down with feminist legend Gloria Steinem for what should’ve been an interview on her first book in over 20 years, My Life on the Road. Instead, it was a celebration of her life. George Stephanopoulos gushed that Steinem “sat down with our own pathbreaker, Cokie Roberts, for a look back at 50 years of change in feminism and journalism.”

Roberts began by suggesting today’s young women don’t appreciate the Old Guard enough:” “Gloria Steinem, loved and hated by millions, grew up in a world modern Americans wouldn't recognize. Women were legally denied jobs and credit and shut out of prominent positions. But instead of accepting that world, she led a movement to change it.”

'Someone's Got To Wear the Pants In This Family': Kia Commercial Mocks American Husband
By Mark Finkelstein | December 13, 2015 | 9:14 PM EST

What's been implicit in TV commercials for years—that American husbands are feckless wimps—has now become explicit . . . 

Tuning in to watch a simple Sunday Night Football game, we were treated to a Kia ad. Wife at the wheel as the family pulls into a crowded parking lot for their boy's football game. Wimpy husband suggests they go back and park someplace safe. We get to read the wife's mind as, driving it up a hill, she says "or, we could run it right up the gut." She then adds the coup de grace: "someone's got to wear the pants in this family." Take that!

Rolling Stone Promotes Chicago Abortionist and Her Courageous 'Conscience'
By Bryan Ballas | December 12, 2015 | 3:03 PM EST

In reaction to the Planned Parenthood fetal tissue harvesting videos, Rolling Stone decided to seek out an expert opinion. In their words, they sought to interview Dr. Cheryl Chastine, “an actual abortion provider, not a pundit or a politician — about all this.” As if abortion doctors weren't political activists?

The author is Andrea Grimes, last mocked for penning this notion in Rolling Stone: “the myth that Planned Parenthood is a baby-killing behemoth persists, despite all evidence to the contrary.”

Salon Pundit Amanda Marcotte: Hannity's ‘A Strong Believer In the Christian Version’ of Sharia Law
By Tom Johnson | December 10, 2015 | 9:09 PM EST

Between Christians and Muslims, which group poses the greater threat to religious liberty in America? To  Marcotte, there’s an obvious answer: Christians. In a Wednesday Salon column, the lefty pundit claimed that “the big difference between conservative Muslims and Christians in this country is that only the latter have a massive, organized movement that is backed by an entire political party to force their theocratic views on the non-believers.”

Marcotte’s peg was Sean Hannity’s recent statement on his radio show that we ought to find out whether would-be Muslim immigrants to the U.S. favor sharia. Marcotte deemed Hannity’s remark “breathtaking in its hypocrisy,” given that Hannity, “like nearly all conservatives these days, is a strong believer in the Christian version of ‘sharia law,’ i.e. forcing conservative religious beliefs on the non-believers by law.”