Last week on the Sexist:

1. How Sarah Palin Confuses Liberals Into Arguing About Feminism in which Sarah Palin is wrong, but still manages to drag us all down with her.

2. Huffington Post: Liberal Politics, Sexist Entertainment in which a commenter argues for Arianna-approved “testicle slips.”

3. Don’t Blame Glenn Beck’s Hot Mormon Wife in which Tanya’s insistence upon Mormonism “grounds” him.

4. Teen Sex Scandal! in which all the people searching Google for “teen sex” and “teensex” are sorely disappointed.

5. The 10 Creepiest Paul Rudd Stalking Tweets in which I, too, do my part.

Protesters—15 of ‘em!—who gathered outside a Late Show With David Letterman taping yesterday had a hard time finding a consistent message.
Read More “David Letterman Protesters Prefer Leno, Hate Sluts” »

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.

It is a simple formula for both comedy and political commentary:

Take a public figure (Sarah Palin) who holds disagreeable views (abstinence-only education). Zero in on an aspect of her personal life counter to those views (her own teen daughter, Bristol Palin, becoming pregnant). Reveal the comedic irony and/or hypocrisy of the public/private contrast. Repeat ad nauseam on blogs, 24-hour news channels, and late night talk shows.

We should all beware this construction. Though very easy to pull off—and often journalistically and comedically sound—it is a trap. And it will render us all hypocrites. Three lessons from history, after the jump.

Read More “Sarah Palin And the “Hypocrisy” Trap” »

The Huffington Post’s Shannyn Moore has created this clever top-10 list of the worst sex jokes hurled at Sarah Palin and her daughters since last year’s presidential campaign. The list, which includes jokes made by Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live, and Craig Ferguson, is hard to stomach. The A Rod thing is not the first sports-team rape joke in the bunch, is what I’m saying.

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.

Read More “Sarah Palin: Not Offended Enough!” »

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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.
Read More “How Sarah Palin Confuses Liberals Into Arguing Against Feminism” »

I’ve been mulling over whether to attend this week’s Rock & Roll Hotel “Air Sex championship” for a few days now—ever since Metromix announced its intention to supply its very own D.C. competitor. Since I’m not much of an exhibitionist, I’m afraid I may not be able to add much to the coverage. It’s Air Guitar, but with fucking. What more is there to say?

But after enduring a Sarah Palin Air Sex Routine, a George Bush Air Sex Routine, a Magician Air Sex Routine, a Swedish Air Sex Routine, and yes—a fucking Chris Kattan Air Sex Routine—I was hit with a terrible feeling of foreboding. All the obvious Air Sex Routines have already been performed, leaving only one Ripped from the Headlines Air Sex yet un-done.

Read More “Air Sex Competition: Who Will Dare Pull A Carradine?” »

While placing a simple rape joke in a pop song won’t derail your music career, it could haunt you for decades and prevent you from becoming president, or anything else great ever. Below, five rape jokes that politicians wish they had never said—or, more likely, wish nobody ever heard.

Read More “Five Rape Jokes Not to Tell (If You Want A Future)” »

That’s what Ruth Marcus claims in today’s Washington Post, quoting Sarah Palin’s remarks from a—what else—a pro-life fundraiser. At the dinner, Palin discussed her “choice” to have a child with Down syndrome  at the age of 44—a choice that, as Marcus points out, Palin wants to deny other women. Marcus is miffed that right-to-lifers like Palin routinely justify their anti-choice positions by describing their own “correct” “decisions” to have children. This isn’t the fist time Palin has used choice to explain why women shouldn’t chose—who could forget Palin’s election-season classic, “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby”?

Palin’s pro-”choice” comments—where she describes twice considering abortion before deciding to carry her pregnancy to term—after the jump.

Read More “Sarah Palin Makes Case For Abortion” »

And we’ve got the whole, non-white-trashy thing on tape:

Sarah Seltzer for Reproductive Health Reality Check wonders if Levi is a “victim” in the Palin spotlight. “The Internet is buzzing over Levi Johnston’s appearance on Tyra yesterday to ‘break his silence,’ and providing us all with a reminder that patriarchal policies like abstinence-only education hurt young men, too,” writes Seltzer.

I couldn’t agree more: We’re all victims here: Levi, Bristol, Tripp, and Palin herself all suffered at the hands of her ridiculous abstinence (with a teenage pregnancy backup) method. Everyone, that is, except Tyra, who pulls a fierce Katie Couric to get the daytime interview of the post-pregnancy season.