Longer version:
Better quality version:
The reaction is, predictably, off the scale. Even the Battle of Alberta gets in on the action:
If taking women seriously requires taking Belinda Stronach seriously as an individual, women are in big trouble. Fortunately most people of both sexes are perfectly capable of recognizing that as a non sequitur. And either way a roast is still a roast.
Colby Cosh
So it depends on the type of woman a person is before it's judged as an inappropriate comment?
Having had experience working in the area of domestic violence and having worked with offenders who beat women, comments like this is the gateway to dehumanizing women which in turns makes it okay to commit acts of violence in them. As a public figure, he should know better.
But then, he's had the blessing of standing on Oil and shouting how much he's done for the province while the roads are cracking, the environment's going to hell and the school system is wrought with problems.
yeah, way to go Ralph.
grace
I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how this comment is sexist. How is a negative remark directed towards one particular woman interpreted as a smear on all women?Because it's representative of what men have historically sat around and done. It's a man using another man's sexual conquests/whatever as something to garner him some cultural capital through comedy. It's the kind of comment that ends with guys slapping high fives and shit like that...'haha...MacKay sure did bang Stronach...hahaha'.
It also has to do with the cultural ideology of women's sexual history constructing them as sluts/etc. while men's sexual history makes them into studs and such. The joke is such that it puts the man in the dominant position, the woman subordinated...which, in a culture dominated by and that idealizes hegemonic masculinity, is problematic.
It's not about militant feminism or whatever. It's about recognizing the historical ranking and positioning of men and women, and how particular jokes and such serve to reinforce that.
I mean, honestly, I'm not really a fan of Belinda Stronach, but I don't feel like people not being a fan of her is justification for shit-talking her. Justifying talking shit on an I like/I don't like basis is a slippery slope.
dare
On a rough BoA connection between the roast story and big hockey news, Klein's joke came at a roast to raise money for a society that deals with homeless people.Suffice it to say, the press is not amused.
So now you guys aren't the only ones who are in trouble for making a politically incorrect joke at somebody's expense for the greater benefit of charity.
Feynman and Coulter's Love Child
So they went to find Belinda's take on it. Where was she? At a fundraiser with Rick Mercer trying to get Canadians to buy bug-nets to fight malaria. Is there nobody this woman is above sleeping with to improve her career?
(Actually there's a good Mercer-is-a-sodomist/AIDS joke in there too: basically Mercer is saying rather than abstain its better just to wear the condom and keep on ass-pirating) Namely, there's a better way than bug nets to fight malaria: DDT
As for the Klein comment, this is just another reminder of why we in Alberta are going to miss Klein, whether we agree with him or not (and no matter which side of the spectrum we're mad at him for). Can you see one of these other potential premiers having the sense of fun and daring to pull a stunt like this? Oberg might, but he'd botch the spirit of it beyond all human belief. Norris won't, Morton won't, Dinning definitely won't, and Stelmach probably wouldn't either. Along with the drinking thing, we're definitely losing a valuable skill here. Klein not only delivered the joke, but the next day proudly stated that he reviewed it ahead of time and permitted it to go through, and now is refusing to apologize for it. With that single statement of deviance, another 130,000 Albertans or so probably put down their soup spoon and announced "way to go, Ralph!"
As for me, I'm with Spector.
Bonus Belinda Stronach YouTube video:
Update, 10:40pm: Other bloggers weigh in on the subject: ABFreedom, Dust My Broom, Liberal Catnip, ThePolitic, NateDawg, BuckDog (BuckDawg?), The Canadian Folk Collective (just happy to have a job), Melodrama.ca, Endless Spin Cycle, flyingcheerio, Stony_Curtis, Party of Alberta blog, Rschyster, and Julie Belanger en francais.
