On This Little Thing Called "Slut-Shaming"

Sub-title: "Why Rush Limbaugh is Still a Big, Fat Idiot"

I'm sure you've all heard about Rush Limbaugh and Sandra Fluke.  If you haven't, it basically boils down to "Fat, old white guy with a radio show calls a Georgetown Law Student a slut and a prostitute because she wants government health care to cover contraception and therefore, in his mind, wants the government and tax payers to pay for her to have sex."


This guy.

Leaving out the fact that Rush clearly doesn't understand how birth control works or the plethora of reasons outside of sexual activity that a woman might be using birth control (in a Congressional hearing, Fluke cited her friend who is on the pill to treat ovarian cysts), there's another issue at hand here.

Let's talk briefly about something called "slut shaming."  Because really, that's what Rush is doing here.  Slut shaming is the idea that a woman can be judged as a person in virtue of whether or not, and the extent to which, she is sexually active.  It directly correlates the value of a woman with whether she is sexually active and ties her into a system that my spiritual guide, the late John Hughes, describes as a "double-edged sword."

 "Well, if you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have you're a slut. It's a trap. You want to but you can't, and when you do you wish you didn't, right"

The idea that a woman can be judged for her sexuality relates back to a culture that believes that a woman who isn't a virgin can't be raped, or that a woman who's sexually active in her own right is "asking for it."  And Rush, your comments -- your idiotic comments which equate the desire to have a medical expense covered by your insurance policy (which I know is a horrifying concept) with prostitution and a foray into internet porn -- contribute to this horrible excuse for a justification.  So, congrats.  You're an ass.

Fumingly yours,
Rachel Leigh