I’m sure that you’ve all heard by now about Jane Fonda’s “C-bomb” droppage last week on The Today Show, during an interview with Meredith Vieira, but in case you missed it (which is highly possible.. I mean, does anyone really watch that show anymore?):
My first reaction to the news — which caused a ridiculous amount of uproar — pretty much matched Vieira’s. I rolled my eyes, apologized to the three people I was speaking with at the time and moved on. It’s not as though Fonda had slammed a glass beer bottle on the edge of a table, brandishing it toward Vieira while screaming a slew of obscenities about the female anatomy. Instead, she had referred to the name of the monologue — “Reclaiming Cunt” — that she had been asked to perform in a performance of The Vagina Monologues.
Our society has reached this bizarre point with censorship where words, phrases and ideas are only punished when they challenge hegemony. As Eve Ensler, the monologues’ author, stated in a People article: “Why is there a buzz about that when there’s no buzz about the word ‘rape’ or ‘plutonium’ or ‘clusterbomb’? … I’m always surprised that people focus on these issues, when one of three women in the world are being raped and beaten and violated.”
These issues are simply not being talked about, while at the same time, the gendering of proper behavior and etiquette for powerful women has never been more strictly policed. Fonda is just another example of this. We are inundated with news whenever Britney Spears eats a Ho-Ho, Hillary Clinton cries a tear or any other woman of influence steps out of line with the norm in some way.
Today in Wisconsin was the primary election, and as expected, Clinton was defeated soundly by Barack Obama, particularly here in Madison, where the “student voice” quickly morphed into a cultish choir chanting “change” and “hope.” Don’t get me wrong — I really like both candidates and am thankful that we as a country are fortunate enough to be able to choose between two fantastic Democratic candidates, rather than feeling stuck with . But, based on the conversations I have had in the past weeks, suffice it to say that I am skeptical about the depth of Obamaites’ knowledge on the issues. Their eyes sparkle from the excitement of a great orator with carefully crafted, brilliantly strategized appeals and imagery, though I’ve heard very little based in actual political discourse to back up the taglines. That is, unless this heinously anti-woman Facebook status message of a “friend,” posted earlier this evening, counts as discourse:
There simply seems to be no stopping the Obamamania.
Enjoy the song below, which eerily (and catchy-indie-pop-songly) describes my current outlook on life; procrasinating late on a Tuesday night, nearly one-third of the way into my final semester as a student:
This is our decision, to live fast and die young
We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun
Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute
Download: MGMT ‘Time to Pretend’
