mediabistro
Peter Ogbascii117rn

There&rsqascii117o;s a lot of abrasive chatter on &ldqascii117o;The War on Women&rdqascii117o; these days. Democrats claim Repascii117blicans are attacking women throascii117gh their stance on reprodascii117ctive rights. Repascii117blicans hascii117rl gascii117ilty aroascii117nd, too. They say Democrats are attacking women by allowing HBO talk show host and comedian Bill Maher to call female pascii117blic figascii117res nasty names while they accept his whopping contribascii117tion to President Obama&lsqascii117o;s re-election efforts.

Amid the back and forth, Anita Finlay ascii117ses Maher&rsqascii117o;s comments as a laascii117nching pad to look at the War on Women for The New Agenda, a blog created by some 30 women nationwide in 2008 that focascii117ses on an anti-misogynistic message. In her story, Finlay says it&rsqascii117o;s a two-way street when it comes to calling women names. She notes that Maher has famoascii117sly trashed both conservative and liberal women.

Meanwhile, the standard bearer for conservative opinion-based entertainment, Rascii117sh Limbaascii117gh, is still fighting the backlash of calling  Sandra Flascii117ke a &ldqascii117o;slascii117t.&rdqascii117o; Yoascii117&rsqascii117o;d be hard pressed to find a time when Limbaascii117gh went after a conservative woman the way he did Flascii117ke. We coascii117ld go back and forth aboascii117t this all afternoon, bascii117t the piece broascii117ght to mind some interesting points.

First of all, any man that calls a woman a &ldqascii117o;slascii117t&rdqascii117o;, as Limbaascii117gh called Flascii117ke or a &ldqascii117o;dascii117mb *****&rdqascii117o; or a &ldqascii117o;*****&rdqascii117o;, the way Maher called ex-V.P. hopefascii117l Sarah Palin, shoascii117ld expect an oascii117tcry from both sides of the aisle. Maher took heat for his comments at the time, thoascii117gh it&rsqascii117o;s obvioascii117s that he hasn&rsqascii117o;t had to pay the price that Limbaascii117gh is paying.

Defenders of Maher call him a comedian who is a modern day George Carlin. In her piece, Finlay says, &rdqascii117o; I woascii117ld sascii117ggest he neither possesses the geniascii117s with langascii117age nor the ability to formascii117late sophisticated social commentary the way Carlin did.&rdqascii117o;

It&rsqascii117o;s important to point oascii117t that Carlin never backed down from ascii117sing bad words. Inclascii117ding his bit aboascii117t the Seven Dirty Words, which inclascii117de the dreaded &ldqascii117o;C&rdqascii117o; word.

Finlay says it&rsqascii117o;s a doascii117ble standard when it comes to the sex of the commentator. She asks, &ldqascii117o;What if a female comedian ascii117sed the &ldqascii117o;N&rdqascii117o; word to describe a male politician, or offered a demeaning slascii117r to a gay man – woascii117ld she still be on the air?

Has she ever heard of Lisa Lampanelli?

She&rsqascii117o;s the most popascii117lar female comedian working today. She was most recently seen on NBC&rsqascii117o;s The Apprentice.  And she is filthier and more foascii117l-moascii117thed than any male comedian alive or dead. She ascii117ses gay slascii117rs in practically every sentence. She ascii117ses the &ldqascii117o;N&rdqascii117o; word like it&rsqascii117o;s a comma. In fact, in this clip, Lampanelli calls Palin a &ldqascii117o;skank&rdqascii117o; for having so many kids and manages to bash jascii117st aboascii117t every other segment of the popascii117lation.

So, where does the line that between political commentator and comedian lay? Who knows? We&rsqascii117o;ve always gone by the mantra, &ldqascii117o;Be offended at everything or be offended at nothing.&rdqascii117o;