Feminists Give Letterman a Pass

Leftwing feminists have long shown an enormous capacity for hypocrisy. During the time when Bill Clinton was president, there were serious allegations that he sexually molested Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey, and quite probably raped Juanita Broaddrick. Yet the feminists looked the other way at these allegations, and often attacked Clinton's accusers.

Now we have an incredibly disgusting misogynist joke coming from David Letterman, concerning Sarah Palin's daughters. And of course, the feminists have been silent on the matter. Amanda Fortini discusses this phenomenon in Salon.com:

If there was any question that a stubborn strain of old-school sexism persists in Obama's America, one has only to look at certain leaders of what the right wing loves to call the "liberal media" but which is sounding and acting, recently, more like the frat-house media. There, like a virus hiding in the body before, perhaps, staging a comeback, misogyny has found a place to lurk almost undetected, at least by the usually sharp eyes of progressive feminists.

Imagine if, say, Michelle Obama, or Rachel Maddow, or Nancy Pelosi became the target of similar invective. The outcry from the left would be deafening. Shouldn’t liberals exhibit the same sort of decorous treatment we demand for ourselves? Sexist comments like Letterman’s and Cimbalo’s also evoke a troublingly insular, clubhouse atmosphere in lieu of an inclusive political party. What's more, the gender-based stereotypes they conjure are as stale and ignorant as any voiced by the old Neanderthal right: Pretty women are de facto stupid, sexually promiscuous and low-class.

Contrast the feminists' treatment of Clinton and Letterman with how they reacted to much milder allegations of misogyny on the part of Clarence Thomas and Bob Packwood. Their hypocrisy has no limits.