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Dammit, Barbara! Life Begins at Penetration!

zuzu

From Gawker, an amusing tale of a wingnut losing her shit on The View over Plan B:

It’s rare that The View’s resident pretty-but-dumb blonde Elisabeth Hasselbeck says more than 3 seconds worth of right-wing drivel, but when she does, it’s out of passion. Today the ladies (with special guest co-host Lisa Loeb) discussed the over-the-counter availability of morning-after pill Plan B, and of course this sent young Hasselbeck into a tizzy of earnest “life begins at penetration” arguments, getting herself so worked up that her voice slipped into the trying-not-to-cry quiver. Den mother Barbara Walters eventually had to step in and calm the girl down; after the segment, we’re certain that Hasselbeck stomped off to her room and slammed the door. “You’ll never understand me, Barbara! I hate this family! I can’t wait till I go to college and get away from you people!”

Be sure to watch the video.

Kinda makes you miss Star Jones.

22 thoughts on Dammit, Barbara! Life Begins at Penetration!

  1. The undercurrent of misogyny in some of the comments at Gawker is as bad as anything going on in that video. Can we please ridicule ridiculous women in the public eye without talking about whether/how/under what circumstances we want to have sex with them?

  2. I can’t stand either the view or Hasselbeck, but Mel Gibson this isn’t. She presented her (moronic) argument with passion & a raised voice. When Walters told her to shut up, she shut up. She didn’t foam at the mouth, she didn’t storm off, she didn’t insult anyone.

    Seems to me Gawker is really taking her to task for being “unladylike,” and I’m kinda surprised to see you propagate this, Zuzu.

  4. Plus, it’s always worthwhile to watch the wingers on birth control options, especially when what they say is designed to change the conception of pregnancy (or conception, for that matter) as starting earlier and earlier. Plan B is in no way an abortifacient because it’s designed to prevent conception (possible because it takes a few days for the sperm to reach the egg), yet this whole “life begins at penetration” trope is designed to play on the public’s ignorance about the way conception and pregnancy occur.

    And here we have someone with a national TV platform repeating this misinformation.

  5. Oh, no question that Hasselbeck is full of shit My objection is Gawker characterizing her as “trying-not-to-cry” and then adding some snark about her running to her room like a teenage girl. If Kirk Cameron gave this little tirade, I doubt Gawker would imply he can’t control his emotions & call him a little boy.

  6. This is a bit off-topic, but I don’t really know how else to bring something to the attention of the bloggers here.

    Stephen Colbert had Linda Hershman as a guest on his show last night. It was an interesting interview. I think you can see the video here: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml

    Hershman says quite a few really sensible things in this interview and a few things that I thought were utter crap. Although I suspect that the topics discussed in this piece are not ground breaking for anyone blogging on Feministe, I did wonder when I watched it what Zuzu/Laura/Piny/Jill’s thoughts on the subject would be.

  8. Um, it is LaurEN not LaurA…

    Ahh, sorry… beg your pardon, Lauren.

    I was copying from the tabs at the top of this page and from memory. It’s nice to see that my short term memory is 0% accurate. 😛

  11. That was a good watch, but I wannaknow what Lisa Loeb had to say about it. If she was an ass-kicking feminist, she would be what would have been my ideal woman a few years ago.

  13. No, that’s Gawker’s characterization of her arguments, which is pretty accurate. They’re discussing Plan B, which must be taken prior to fertilization in order to have any effect. She says that life begins at conception, but goes on to flip out about Plan B. So either she mistakenly thinks that fertilization happens immediately (upon penetration) and therefore thinks that it’s an abortifacient, or she knows that it doesn’t, and makes a disingenuous argument that it’s wrong to use Plan B because it’s an abortifacient.

    Either way, she’s spreading misinformation and lies. And deserves to be mocked.

  14. I thought the whole point of being a feminist was to give women a voice. But…only when they say what we want them to say right? Don’t they know they exist to further our own agendas!? We don’t actually care what they think! Mmmm….sounds alot like patriarchy.

  15. Sweetpea, she’s entitled to her own viewpoint, and I defy you to show where we tried to shut her up.

    But if she’s going to voice her opinions, she’s going to have to deal when people point out that she’s just flat-out wrong on the facts.

    You seem to have a hard time with this concept, but mockery is not censorship, nor is disagreement.

  17. I actually think Gawker’s characterization of her attitude was pretty spot-on. She was raising her voice, getting a shrill and desperate tone, trying to talk over her opponents, and waving her hands. I said she reminded me of a sulky teenager in the thread over at Pandagon.

    Hasselbeck is against contraception and against universal health care too, as she says in the statement. All that matters is the fetus. I just wish she wasn’t getting an outlet on such a visible show as The View.

  19. HOly cow, but she’s a hypocrite. she talks about ‘less government’ but she’s the one who wants to force pregnancy on that hypothetical raped twelve-year-old. We’re all fucked if that’s the case, and it’s Hasselbeck doing it.

    What a moron.

  21. Pingback: Feministe » This Is Why Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s Little Meltdown Matters

  22. I thought the whole point of being a feminist was to give women a voice.

    Women spoke behind walls, to pillows and the backs of men and newspapers for years and no one responded. Now women speak out all the time and to eachother and they recieve response and even agreement and criticism of content. I think that’s pretty good evidence of the growing voice of women.

    How come whenever I watch The View, all they talk about is baking holiday cookies or the latest maternity clothes? I have never been entertained with such discussions, although I don’t watch teevee anymore and when i did, The View never earned more than about five or ten minutes — guess I wasn’t patient enough, but damn, why must one suffer for 15 minutes to get one minute of interesting conversation?

    Who’s the woman who was arguing against the hysterical Hassledback? I liked how she didn’t just sit there all prim and let the Hassler speak unchallenged. And yes, the look on ms. Loeb’s and Mama Baba’s faces was telling. But still, the audience applause was as well and I guess answers the question of why such people as Ms. Hassledback get airtime.

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