Regina Benjamin, Sarah Palin, And Pregnancy As Abuse

Lynn Harris talks about pregnancy and domestic violence. Is Regina Benjamin's weight relevant to her nomination as Surgeon General, and what will we do with Sarah Palin?

 

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Links in this episode:

Pamela Merritt on the Dr. Benjamin controversy

Fox News on Dr. Benjamin

And again

William Shatner performs Sarah Palin

 

 

On this episode of Reality Cast, I'll be interviewing Lynn Harris about when pregnancy becomes a tool for domestic violence.  Also, is Regina Benjamin's weight relevant to her job performance, and whatever will the country do with Sarah Palin?

 

I'd like to take a moment to plug a couple of things related to this podcast and to RH Reality Check.  First of all, big thanks to the people who've put up reviews at iTunes.  That helps us build a bigger audience and reach more people. If you haven't done so already, I'd like to ask you if you could drop by and give the podcast a review.  Thanks ahead of time.

 

Also, if you're going to Netroots Nation, and I really hope you are, please come check out the panel that I'm moderating called Reproductive Rights in the Age of Obama.  We've got panelists from Advocates for Youth, Guttmacher, the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, and RH Reality Check to talk about how to promote reproductive rights in this new era.

 

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You can tell from the screen shot of the video on the page that this clip that Talking Points Memo got off Fox News is going to be the classiest thing they've ever done.  How?  Because there's a guy being interviewed by Neil Cavuto wearing a shirt that says
"No Chubbies".  And yes, they're talking about the new nominee for Surgeon General, and you're not wrong to suspect that this is much about Regina Benjamin being black and female as it is about her weight.  Pamela Merritt wrote a piece for RH Reality Check on this that you should read, and says what needs to be said on this.  But the beauty of podcasting is you can include actual jaw-dropping clips of the depraved abuse of Dr. Benjamin for daring to be female and not a size two.  And so I present to you Fox News and their ridiculous fat-shaming of Dr. Regina Benjamin.  

 

• Benjamin 1 *

 

Cavuto plays the good guy, sort of.  He's doing the "you're not that fat!" thing, instead of dealing with the real issue, which is so what?  I like how the guest, who is the owner of a gym where they scream at you if you have any visible body fat, makes it clear up front that this is about being a woman.  And that women have a special responsibility to be skinny if they want any access to public life or social esteem.

 

• Benjamin 2 *

 

Oh, whatever.  God forbid we should have anyone with sympathy for people who actually struggle in positions to make decisions about our economy.  But let's carry on, because there's a bunch of assumptions being trotted out about fat people's basic character that will make your head spin.

 

• Benjamin 3 *

 

Lazy?  Lazy?!  I love that a guy that runs a gimmicky gym that has had some financial troubles is accusing a doctor whose endless energy and enthusiasm has led her to get this nomination.  Lindsay Beyerstein wrote a post explaining how Dr. Benjamin was the first person under 40 to run the AMA, got an MBA on top of her medical degree, founded her own clinic that reaches out to lower income people, worked with Katrina refugees, and has done more charity and committee work than this guy has ever heard of.  If she's lazy, then he's a lump on a log.

 

But she's a woman, and so of course her main job in this world is to present a figure that some men deem necessary to be sexually attractive.  She could be working from 6AM to 10PM every day, but if she's not out there losing weight, it doesn't count, because being a woman should mean that her appearance is the only thing about her.

 

Cavuto plays the good guy, but let's face it, just by giving this jackass an opportunity to speak on TV, they're promoting the idea that a woman can be reduced to her dress size and written off completely if it's too big.  And if there's any doubt about that, Fox News did another segment bashing Dr. Benjamin for her weight, on the O'Reilly Factor. They invited professional fat-hater Mimi Roth on to bash Dr. Benjamin. Roth may not have a distinguished career or multiple degrees, but she is skinny, so she feels like she's morally superior.

 

• Benjamin 4 *

 

I like how she stuttered there.  I think she was about to suggest that Dr. Benjamin shouldn't be allowed in public, but she caught herself and said that her presence in public was merely embarrassing.

 

The only people here who should be embarrassed are the folks at Fox News, for promoting the idea that someone's waistline, especially if someone is female, is the sum total of their character.  I'll finish with Samhita from Feministing's comments on the situation. 

 

• Benjamin 5 *

 

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insert interview

 

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If you want to observe the surreal direction that wingnuttery has taken American politics, you couldn't do any better than the short but storied national career of Sarah Palin.  She just gave her final speech as governor, and it was heavy both on right wing paranoia and incoherence.  Watching the coverage of it was downright comical.

 

• palin 1 *

 

Yes, you heard right.  She accused Hollywood starlets of coming to take your guns, which tells you everything you need to know about how much wingnuttery is a result of bizarre psychosexual paranoia.  Crowley was right to link the fear of your guns being taken from you to abortion for more than one reason. It's not just that both are applause lines.  It's that both resonate with a crowd that is deeply concerned that lascivious women are plotting ways to symbolically castrate them, by aborting pregnancies caused by strong American sperm, or snatching your might phallic guns away.  It's absolutely true that Sarah Palin is a master at stoking these fears and getting a lot of attention for it.  But it's also obviously true that someone who buys into the weirdness like she does isn't suitable for making actual policy decisions.

 

So, now America's most baffling politician isn't a politician any longer.  So what's going to happen for her?  It was the question on the minds of the pundits.

 

• palin 2 *

 

To be frank, I don't think she has much of a future running for office.  The nation is already remembering Barack Obama's election as something that happened strictly by the force of his charisma and intelligence, with a side of economic crisis, but let's not forget how quickly McCain's numbers started to slide downhill when the country started to realize that Palin might be quick with a nutty right wing quip and good at winking, but she didn't really seem to understand basic aspects of how government works. 

 

But I don't think she's going away.  The hardcore base absolutely loves her.  Where everyone else hears incoherent stabbing at right wing talking points, the base hears someone who really gets them.  Washington Journal took a call from one of the guns and sperm protection crowd.

 

• palin 3 *

 

There is clearly only one thing for Palin to do, in an atmosphere where most of the country thinks she's off, but the anti-choice crazies love her to death.  Clearly, she's going to go into the activism and media realm.  We've already heard Levi Johnston say that Palin was talking about how much money she could make with book deals if she resigned, and it's true.  As any of us in the pro-choice world could tell you, we're facing down opposition that is willing to spend a lot of money to keep the imaginary starlets from aborting your fetuses while running off with your guns.  You don't have to be very smart or hard-working to be a major player in the world of anti-choice nuttery.  You just have to be willing to be mean-spirited and thump the Bible with all your might.  So that is the future I see for Sarah Palin.

 

But I don't think she's going away.  With that in mind, may I present William Shatner's reading of Palin's final speech as governor of Alaska. 

 

• palin 4 *

 

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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, but we can't call it terrorism edition.  Randall Terry of Operation Rescue went before the National Press Club and made obvious threats of violence that would happen if we get health care reform.

 

• terry *

 

Terry's excuse for threatening violence while claiming to oppose it is that there will be funding for abortion in the health care bill.  As we've documented on this podcast, anti-choicers are basically just making that up.  It's a cover story for a larger anti-health care agenda, and it's unsurprising to me that terrorism is being wielded as a threat to keep large numbers of Americans that the anti-choice movement deems unworthy from getting basic health care.

 

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte