So this whole recent firestorm about the birth control issue and Rush Limbaugh and his big mouth has me pretty irritated. First, the whole situation is a mess to begin with. How do you have a panel to discuss women's reproductive issues that consists of a bunch of rich old white guys? Didn't we straighten this whole thing out back in the 70's? LAST century? Why is it being brought up again and why in the world is it being addressed by everyone but the people who take the pill in the first place? What a JOKE! Guess that's why so many prescription plans pay for Viagra but don't want to pay for the pill. The plans that do pay for the pill are probably behind this whole movement, but I'm sure they'll still help with your Viagra buddy.
And then you have Rush Limbaugh's mouth. Rush seems to think that Sandra Fluke is a "slut" and a "prostitute" because "she wants to be paid to have sex". Extremism at its finest, ladies and gentlemen. But he didn't stop there. The next day he says that if we're to pay for her birth control, we want video of all her sexual exploits so that we could all watch. The hell? Would ANYONE in radio have DARED to make a remark like this about a man? What kind of idiot says this stuff and thinks it's ok? But it probably will be. Let's face it, next year this time, Rush will probably still have his radio show and he'll still be spewing complete ignorance that a lot of people like and he'll do something stupid like this again very soon.
It's really too bad, to me, that women are still so low on the social totem pole and still so sexually objectified. To the point that a politico who doesn't like what a woman stands for uses sexually charged terminology to voice his disagreement with her views. Here's a young woman studying law, being brave enough to step in front of the world and voice her concerns. This after getting doors shut in her face because there was no room at the table for a woman to debate birth control because the table's full of men. Ms. Fluke should be seen as a role model for young women and girls who want to study law or who are afraid of what may happen if they stand up for something they believe in. Yet because she decided to speak up for what's important to her, she's publicly degraded and in a sexual way because she's a female.
If he was trying to make the point that if you can't afford to pay for birth control you shouldn't have sex, well, it's an excellent point. I actually agree, however, that is not the reality of the world we are living in today. That may well have been the case in the 30's, which is apparently where he thinks we are now, but we're actually in 2012 Rush. We should certainly have evolved enough that we remember that we're all created equal. I would hope things have improved to the point that if people feel a need to insult someone because they disagree with someone else's point of view, they can do it without such a filthy way of insulting the holder of the offending opinion. But what I wish people like him would do is just sit somewhere and shut the hell up.
I mean, that's basically what he wants Sandra Fluke to do, right? Why so much vitriol in his remarks? It's this whole, "Shut up, woman!" mentality. Joan of Arc, Hilary Clinton (though I wish she would), the Suffragettes, hell, Gisele Bundchen! They were basically told to go somewhere and be seen and not heard.
(to be continued)
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