Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/13/creeps-pretending-to-be-femini.html
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The outspoken women’s rights advocate who went out of his way to call Kellyanne Conway ugly.
If that’s enough to get one labeled a misogynist, very few humans of sufficient purity are to be found at all, I’m afraid.
(And I don’t mean that as an attempt at a joke concerning Kellyanne Conway’s looks.)
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I can honestly say I have yet to go out of my way to call Kellyanne Conway (or any other female politician) ugly. I don’t think that’s an especially high bar to set, really.
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The point, Number Man, is that just like a secret nazi dropping anti-semitism concealed in humour, a psychopath can never really keep it inside.
I’m not kidding: healthy people don’t go around calling people ugly.
Misogynists do, however.
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For being labeled a misogynist for what is described as a single incident, despite being otherwise an outspoken women’s rights advocate? It think that’s one heck of a bar.
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Oh, so now he’s also a psychopath. That certainly alleviates all my worries about people being tarred and feathered for the smallest failure to adhere to the Doctrine.
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When someone goes out of their way to call a woman ugly then it’s doubtful that it’s the first or last time they’ve done so.
It’s kind of like using a racial slur. When I hear someone call a person of Mexican descent a “sp*c” then I don’t reserve judgement until they do it a second or third time.
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I criticised Conway’s Babes in Toyland inauguration day dress, but that kind of ugly can be removed. The same can’t be said for the cesspool of ideas in her head, nor is it applicable to Steve “Gin Blossom” Bannon, Stephen Miller (“The World’s Oldest 31-Year-Old”), constipated fireplug in a cheap suit Sean Spicer, or the regime’s sundry other male grotesques in both appearance and ideology.
Given that discrimination against women based on appearance is still a powerful force in society, it doesn’t do liberals and progressives much good to indulge themselves in misogynistic behaviour more characteristic of conservatives.
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Are you proposing that there is a number of incidents greater than one after which it would be all right with you that someone be labeled a misogynist? What number might that be?
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Calling someone ugly is not the equivalent of a racial slur. It’s not particularly becoming either, but of all the things that might come to one’s mind in a fit of rage over (whatever Conway did at the moment and there is a lot to pick from), it’s far from the worst.
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Jesus, try to play nice people.
Calling someone ugly is inappropriate, and it’s also not really the problem I have with Conway. However, it’s a common enough insult that I’m not shocked if someone uses it. I do however try to call them on it, politely. It sucks, but we don’t need to brand anyone as misogynist for life over it.
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I’m sure you’ve never said anything in anger you might have later regretted.
I’m pretty ugly. Mostly scars, but genetics made a contribution too.
That guy who plays “Doc Martin” is remarkably ugly. Great actor, though!
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Going out of one’s way to call a female politician ugly does not in and of itself make someone an irredeemable monster. However it does constitute behavior unbecoming of anyone who claims to be a feminist, so if someone does it then they deserve to get called out for it.
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You’re missing the point.
When a woman from any part of the political spectrum disagrees with a man, typically the first thing out of his mouth is an attack on her appearance. From Rachel Maddow and Michelle Obama to Ann Coulter and Kellyanne Conway, the first point of attack is always her appearance.
And it’s playing right into the hands of the very system you say you’re against. If you can’t see that, then you’re not as progressive as you say you are.
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I agree that anyone calling themselves a feminist shouldn’t do this. But throwing him into the misogynist camp for letting his anger get the better of him is vastly disproportionate.
To be clear, I’m not saying he shouldn’t be called out on it. I’m rather arguing against the borderline mentality of everyone either being perfectly pure in thought and deed or getting dismissed as The Enemy.
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To be fair, it’s a short generalization of a behaviour without much context. I’m surely entitled to my opinions on beauty, and I’d defend anyone called a “misogynist” just because they found someone unattractive, but when I read that snippet, I pictured more the guy who says something like “who cares what she says, she’s ugly” versus someone who was just voicing an aesthetic opinion.
Again, hard to say from a one-sentence generalization.
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It is misogynistic behavior. Full stop. Saying it in anger doesn’t make it less so.
Whether that moment of misogyny should define him depends on whether he realizes how inappropriate his comment was and works to better himself in the future.
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Just out of curiosity, do live on Vulcan or thereabouts? Where people only ever rationally argue against other’s positions based on the indisputable facts of the matter and strict formal logic?
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First off saying your political opponents is ugly is a stupid and unpleasant insult that doesn’t get us anywhere - and people shouldn’t do it.
But it is hardly unique to female politicians, just ask president Cheetofaced McSmallhands.
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