In the last ten days or so, there have been three stories involving an airline passenger, an official of the AFL-CIO and a national Adult magazine all being, well...dumb...
All were targeting some element from the other end of the political spectrum, with whom they felt they had a beef...
1. A female passenger boarded an American Airlines flight with a T-shirt that read, "If I wanted the government in my womb, I’d fuck a senator." She was instructed by the pilot of her originating flight that she'd need to change her shirt before boarding her connecting flight home. She was able to cover it up with her shawl and successfully caught the next flight home later that same day.
I'd heard this discussed on the Sirius Left channel as well as browsed a few headlines on the internet. Much of the coverage I heard and saw had morphed this incident into yet another attack on women's rights. While I agree that its not been a great year or two to be a woman in terms of fending off legislative attacks from the Right on various abortion/contraception issues, I don't see the connection here. The airline cited a rule that addresses clothing that might be offensive to other passengers. The fact that she passed through security and flew all the way to her connecting location I think, is immaterial to the basic issue. When you knowingly board an airplane with a t-shirt on that has the word "fuck" on the front, guess what? You've crossed the line and you've earned whatever grief the airline chooses to hand you. Its a stunt, almost daring a large corporation to take you on in a fairly public way. While I agree with the general sentiment, the form and timing of communicating that particular message was entirely inappropriate. Its silliness like this that cheapens the legitimate issue of women's rights and the recent and alarming trend we've seen from Conservative legislators of late. Dumb...
2. Donna DeWitt, President of the South Carolina AFL-CIO attended a party with other union supporters recently. Captured on video is DeWitt hitting a pinata with the likeness of SC Governor Nikki Haley on it, which brought cheers from the crowd. Governor Haley is no friend of union in South Carolina, to be sure. “All it does is it makes my heels taller, my heels sharper so that I can kick harder,” she said. “I’m not going to stop beating up on the unions. I’m not going to stop beating up on the Democrats for wasteful spending. … I’m a lot tougher than that. I’m going to keep on kicking,” said Haley.
DeWitt isn't a private citizen. She is the President of her State's AFL-CIO association, which is a fairly high profile job to have. In this day and age, it should be obvious to anyone with a public title that there will be cameras at almost all events. Most smart phones now also function as a video camera with pretty impressive quality. While it may have been a private event, nothing is really private anymore. In spite of her differences with the Governor, something shouldv'e went off in her head that said, "Hold up, the last thing I or we need is a YouTube video clip of me beating Nikki Haley's face in with a club, let alone enjoying it." That something didn't go off and thus this unnecessary clip has brought a healthy dose of criticism from the Governor herself and RW media outlets like Fox News. A totally unforced error on DeWitt's part for which, the union members will pay the price...Dumb...
3. Last week, Hustler Magazine posted a picture of conservative journalist and television commentator SE Cupps with a photo-shopped male sex organ in her mouth. The publication included this description along with the photo:
“S.E. Cupp is a lovely young lady who read too much Ayn Rand in high school and ended up joining the dark side. Cupp, an author and media commentator, who often shows up on Fox News programs, is undeniably cute. But her hotness is diminished when she espouses dumb ideas like defunding Planned Parenthood. Perhaps the method pictured here is Ms. Cupp’s suggestion for avoiding an unwanted pregnancy.”
They also included a disclaimer: “No such picture of S.E. Cupp actually exists. This composite fantasy is altered from the original for our imagination, does not depict reality, and is not to be taken seriously for any purpose.”
Well, that makes it all better, doesn't it?
I don't think Larry Flynt gives a crap about a potential de-funding of Planned Parenthood. Not in the least. That said, I do think Flynt cares quite a bit about selling magazines and website subscriptions. Targeting a pretty, conservative professional journalist in such a way is about as bad as it gets. Because of his known political leanings and description of her joining the "dark side," it stands to reason he feels he is aligning himself with the Left, as opposed to the Right. Flynt is a pig and has been for a long time. Whether you agree with Cupp's politics or not, a picture like this isn't the work of a creative, edgy magazine that is worthy of reading. Its the equivalent of a 7th grader scrawling a dirty word on the inside of a bathroom stall, only because its NOT a 7th grader doing the scrawling, its ten times worse. Hey Larry, newsflash...you don't come off as standing up for women by exploiting an unwitting and certainly unwilling participant. Dumb...
Sources:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/05/22/american-airlines-rejects-female-passenger-because-political-pro-choice-t-shirt-i
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76703.html
http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/05/23/the-real-war-on-women-hustlers-disturbing-attack-on-s-e-cupp/
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