Don Imus Proves Feminism Dead
Dean
I don't like Don Imus. I never have. But Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, what a bunch of sobbing whiners America's women have become.
Radio shock jock Don Imus recently issued an offhanded rude comment about a group of stellar, amazing college basketball players. His comment was mildly racially inflammatory, somewhat more sexist, and totally stupid. It was also just an offhand comment by a well-known shock-jock who's made his whole living being obnoxious.
The reaction of these poor wilting-lilly women and their coach? And both the "liberal" and "conservative" political establishments? Just look at the results: the coach gives us a lengthy and unnecessary defense of her players in a national press conference, while everyone else fulminates about the evil men and/or the evil liberals and/or evil conservatives or whatever.
What next? Will all these fragile flower basketball ladies get the vapors and faint?
Does even one of them have the moxie to just say, "to hell with you Imus, you stupid old fart" and otherwise forget his stupidity?
My God. When did American women--black women no less, who are usually so proud and so strong!--become such freaking wimps?
*Update*: Mrs. Esmay is even less charitable than I am.
*Update 2*: If these women had any balls at all, they'd make fun of creepy old Imus, challenge him to a game of one-on-one, and then ask him to lead the tipoff in their next game after they embarrassed him.
*Update 3*: Since some seem not to have clicked the link that led to my rant above, here are some choice quotes from the coach who held the national press conference:
"We have all been physically, mentally and emotionally spent. So hurt by the remarks that were uttered by Mr. Imus."
"Yes, and I’ve cried and I’ve been angry and disappointed. Because I don’t understand all of that. And yet, to a great extent I do. I do. "
"It’s more than the Rutgers women’s basketball team. It is all women athletes. It is all women."
"Is there malice in my heart? No, I’m hurt. But I do recognize that this issue speaks to a bigger issue. To utter such despicable words are not right, whether spoken by black, white, purple or green, male or female, tall or short, skinny or thin, fat, whatever. It is not right. It’s time for everybody to reflect on what is going on. Oh it’s time, ladies and gentlemen. It’s been time."
"And I trust that our president, our governor, our athletic director will continue to lead, support, respect, honor and defend these young ladies."
You need a national press conference and the involvement of political leaders, to tell us all you've cried and you're hurt and you need these young women defended--from a jackass shock jockey like DON FRICKIN' IMUS?!!?!?
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Your comments are especially valid in light of the lyrics to any rap song out there. Randomly select any rap title, and google the lyrics. It makes Imus' remark pale to zip.
And yeah, Imus is someone who I stopped listening to after he ragged on Clinton at a televised dinner party, with the President sitting right beside him. Now, I'm no fan of Bill, but Imus crossed a REAL line that time, even more so than now.
Ragged? Ragged?
YOU MISOGYNIST TRAITOR MAGGIE!!! What's next, selling women's pelts on the open market?!?!?!?
The women basketballers haven't done anything yet.
Imus was the idiot and MSNBC canned him. He was over the line. The Rudgers women haven't called for his firing. The powers what be done did it.
Neither Jesse or Al Sharpie fired the guy.
Go figure.
Could it be the Imus hasn't looked at the calender and realized its 2007. Maybe, just maybe in 2007 there is a new consciousness out there that suggests the public in general ain't taking the standard media bullshit anymore.
They accomplish something amazing on the basketball court--which they did--and now they're huddling in a corner and crying?
What a bunch of wimps.
If they had any balls at all, they'd challenge him to a game of one-on-one, and then ask him to lead the tipoff in their next game. Then laugh about the whole thing.
Well there's your problem...
The wimpy girls didn't fire his ass, Imus has yet to meet with them. Basically, they have been silent. Besides that, they are on the Rudgers women's team and only the black coach lady can speak for them. Yea, for her.
Imus choose the wrong group to dump on.
Do you think Imus will survive ?
Not true. Go watch the coaches press conference.
My God, I can't believe I'm actually defending this jerk. But give me a freaking break. "Nappy-headed hos?" For this you destroy a man? Is this what we've come down to?
They're B-Ball ladies. They've always got balls.
McK,
Senators Clinton and Obama have chosen to make him a campaign issue. He's toast.
I Love you.
Bear hug.
I haven't been able to log onto Huff Po b/c of the Imus - o - centrism.
I guess part of my problem is that I never listened to him.
But the second issue is, dude, FREE SPEECH FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE FUCKING SPEECH
It pleases me that a major muslim american leftist defended imus:
its also a LOAD OF BULLSHIT that halle barry can be in a movie called NAPPily eVER AFTER — forthcoming 2008 and no one gives a fuck.
I mean tomorrow walk into your work place of employment and pick out the first black chick you find and call her out loud for other people to hear a "nappy-headed ho." Or any kinda ho.
See if your boss has words with you.
What is good for the Common Man is good for these who consider themselves elite, no matter what their position.
You see it is not just the chicks being potential wimps, it is the very idea that Imus is being destroyed or that he is "a victim." I he is a victim of anything it's of his own doing. And his life isn't over, his method of operating has just been squashed. He'll still be breathing tomorrow unless he blows his head off or something, then he'd be the pansy. It's just one incident in his life, just like with the girls, except he fired the shot at his own head, those girls didn't start this. There just cleaning his pansy ass for him. If the girls can take it on the chin then so can he. He is the one who is supposed to be a man anyway, or at least a close imitation.
Now let's see if Imus whines like a little pansy at getting fired for his own words or if he sucks it up like a man and says, "Oh well, nobody made me say it and if I wasn't smart enough to understand that what I do might have commercial consequences then I guess the joke is on me." He's grown. He should take it like a man if he is one. But he has no-one to blame for the consequences of his actions other than himself.
On the other hand, (and this is a separate, not the same issue) I do think most people are far too sensitive about everything said (especially Imus) and so they make far too much out of words. But that's the society we live in, Imus knows that (he just assumed he was special and would be exempted from the rules of the average office worker), and now he should take it like a man and rebuild if he wants to. Nobody will stop him from reforming he just won't get away with the old shit he used to get away with. Sauce for the gander. C'est la vie.
He may reform himself, his image, and rebuild. He may insist he continue to be exempted from the rules of the average person. Or he may whine far more than those chicks did. I could care less what he said and he's said a lot worse, but to think he needs to escape punishment only lessens him as a man. I remember a day when men screwed up and they went straight up to the front of the ship and said, "I was wrong, now beat my ass please and may I have another sir before you finish." Men didn't say "I did a bad thing, but I'm a good person." Any "man" who said shit like that was throughouly beaten for sure, until both his nose and his ass bled for good measure. If we're asking far too little of women these days then we're sure as hell asking far too little of men. We've given them microphones instead of backbones. They shoot their mouths off like a pimply faced schoolgirl about other more popular schoolgirls and then play martyr when somebody else says, "I'm coming to beat your ass?" No, a man stands and takes his medicine and then shakes the hands of the guy who administers it. Or the chick in this case.
You'll know what kind of man he is (or is in the process of becoming) by how he reacts to any of this, but in any case his old mode of operating is finished. He'll have to grow up or be put out to pasture. But in the end that's his choice just like what he said in the first place was his choice.
Now if he says, "I'm taking it without complaint like a man," then good for him.
If he whines like he is the victim, then ho might not be the right word for him, but vagina just might be.
That said, I agree with Dean. This whole issue is blown way out of proportion. The proper response when finding out some old dude called them "Nappy-headed Ho's" on the radio should have been "So what?" Geez, I've heard far worse than that on pretty much any time I turn on one of these radio shows.
Personally, I'm sick of hearing about it. It's been the lead story for several days now. I've never listened to Imus before, and I wouldn't have even known who the guy was if it wasn't for advertising from something like ten or fifteen years ago.
It goes on...it should be out tomorrow.
LOL! Any of the people you mentioned man. I always ask, "Why?! WHY ARE YOU WASTING MY OXYGEN?! I WANT MY OXYGEN BACK!"
*Cries* My poor sweet tasty oxygen....
Nobody is denying Imus a right to free speech but his employer--NBC-- recognizes Imus as main-stream
programming material-- supported by mainstream advertisers-- who have reacted to the firestorm of idiot speech by Imus directed against a specific group of Rudgers women basketball players.
Imus ain't the victim--here--so get a clue.
It isn't a free speech issue dude.
Now that the premature political candidates are chiming in, he's toast.
MSNBC never had a problem with Imus before now.
But with, first Al and Jesse, then Obama, they can't help but pay head. Or Imus's head.
CN
Dean, can you pleas eprovide a reference to the claim that the bbal team is "crying" about the issue?
"We have all been physically, mentally and emotionally spent. So hurt by the remarks that were uttered by Mr. Imus."
"Yes, and I’ve cried and I’ve been angry and disappointed. Because I don’t understand all of that. And yet, to a great extent I do. I do. "
"It’s more than the Rutgers women’s basketball team. It is all women athletes. It is all women."
"Is there malice in my heart? No, I’m hurt. But I do recognize that this issue speaks to a bigger issue. To utter such despicable words are not right, whether spoken by black, white, purple or green, male or female, tall or short, skinny or thin, fat, whatever. It is not right. It’s time for everybody to reflect on what is going on. Oh it’s time, ladies and gentlemen. It’s been time."
"And I trust that our president, our governor, our athletic director will continue to lead, support, respect, honor and defend these young ladies."
You need a national press conference and the involvement of political leaders, to tell us all you've cried and you're hurt and you need these young women defended--from DON FRICKIN' IMUS?!!?!?
How the heck did ANY of this get so much attention? I'm lost. If it were a prominent sportscaster, or a prominent political figure, I would maybe get it.
It's a shock jock. Yes it was rude. These girls who can win a national championship break down when a shock jock is rude? They ought to be laughing at the creepy old man.
Still, I am glad that the attitude of mainstream entertainment media - at least as far as cable TV is concerned - is becoming more concerned with simple values of decency, civility, and intelligent analysis than mere ratings and shock value. Here we have the MSM actually moving away from bullshit and towards quality; enacting the kind of self-filtering that we all demand it do, and you all are actually upset?? I am flummoxed.
its absurd to say that the girls themselves are responsible for Imus's being dropped from MSNBC. Imus made his ownn bed; MSNBC saw the writin on the wall, esp after many major advertisers decided to withdraw. Thats the way the market works; if your ideas suck or are rude or stupid, then dont expect to be embraced. Free speech my ass; its morelike welfare. What makes Imus so great that he deserves to be on TV and in my face? Maybe I deserve my own TV show too then. Hey MSNBC, stop oppressing and silencing me! Where's my six figure salary?
Radio remains a cesspool; Imus still has his show, as does Savage and Stern for that matter. So lets not pretend that Imus is some kind of victim.
And i have no idea whether Imus is liberal or conservative. I think he's a boor. And I cheer his ejection from MSNBC because I prefer such boors to roam their isolated radio reservations and echo chambers than shit all over the lawn out here in public.
Imus is a crybaby.
But maybe this has been a long time coming for Imus, and this is just the straw that broke the camel's back. That might explain it.
Essentially, our culture has devolved into the serial practice of partisanship without regard for the individual or the pursuit of the truth. We're not looking to find the truth, we’re looking to create truth and that is a pivotal distinction. As such, each issue becomes the flagship for opposing interest groups and the epicenter for partisan politics. Those actually involved in this and other incidents (and they are often victims) become nothing more than pawns in an elaborate game of chess...and they are frequently further victimized.
These situations shouldn't be about whether liberals or conservatives, this race or that race, hip hop or honky-tonk, one group or another, are more offensive and therefore more responsible for all that is wrong with America. I am not capable of judging the whole of Don Imus nor am I capable of crafting a recipe to fix all of America...and neither are the countless pundits and partisans who have sought to frame it so.
I'm not a religious person...but I often find kinship with the imagery surrounding the portrayal of one called Jesus and his teachings of understanding and forgiveness. For all the banter I hear about the Bible and Christian values, it certainly seems to me that we are fast abandoning what many view as the sacred "tablets" in favor of the sacrosanct tabloids. If I'm right, all I can say is heaven help us.
Read more about the dynamics that lead a situation to become larger than the sum of its parts...here:
www.thoughttheater.com
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.