2 posts tagged “jon stewart”

Segment regarding the 'N' word

Let me start by saying that recently, in the past month, both Jon and Stephen have had shows regarding the “N” word, exploring what this word means and why it is controversial at best and detrimental at worst. They would never actually use the word in their programs (they get black people to do that and then bleep the word), yet both of them think nothing of using the “P” word. Which is equally damaging, to women, in my view.

First - I have a few thoughts that lay down the premise and give a context for my thoughts regarding the “N and P” words. Please read and be patient…  

I have friends all across the political and religious spectrum. I really love talking to those who hold opposing, or at least different, viewpoints – it’ s amazing how after you get to know someone who calls themselves “conservative, liberal, progressive, libertarian, etc.” how often, by carefully explaining your viewpoint and defining terms, you can achieve an understanding – not necessarily an agreement or consensus, but an appreciation of the other person’s perspective and reasoning.

Although it happens rarely, sometimes they can change your opinion, or you can alter theirs!

A great example of this has happened with my friend and chiropractor, Dr. J. (He happens to also be the guy who also saved my life, literally.) One day recently we we’re talking about his and my friend Fussboot’s beliefs that most people who call themselves ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ go all the way in terms of believing practically anything is allowable under the aegis of ‘free speech’.

He reminded me that the ACLU defends pornography and NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, an organization that purportedly wants to decriminalize sex between men and under-aged boys. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMBLA)

I have a strong belief that pornography undermines women’s humanity and is damaging in so many ways it would take a book for me to document all that is involved with this belief. I’ll just hit on some highlights:

Please read this quote excerpted from Bill Moyer’s article titled “Discovering what Democracy Means (February 12, 2007)

“We know who the enemies of democracy are. In his Jefferson Lecture the late Cleanth Brooks of Yale identified them as the “bastard muses” propaganda, which pleads, sometimes unscrupulously, for a special cause or issue at the expense of the total truth; sentimentality, which works up emotional responses unwarranted by, and in excess of, the occasion; and pornography, which focuses upon one powerful human drive at the expense of the total human personality. To counter the “bastard muses,” Brooks proposed cultivating the “true muses” of the moral imagination. Not only do these arm us to resist the little lies and fantasies of advertising, the official lies of power, and the ghoulish products of nightmarish minds, they open us to the lived experience of others—to the affirmations of a heightened consciousness—to empathy”.

Empathy toward others is the key. One of my favorite sayings is “It is NOT permissible to yell fire in a crowded theater.” Hmmm…would the ACLU argue in favor of that one?

My boyfriend says (and I see his point) that the ACLU “mostly” supports good causes. But they undermine their good causes, in my opinion, the same way the ‘nut-cases’ who throw red paint on models wearing fur damage PETA’s name or the people who bomb abortion clinics undermine their legitimate need to express their views.

Now, back to why words can be so damaging. I have mixed feelings about the ‘N’ word, and since I’m not black, I don’t feel I have a right to comment on something I have no experience with.

Now the ‘P’ word? Yes, I am a woman. As you’ve probably guessed by now, by ‘P’ I don’t mean pornography – I mean that word that describes a specific portion of a woman’s anatomy.

Perhaps being similar to the ‘N’ word, I feel it’s OK for a woman to use that word at her discretion (although I don't, and am against women OR men calling women the "C" word - something someone recently reminded me does occasionally happen, though it's I'VE personally never known another female who would 'bow-down' to language that vulgar).

HOWEVER…When Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (and popular culture, increasingly) use that word to put down other men, it goes beyond calling a man a “woman” to put the man down.

The implication behind this, which I find mystifying that more people don’t seem to see, is that men are somehow ‘better’ or 'superior to' women. The ultimate put down? For a man to imply another man isn’t a real man by comparing him to a woman,in a disparaging way. And...it seems to me the connotation is different than, say, calling a man a d**k. That translates more to "jerk", whereas the 'p' word translates more to weakling, wuss, again - someone who's not a "real man."

I believe pornography enables popular culture to increasingly find it perfectly OK to disparage, demean, and objectify women, allowing such language, and the roots behind these attitudes, to go undetected and under the radar. Much popular hiphop music reflects this.

It’s time women stopped participating in their own ‘one-down’ position in today’s very unbalanced society.

I very much enjoy The Daily Show and the Colbert repor(t), but I have to say – please quit contributing, guys, to the subtle, and powerful, forces this patriarchal, chauvinistic society contributes to creating attitudes that women are less than full human beings with equal rights in all areas.

And women? Remember – we can and often are our own worst enemies.

OK - these are pretty good.

(click on the images twice to blow up pretty decently large!)

There's one of Mr. G drinking from my fountain - isn't it amazing that cats love drinking water from everything BUT their waterdish? The first one of Goober's iris right behind the candle wick is pretty freakish, pretty amazing! Two of them have an original watercolor I did in the shot...

I won't leave this post up forever, I really want to focus less on the beauteous beasties and more on art, politics, etc. (soon to come - stuff about the 'P' word vs. the 'N' word, Jon Stewart, Bill Moyers, and Stephen Colbert!)