By Charlotte A. Williams
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh made several missteps that have since led to some sponsors pulling their ads from his syndicated show. Limbaugh, who seems to attract a diehard following of conservatives, as well as a healthy sprinkling of fringe lunatics, also attracts people, who like myself, just want to know the rant du jour.
The radio-talk giant built his reputation on years of inveighing against liberal views in his quest to maintain a culture of a white-male patriarchal society. Passed down through generations, some men and women embrace Victorian etiquette, i.e. a woman’s role is to please her man – and can identify with Limbaugh’s negative views about how a woman should behave.
Limbaugh may have thrown his vile hissy fit degrading Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University student who testified before Congress on why the government should subsidize birth control pills, all over what he might view as loss of the virtuous woman.
Remember now, Limbaugh has been getting away with his insane rhetoric for years, so why pump his brakes now? Well, for one thing, he made a mistake when he called Fluke, an intelligent-sounding student with a girl next door image - a “slut” and a “prostitute.” To some, Fluke conjures up the clean image of my daughter, your daughter, my granddaughter, your granddaughter, niece, you got the picture. Big mistake!
A visual of Fluke and the fact that she had actually testified how birth control pills are used to treat other gynecological conditions is what helped lend the resounding rebuke, “Oh, hell no!” from the everyday citizen to celebrities to special groups.
It is conceivable that some middle of the road conservatives might have embraced Limbaugh’s vile tongue lashing of Fluke initially, but quickly changed their mind after learning the truth. The once vivid picture of 60s “free love” across college campuses is forever smeared.
Voyeurism
Well, well, well, looky here. Look who’s hiding in the closet watching a sex tape. In his attempt to assassinate Fluke’s character, Limbaugh pulled the covers back on his own sexual fantasies – watching others engage in the act, the ole Victorian standards at play. Limbaugh also resurrected the old sexist adage, “There are those that you marry and those that you don’t,” when he mislabeled Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
But what about his voyeuristic journey that landed him where he is now?
And to titillate his own libido, Limbaugh brazenly requested that Fluke video record what he believed would be her inevitable sexual
encounter.
That subliminal message is why his brakes had to be pumped. Fluke would be categorized as the kind you marry but Limbaugh saw fit to turn her into “the kind you don’t.” © cwms 2012
