From The Corner…
the Rutger’s women’s basketball team [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
I’m not rallying behind them either, JPod.
How
refreshing would it have been if when asked about the comments, the
team, or a bright young woman spokesman among them said, “Who? We don’t
listen to Don Imus and we don’t really care what a nasty shock jock has
to say — whether it be about us, politics, or anything else. We’ve got
a game to play on Friday and that’s what we’re worried about right now,
to be honest.”
Yoo Hoo Kathryn oh Kathryn…Imus’s remarks came AFTER the game, ya know the NCAA Championship which marks the end of the season.
K-Lo goes on…
Instead they’re on some kind of victimization tour. (Not all their fault, I assume they didn’t call Oprah, Oprah called them.)
Ahh none of this has been their fault OK.
But wingnuts can not help themselves as they now claim the Rutgers women are not real women because they are “so fragile” and “freaking wimps” and “sobbing whiners.”
OK …this started when Imus declared the Rutgers women aren’t real women with…“That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos” AND now the Rutgers women areweak, meek, cry baby, “fragile flower basketball ladies.”
Someone Shoot Me
Essentially, our culture has devolved into the serial practice of partisanship without regard for the individual or the pursuit of the truth. We’re not looking to find the truth, we’re looking to create truth and that is a pivotal distinction. As such, each issue becomes the flagship for opposing interest groups and the epicenter for partisan politics. Those actually involved in this and other incidents (and they are often victims) become nothing more than pawns in an elaborate game of chess…and they are frequently further victimized.
Frankly, we are fast becoming the epitome of a Jerry Springer society. It seems to have become more important to have an audience and notoriety when confronting conflict than it is to attain resolve and mutual respect. That model seems to serve the needs of the exploited and those who seek to exploit; reinforcing all that relegates objectivity to the outhouse while making the frailty and imperfection of the human condition a spectacle that harkens back to the Coliseum.
Read more about the dynamics that lead a situation to become larger than the sum of its parts…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Sorry Scout, no can do on the shooting you thing, Willie B. needs you. But I’ll happily shoot JLo, just as soon as I can get my hands on that cool Point-of-View gun from Hitchhiker’s Guide. That’d teach her…
Having been in a similar situation (someone I didn’t know slammed me after a show for no reason), I basically had the reaction of “Who is this fucking asshole and who the hell does he think he is?”
Sounded pretty close to the team’s reaction.
Excellent point scout.
aimai
You have to be pretty far gone to be as incoherently stupid as those corner posters. The whole point of the phrase “we have no idea who that Imus person is” is that it must be spoken counterfactually, it has to be a slam back at Imus or it doesn’t make sense. He is, after all, famous. So saying it has to be a lie. It doesn’t and couldnt represent a true replique if it weren’t a lie. So would that make the women cunning, vicious players instead of innocent but strong victims again.
aimai
Is there anything funnier than conservatives calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team fragile?
You know they could kick the ass of every commentator out there, male or female, conservative or liberal. These are women who spend 2 hours a day in the weight room.
They’re getting hate mail, according to Deirdre Imus on the radio this morning. Damn right they’re upset.
It seems to me that it’s the Imus supporters who are doing all the whining. He made his living by “having an audience and notoriety” so it was his job to know where the line was. He blew it. He stepped over the line. It goes with the territory. When you’re playing hard ball with the big boys you have to be careful not to lob one right over the plate. JMHO
It never ceases to amaze me how people get so angry with victims. Whatever the situation, it always seems to devolve into blaming the victim. “She brought this on herself,” or, “Well, he’s no saint either,” or, worst of all, “Well, why didn’t they just [fill in the blank].”
I had a rough class Tuesday night talking about the Holocaust because one of my students said, “Well, why didn’t the Jews just fight back?” I nearly had an aneurysm. She’s a sweet girl, but JEEEEEEEEEEBUS! Luckily, some of the other kids stepped in before I could say something I would have regretted.
Sweet Carmen Miranda on a pogo stick, where does stuff like that come from? Why should a victim ever have any responsibility to do ANYTHING?
Sweet Carmen Miranda on a pogo stick, where does stuff like that come from? Why should a victim ever have any responsibility to do ANYTHING?
Buggy,
I’ve heard a psychologist argue that this is a defensive reaction, to distance the speaker from the victim. See, if the victim didn’t actually do anything to somehow “deserve” the attack, then the speaker has to face the possibility that she could also be victimized. This is too, too scary, so she suppresses it and “others” the victim somhow.
It’s an denial of her own fear and powerlessness: Because she’s unwilling to accept that the same thing could happen to her, she has to assume that she would act differently in that situation, or not be in that situation, or something.
It’s very dangerous, too, both because it destroys empathy for the victim and because it sets the speaker up for a harder fall if anything bad ever does happen.
This reaction is more common among deeply religious people, too: it’s the age-old theological issue of “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” Apparantly, your student has never read (or understood) the book of Job, which deals with exactly this problem both from the victim’s perspective and from the accuser’s perspective.
the problem was the teevee gnews searching for the victim. did any of the rutger players even HEAR what the putzes said? they all have survived rap/hip hop lyrics which say the same damn shit. if it ain’t on teevee it ain’t real?
not that i am sorry imus is gone, but he is only the first that neeeeeeeds to go.
bah humbug.
Excellent comment, Dorothy. I’ve often noted the Republican use of the age-old verbal abuse tactic of vilifying the source of the guilt. This might also fall into that category. I don’t hate Imus and I don’t think it’s right to say that if he has to go so does so-and-so. This is capitalism, good old for-profit “journalism”, and they get what the market dictates. Period. Everybody needs to buck up and stop their boo-hooing like the good “conservatives” they say they are. “Jeeeebus” is right (h/t BuggyQ)!