BLOG MA--LANGUAGE

Yesterday, a student asked if I knew who Bill Maher was.  I explained that, despite my advanced age old and the fact that I live under a rock at the bottom of San Francisco Bay, I was, in fact, aware of the Maher's existence.  (Sarcasm is wasted on some people.)  Anyway, this student asked what I thought about the fact that Bill Maher had made all kinds of vulgar comments about Sarah Palin and not caught the same kind of heat that Rush Limbaugh has attracted since attacking Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke.  I hadn't actually heard about Maher's comments--I later saw Jon Stewart's piece about the Fox News fueled contretemps--and I asked what he (Maher) had said.  The student said that the news mentioned Maher calling Palin "the 'C' word."  Then he asked me what "the 'C' word" was, which led to one of the more awkward moments in my teaching career. . . but that's not the point.  I said that I still felt that what Rush did was worse, but our conversation got me thinking about the relative acceptability of different epithets.

First, is there a double standard at work here?  That is, is it OK for Bill Maher to call Sarah Palin a cunt but not for Rush Limbaugh to call Sandra Fluke a slut?  Partially this depends on your own sensibilities.  Some would say both men are being offensive, some would just shrug.  I'm all for free speech, so I certainly wouldn't censor either of them, but I would also not censor those who would condemn either man's choice of words.  And, personally, I think Bill Maher could do better.

At the same time, Maher's choice of words doesn't especially bother me.  This might have something to do with the fact that I generally dislike Sarah Palin, but that's not all there is to it.  Substitute Sarah Palin for, say, Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton (not that Bill Maher would be likely to use such language in describing either of those women), and I still wouldn't be overly incensed.

Part of my relative comfort with Maher's language comes from the fact that Sarah Palin is a public figure who is more than capable of defending herself.  She can command any media platform she likes, and she has cadres of lawyers, publicists, and political cronies who can come down hard on Bill Maher or anyone else who attacks her.  Sandra Fluke has also made herself a public figure, and thus opened herself up to certain criticisms.  But she has nothing like Palin's resources, and this adds to the perception that she is being bullied by someone much more powerful than she.

Overall, though, what makes Limbaugh's actions worse than Maher's in this instance is his choice of words.  As offensive as words like "cunt" or "bitch" are, they have limited significance.  Think about what message Maher conveyed by calling Palin a "cunt": Essentially, the translation of that statement is, "I think Sarah Palin is a bad person and I dislike her."  "Bad person," of course, is a matter of personal opinion.  Maher can point to things Palin has done or said that make her, in his estimation, "bad," but those same things might make her "good" to other people--other hopelessly benighted people, but what are you going to do?

When people call a woman "slut" or a "whore," though, they are not, literally, expressing their feelings towards another person; they are making assertions about that person's behavior: Specifically, they are saying that this woman has "inappropriate" amounts of sex (which, by the way, if you're having sex with Rush Limbaugh is ANY amount of sex) and/or has sex for money.  In our society, these actions generally brand a woman as "bad."  Now, we can argue whether this is a wrong-headed assumption, but the fact is that this is the standard societal attitude.

In other words, "bitch" or "cunt" (or "asshole" or "scumbag") can be "excused" as one person's opinion; "whore" and "prostitute" are words associated with behavior--and are frankly slanderous unless they can be backed up.  Bill Maher is a raunchy comedian who says things that people often find offensive.  Rush Limbaugh is a sleazy asshole.  That, of course, is just my opinion.