Last week, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner fired Emmy-winning writer Kater Gordon. The week before that, Late Night comedian David Letterman admitted to having sexual affairs with women on his staff. The week before that, film director Roman Polanski was finally detained after raping the 13-year-old model he had hired for a Vogue shoot. What do these incidents have in common? If you said "probably nothing," you would be wrong!

Apparently, when three famous Hollywood men make news within a one-month period—whether the news concern rape, sex, or normal managerial decisions—those men are doomed to be nonsensically linked in the public consciousness forevermore! To wit: Linda Hirshman titled her Double X post on the Letterman scandal "Bad Sex: Letterman, Polanski, Ensign, and Edwards." (Sorry, Linda: one of the above ain't sex!) In a post on the Gordon firing, Kate Harding wrote for Broadsheet,"In the wake of the Letterman scandal, [the] question lurks." (The question: Sexy times??) And Gawker's speculation on the Gordon-Weiner dust-up lists a "strictly unprofessional relationship" as its first firing "theory." (Nevermind that that makes absolutely no sense!)

By the Hollywood gossip transitive property, that means that Matthew Weiner probably fired Kater Gordon because . . . child rape, somehow! And because this is Mad Men we're talking about, Gordon's firing MUST be eerily reminiscent of the booze-soaked hyper-sexual office story-line of at least ONE of the television show's beloved characters!

In this week's edition of Sexist Beatdown, Sady of Tiger Beatdown and I implore you to join us as we take a trip down the sexual speculation rabbithole, only to find that: (a) real life ain't Mad Men, and (b) once again, with feeling: RAPE ISN'T SEX.

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AMANDA: So, Kater Gordon and Matthew Weiner. Hittin' it?

SADY: um, probably! because she worked for him! and got promoted! and then didn't work for him any longer! those are all solid proofs of Hittin' It, right? i could use them in Hittin' It Court if I wanted to.

AMANDA: Personally, I think that the number one indication that they are Probably Hittin' It is that David letterman had sex with some lady!

SADY: i know, right? IN THE WORKPLACE! I think we must therefore assume that everyone in the workplace is hittin' it, all the time. i feel bad about not caring that much about the letterman thing. i mean: i get that there was a BIG-ASS power difference between letterman and his assistant. there is a big-ass power difference between david letterman and a lot of people. but until we know that there was not sexual harassment or quid pro quo stuff going on there, it's just another story about somebody cheating on somebody to me. and i am familiar with the fact that people cheat on each other. and not that scandalized by it. i do watch "mad men!"

AMANDA: I agree. I don't care about that or Jimmy Kimmel or whatever that is. Whenever those stories come up, everyone scrambles to "ask the questions" about whether the boss abused their power, whether the employee benefited from the relationship, whether there was coercion etc. But I think REALLY people just want to hear more about the details of their romance. ad in the case of Kater Gordon, their imagined made-up romance

SADY: yeah, exactly. you know my favorite thing about all this? is the parallels drawn between letterman and polanski. like: WOW, there are a lot of "SEX" "SCANDALS" going on, what with these two getting up to their morally equivalent no-goodery! but the kater gordon thing is just fundamentally wrong because we have no evidence of it. no evidence of coercion, and no evidence of a talentless young harlot being promoted due to her relationship with The Boss.

AMANDA: Right? I read one comment when the Letterman thing broke that was like, "Roman Polanski should send David Letterman flowers." And I thought, how awkward would you feel being David Letterman receiving flowers from a child rapist because you had consensual sex with a grown woman?

SADY: haha, yeah. and, i mean, i don't know whether the kater gordon/weiner Imaginary Romance and the jimmy kimmel Actual Romance are getting so much play because people are just wanting to hitch onto that sweet "sex" scandal gravy train or what.

AMANDA: people seem almost embarrassed to bring it up. all the critiques i've read have used passive language like, "parallels between weiner and letterman have been raised" in order to raise the issue themselves

SADY: right. but the parallels between weiner and letterman which ACTUALLY EXIST is that two young women worked for them, and were promoted to high-profile positions. and, you know. whatever the lady on Letterman had going for her, talentwise, is a debatable question. but Gordon would seem to be legitimately deserving of promotion.

AMANDA: yeah, and it's extremely insulting to both the boss and the employee when commenters say, "why would anyone promote a woman? fucking, maybe?"

SADY: right, especially when her skill is so demonstrable. "oh, we know you got that emmy for that episode we all liked WITH SEX! and then the episode magically became good and forced us all to write positive reviews of it BECAUSE OF YOUR SEXINESS!" it's refusing to give her any credit at all for her work.

AMANDA: except for that dream sequence in The Fog. Not so great. But my favorite comparison here is when people draw parallels between Weiner and Gordon and plotlines on Mad Men. Like, what if Gordon IS PEGGY OLSON? OR, what if Gordon was Freddy Rumsen, and was fired for pissing herself? ORRRRR what if Gordon was Sal, and was fired for not having gay sex? Spoiler.

SADY: what if she were that dude who got his foot run over with a lawnmower, and was fired because she couldn't play golf any more? DO WE KNOW KATER GORDON HAS FEET? has anyone seen her golfing lately?

AMANDA: hahaha. yeah. the take-away from that is that people just really love the show so much they want it to be REAL. but that's kind of fucked up, considering the source material.

SADY: yeah, exactly. the thought is that since it's about a workplace where people are always cheatin' and drinkin' and smokin' there must ACTUALLY be some chicanery going on, because otherwise the beautiful dream of a sexist, racist office that smells like cigarettes and freddy rumsen's pee will seem all too unattainable.

AMANDA: yeah. i mean, maybe she had sex with the actor who plays Duck. it's possible!

SADY: yeah... but does this mean that the people who wrote "star trek" did it all on a spaceship, too? but, i mean. honestly. the Mysteries of Her Dismissal are one thing... and i get mad when talented women are fired from shows, even when i don't like them, as with the SNL Lady Quota. but i can't help but feel that the people who are weighing in to be all "PROBABLY BECAUSE SHE AND MATTHEW WEINER HAD NAKED TIMES HUH" are, um, not helping. that's the saddest part of this: that, for some reason, we still can't think of women as just part of the workplace. even though the whole point of "mad men" is that we're So Beyond That Now. i still feel bad for not feeling bad about the letterman thing, though!

AMANDA: i personally feel a little bit uncomfortable about my disinterest in that also, because if i were working for a company where my coworkers were fucking my boss, that would be a problem for me. although, maybe you don't know until some crazy dude extorts your boss for 2 million!

SADY: ha, yeah. i mean, i don't think i'd ever feel comfortable fucking someone in a position to fire me. i would not feel like i was that person's equal. and i don't think that it's possible to separate your sexual relationship from your professional relationship to the degree that some people might hope, and that can result in unfair treatment. BUT, there's no reason to think that boss/employee relationships are ALWAYS uncomfortable for the employee involved, or that they're always predatory.

AMANDA: right. it's also probably nobody else's business except for the people involved, which is the main thing.

SADY: exactly. it's not like this is someone in a position of public office, who holds accountability to All of Us. at worst, we might not want to hang out with David Letterman any more. which: good news! David Letterman doesn't want to hang out with any of us anyway! neither does Matthew Weiner! PROBLEM SOLVED.

AMANDA: and that's fine, because DESPITE SUGGESTIONS TO THE CONTRARY, he does not seem half as charming as Don Draper.

SADY: right. he seems like more of a bert cooper to me, in fact! maybe he fired kater gordon because she wouldn't take her shoes off. PROBABLY, RIGHT?

AMANDA: prb. prbbbbbb! haha! i cannot type any longer!

SADY: that or her sterling-esque blackface routine, which i think we can all agree was inappropriate.

Photo by Carin Baer, via AMC.

Protesters—15 of 'em!—who gathered outside a Late Show With David Letterman taping yesterday had a hard time finding a consistent message.

One responded to Letterman's jokes about Sarah Palin's daughters by suggesting that Letterman's son, who "was born out of wedlock," was fair game for mockery. "I believe there's a term for that," the protester hinted.

Another responding to Letterman's joke about Palin dressing like a "slutty flight attendant" by suggesting that Letterman himself had "a slut for a wife."

Yet another responded to I don't know what by suggesting that David Letterman will "rape you with his mouth."

Others expressed more creative gripes with the late-night comedian, or "the general sentiment that Jay Leno is a better host than Letterman."

Also, one of them thinks Alex Rodriguez plays basketball.

Methinks these protesters may need a refresher course on how not to fight hypocrisy with hypocrisy. And also, maybe, American professional sports.

David Letterman apologized to Sarah Palin and her family last night for telling that joke. Palin accepted, saying:

Of course it's accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve.

Letterman certainly has the right to 'joke' about whatever he wants to, and thankfully we have the right to express our reaction," Palin said. "This is all thanks to our U.S. Military women and men putting their lives on the line for us to secure America's Right to Free Speech—in this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect.

Hey, minus the military-protecting-our-right-to-get-mad-at-rape-jokes stuff,  they both sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Moore's point here is that "Sarah Palin's "Outrage" is Misplaced and A Little Late," since she's seemingly ignored a host of inappropriate sexual jokes about her family (and other political families) before finally speaking out against Letterman. To me, Moore's list proves that the outrage has been a long time coming.

Moore writes:

The National Organization for Women named David Letterman to their Hall of Shame. Will Letterman be joining Jay Leno? Conan O'Brien? Craig Ferguson? Seth Myers? Rush Limbaugh? Or John McCain? Of course not! I guess N.O.W. didn't bother checking Sarah Palin's "feminist" credentials.

Actually, Limbaugh is a repeat offender in NOW's media Hall of Shame. As for other notable sexists who have so far escaped direct criticism from the Palin camp in the past: Sexism in comedy and politics is so wide-spread that it would take up all of NOW's—and Palin's—resources to dutifully record every instance of it. Imagine if Palin responded to every sexist attack hurled at her from anyone ever—it would be a debilitating task, one which would totally derail her life, her family, and probably the entire state of Alaska.

That being said, Palin happened to hear a joke that was particularly inappropriate, Matt Lauer asked her about it, and she responded. Palin's lack of public reaction to these past jokes does not rob her of her right to react now. There are too many sexist jokes. Palin's acceptance of the Republican vice presidential nomination does not rob her of the right to speak out against sexism. There are too many sexist politicians.

And when Rush Limbaugh or John McCain or yes—Sarah Palin—makes their next sexist comment or enacts their next sexist policy, I hope that liberal commentators don't hold back just because they chose not to defend Sarah Palin now.

Moore thinks Palin's outrage is "late." Better late than never.

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I don't think much of Sarah Palin as a feminist, but the Alaska Governor has emerged as an interesting figure in the movement for one reason: she has encouraged conservatives to unwittingly defend women's rights, and liberals to deny them. This MSNBC clip, featuring the Huffington Post's Katharine Zaleski and the Washington Times' Amanda Carpenter, is a perfect example.

Let's find out how easily women's issues fall to the side in the interest of ideological posturing. The stage is set: you've got your liberal pundit, courtesy of HuffPo; your conservative pundit, courtesy of WaTi; and your encouragement for the two to disagree on everything no matter what, courtesy of MSNBC. Let's throw a feminist issue in there—making light of rape—and see what happens.

Here, Zaleski and Carpenter are asked to face off on David Letterman's recent Late Show joke. Letterman said this about Palin and her 14-year-old daughter Willow's recent Yankees game outing: "During the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez." Letterman later took the statement back in a joke-filled apology claiming that he had meant to make the comment about 18-year-old Bristol Palin, not Willow.

Here's what Palin had to say about it: "I found out later the comment that was made about the statutory rape of my 14-year-old daughter Willow ... that crossed the line. Then others, chiming in on other comments Letterman has made. It's quite a sad commentary on where we are as a culture and a society ... He doesn't have to apologize to me. I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country for contributing to that thread that is throughout our culture that makes it sound like it's okay to talk about young girls in that way."

Carpenter, of course, took Palin's side, arguing that the comment was unacceptable, and further, that Sarah Palin had bolstered her women's issues cred by taking a stand over the comments. "It's hard for women in general when accusations like this are made, dirty jokes and things. There's always a conflict of—do you turn your head, or do you make a statement about it and push back? And even when you make a statement, you're accused of manufacturing outrage," Carpenter said. "She took that risk. She said, this isn't acceptable. And I think women are happy to hear that message. I'm certainly one of them."

Zaleski, of course, took the anti-Palin side. Let's check out her argument here:

"Sarah Palin basically ran the hate-speak express during the campaign. She stood there and watched people as they screamed 'kill him' at Obama and 'terrorist.' If she really wants to rise above this, she'll talk about irresponsible speech in general, irresponsible speech that many of her cohorts on national networks are using, irresponsible speech that's leading to things like what happened on Wednesday at the Holocaust Museum. If she really wants to make this an issue, she won't make this about herself and her family all the time, her family who she persistently trots out there, and her daughter who she made a statement about on Thursday. . . . I challenge people like Sarah Palin, like people you talk to on Fox News, to really condemn the language that's greater, this really reprehensible language, that's not just about Bristol Palin but that's about hate speech that's basically leading to actions which happened on Wednesday. That's what's disgusting.

Again, I don't buy Palin as a feminist figure. I, too, think she too often uses her personal life—growing up fishing and hunting with the boys, and then finding great personal success in the Republican Party—as a stand-in for female empowerment, while simultaneously ignoring women's issues as candidate and Governor.

Still, there's something about Zaleski's arguments here that I find particularly anti-feminist. Let's break them down:

1. Obama's girls are off-limits, but Palin's are fair game: "If she really wants to make this an issue, she won't make this about herself and her family all the time, her family who she persistently trots out there, and her daughter who she made a statement about on Thursday."

Read: "Some girls deserve it."

2. Palin started it by making comments about Barack Obama (who is also off-limits), which is why her daughter especially deserves it. "She stood there and watched people as they screamed 'kill him' at Obama and 'terrorist.'"

Read: "She was asking for it."

3. "I challenge people like Sarah Palin, like people you talk to on Fox News, to really condemn the language that's greater, this really reprehensible language, that's not just about Bristol Palin but that's about hate speech that's basically leading to actions which happened on Wednesday. That's what's disgusting."

Read: "Rape is not a real problem. You're exaggerating."

4. Letterman claims he had intended to make the joke about Bristol Palin, and we take Letterman at his word.

Read: "Officer, I didn't know she was under 18."