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Sluts and niggers

Submitted by James on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 7:51pm

If Rush Limbaugh had used the word "nigger" on the air to demean black people the way he used "slut" to demean women who have sex, the University and the Tarheel Sports Network would have already severed their contracts with Rush Radio.

The University has full discretion to choose whatever relationships it wants when it comes to sports broadcasting. This buck cannot be passed.

If there's one thing I've learned about the American psyche in recent years, it is this: We have the attention span of a gnat. Which makes it all the more difficult to deal with institutional challenges that require sustained pressure.

The faculty and students at UNC Chapel Hill arrive back in town tomorrow from spring break. They'll all be busy gearing up for classes, and crying in their beer about the ACC Tournament. There won't be a lot of passion for taking the University to task over its misguided affiliation with Rush Radio.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope there are still women at UNC - both faculty and students - who take feminism seriously. I hope there are women who will rage with every ounce of fury they can muster about UNC's affiliation with any radio station that insults more than half the US population as a matter of ideological bias.

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Comments

More on sex and fertility

Submitted by James on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 8:18pm.

There's a diary up at Daily Kos which shares my concern about the twisted way the debate around contraception is unfolding, especially the part about non-contraceptive uses of the pill (for PMS, acne, whatever). This course is a strategic blunder, to my way of thinking, and women should not allow the discussion to continue down this misguided path.

Simply put,

... if this dynamic continues unabated, there could arise a narrative that use of contraception to treat conditions like those described above is tolerable because it is not the woman's fault, whereas use of contraception simply to prevent pregnancy is intended to allow a woman to get away with supposedly immoral behavior.

The only way to avoid this outcome for certain is to be unequivocal: a woman has the right to be able to control her own fertility. This is the main message. Examples of the other uses of contraception are very effective at showing the pathetic shortsightedness and tragic indifference of the right, but they cannot distract from the key prize: fighting for a woman's right to self-determination.

Yeah, that's been bothering me

Submitted by scharrison on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 9:13pm.

since I first started seeing people making that argument.

Women don't need a "morally acceptable" reason for using birth control. They already have one. It's called "not wanting to get pregnant".

Clever arguments can sometimes be severely lacking in cleverness. It's what happens when you try to fashion your argument in a way that will convince an idiot.

I wish the athletes

Submitted by loftT on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 9:36pm.

would stand up against the University's lack of sense. It would strike a deep blow against Rush and the dense- headedness of the powers that be. Just refuse to participate in any sports. That would be awesome.

Progressives are the true conservatives.

141 advertisers have walked away from Rush Radio

Submitted by James on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 3:45pm.

and yet UNC remains steadfastly connected to the Sultan of Sleaze.

Come on, Chancellor Thorp. Pull the plug.

New Hanover craziness re birth control

Submitted by moderate (not verified) on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 11:45pm.

http://watchdogs.blogs.starnewsonline.com/19718/new-hanover-commissioner...

It's not clear to me where this money they refused was coming from, but since they weren't required to pay one penny, how do they say the taxpayers are paying it?

Who are these illogical people? And why does their religion trump society's needs?