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Whores Whores Whores

Jill

Liberal comedian Randi Rhodes:

Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton are “big fucking whores.” Yes, it’s a comedy routine, but don’t you think we can do a little better than this? (And can’t we pick an insult that isn’t (a) gendered and (b) unnecessarily mean towards all the perfectly decent whores of the world?)

So glad that prominent progressive women are using their platforms to raise the level of discourse around issues of politics and sexism.

Thanks to Tommy for the link.

23 thoughts on Whores Whores Whores

  2. I couldn’t agree with you more Jill.

    Although I think the average person’s ability to come up with a truly funny and non-bigoted insult falls as their anger rises.

  6. I haven’t watched the video (broken sound card) but from your description, that is awful. I have a mighty low opinion of Ferraro right now, but NOBODY should be called a whore as an insult. There is no exaggerating how sexist that is. That is simply awful.

  7. My aging ears couldn’t deal with that lousy sound quality all the way through (was it recorded on someone’s camera phone?), but she seemed pretty witless.

    Also, WRT her fantasizing about Geraldine Ferraro standing next to her husband in one of those shaming press conferences: Wasn’t the husband in fact involved in a scandal some years back? I think it was financial, though, not sexual.

  8. This is the same woman who passed out drunk in the streets and tried to say she was mugged.

    Glass houses comes to mind, besides I’ve heard her lame so called show and her carrying ons. If I were her I wouldn’t sling the whore and slut words for fear of the rebonund coming back to hit me in the face.

  10. Um, even if she’d managed to come up with something that didn’t rely on sexism, she’s still just not funny. No danger here of feeling guilty for laughing.

  11. This is typical for Randi Rhodes. I stopped listening to her show for things like this and her repeated transphobic comments every time she talked about Ann Coulter.

  13. I rarely listen to her show because every time I do I get irate. She really is not that smart or needs to step back and listen to herself when sober. About a month ago when Dems. were calling for Clinton to drop out of the race Rhodes had a show that negated itself based on her statements. She was advocating for Clinton to drop out and then comtemplating how if she would have listened to people about the low chance of a radio career she would not be here today. So, which is it Randi, drop out or break through the glass ceiling? I think she is more like a liberal version of Mark Levin in her tone rather than Limbaugh.

    Off topic: Air America has pretty much sucked since Al Franken left the show and they reprogrammed.

  14. Randi’s a good person and generally on the right side of things, but she f*cked up here. Kathy Griffin could have pulled that off with a sense of irony and NOT sounded so damned caustic and hateful.

    This primary season is wearing people out. She (Randi’s) been skating the edge for weeks and her agitation was starting to get the best of her. Agitation won and she sh*t the bed here. With that, she’s been suspended from the air temporarily I hear.

    She needs to then unequivocally apologize, think before she speaks and then move on.

  15. Couldn’t stand Al Franken’s show. Getting rid of Mike Malloy was the tipping point for me, and then moving Sam Sedar to one day a week and failing to replace the Young Turks, playing Randi Rhodes from the previous day instead means I never listen to them any more. The only two shows I’m interested in (Tom Hartman and Rachael Maddow) are on at bad times for me, and now they won’t allow White Rose Society to archive Tom Hartman so I’m done with them.

    Sorry, /off topic rant.

  16. I’d like to know what Hillary Clinton has ever done (win Ohio?) to be called a “fucking whore” by Randi Rhodes, a witless and untalented hack who’s desperately trying to hang on to her vanished youth?
    That Obama sure brings out the best in his supporters, doesn’t he?

  17. Sorry guys but I don’t see the big fucking deal with this one.

    She’s at a public appearance in San Francisco, a pretty safe place to talk shit about Hillary or Ferraro because of their fucked up comments/actions in the last months, and I get her point.

    Do we have another word for “whore” that isn’t gendered? Personal opinion, we can’t hold her accountable for the failings of the english language, in my opinion.

    Also, she’s a talk show host, not a “comedian.” Just as a side note. *shrug*

  18. What? So it’s okay to use a sexist slur against someone because you think she deserves it? I don’t care how vile someone is, you don’t use sexist slurs against them because they hurt all women.

    There’s no word for whore that isn’t gendered because it’s shorthand for “uppity woman who doesn’t know her place.” You think there’s an acceptable way to say that?

  19. Wow, that’s not in any way how I’ve heard the wore “whore” used before. When someone means “uppity woman who doesn’t know her place” they’ve generally used the word “bitch” around me.

    A “whore” as used the way she used it means “someone who does something for money.” Usually an unscrupulous something, or to act compliantly where an individual normally wouldn’t. The next closest such word I can think of is “sell out” but that’s not quite right.

    I don’t see anything sexist in the way she was using this word here. I use the word “whore” for men and women, in the same context, indiscriminately.

    I mean, if we want to talk about the multiple meaning of the words and the overlaying gender issues therein, let’s have at, but given the way it was used here I really don’t get the sexist or misogynistic claims. Clearly she meant both of these women have acted as though they were paid to act the way they acted, to (respectively) tow the party line, or to barter down to the “fine print” for what they think they deserve.

  20. I don’t listen to Randi Rhodes much. When I did, I liked what she was saying. But this is wrong. You can do comedy about the presidential candidates without using this kind of language. It will be interesting to hear what Rhodes has to say in the coming days.

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