This relatively new gimmick that networks pull where they trot out coiffed young female commentators to essentially cat fight over the pseudo feminist issue du jour is nauseating and perpetuates the frigid hag vs. slutty shopper feminist trope.

I think the point that Palin's advocates are missing is that Letterman is an entertainer. He doesn't claim partisanship, while Republican party leaders were systematically bashing Chelsea and Hillary Clinton in the nineties. What Letterman did was ill advised, but what they're doing is hypocritical.

I don't know about this.... I mean were the jokes in bad taste, sure... but he's a comedian, that's what he does. And I agree with him that this was more about Eliot Spitzer being a womanizing ass than anything else.

But for Palin, who has made sexist comments about herself (the lipstick quote as well as others) while also working to constantly undermine women's rights, to now suddenly cry feminist because its convenient for her is abhorrent. Where was Sarah Palin's feminism with abstinence only education? Where was her feminism with a women's right to choose? This anti-women faux-feminist needs to craw back into the bowels of the republican conservative hell from which she came

Those jokes are gross and I have no idea why the studio audience is laughing.

Thanks for posting about this. I'm reading "Yes means Yes" right now (which is fabulous!) and I feel that the book directly addresses a situation like this. i.e. women's bodies aren't their own (they are someone else's joke) and women who have premarital sex are "sluts" (obviously since Bristol had sex with Levi, she'll be having sex with A-rod!)

I think that one of the things that's surprised me most about this is that this stupid little kerfuffle has happened against the backdrop of what's probably Palin's signature achievement as governor (the pipeline deal, which Exxon just signed onto). I wouldn't expect Democrats to talk about it (frankly, the Democratic rank-and-file has shown a lot more interest in personal attacks against Palin than in policy questions) but apparently the GOP also thinks that they can get more traction from blowing up the Letterman thing than they can from Palin's actual work as governor, too. I think they recognize that playing to the neanderthals means pushing women into more traditional roles.

I just had a debate about this with my Drinking Liberally members on Sunday. Look, we are supposed to be PROGRESSIVE! Does anyone understand what that means anymore? It means even if Palin put herself out there like that (like a sex object, is what I've heard ppl say), even if she put her kids out there in the political scene (which I've heard many the radio host decry), we are SUPPOSED to be better than that! We are SUPPOSED to not be sexist EVEN IF THEY ARE! And I don't understand how the big hubbub is about the comment on her daughter, which is not good, but no one is saying anything about the sexist comment/joke Letterman had about Palin, about her new Bloomingdale makeup updating her slutty stewardess look.

There is way too much political fodder about Palin for us to have to make fun of her or her daughter's sexuality. There is just way too much we can be saying about her politics - I think if someone is making fun of her looks or her daughter's sexual exploits, then they are just an idiot or one dimensional and can't think up of something of substance.

I do agree it is political and hypocritical that Palin is decrying sexism here when these things have been said about her countless times in the past and she said nothing - I think it has something to do with Letterman or her just wanting the spotlight back right now. Not sure. And I agree her political past actions have been horrendous for women. But again, we are FEMINISTS and need to call out sexism wherever it exists, when it is Palin herself promoting it or someone attacking Paling with it. It doesn't matter. Letterman was wrong, and Palin's politics are wrong. And Bristol is wrong to flip-flop her stance on abstinence just for politics. That's my two cents!!

I think Letterman's jokes were in poor taste, let's not forget that Palin's actual stance that has been legislated and made into policy is far worse.

AGREED.

Letterman's jokes were horrible, but they're all talk. Palin's actual policies are, indeed, far worse.

Palin should be apologizing for her own sexism if she's going to call others out on theirs.

The joke wasn't about Palin -- it was about her daughter.

It was a joke about a man "knocking up" a 14-yr-old girl. How many posts on feministing have been about "it's not 'sex' with a girl.. it's rape!" Apparently that needs to be amended to say, "It's ok if it's a joke about a conservative politician's underage child."

Even if you think that it was a joke about the 18-yr-old daughter (which I don't believe because it was the 14-yr-old who was with her at the game), then it is still a joke about Palin's daughter, not Palin.

Slut-shaming women is wrong. Period. I don't care who her mother is or what she stands for.

While I agree that Letterman's jokes were in very bad taste, like others have said, he's still a comedian, not a news anchor. And I'm much more bothered by the comments I heard from Palin afterwards. She always seems to have these unnecessary jabs at the end of her statements. When her family was asked to go on his show as sort of an apology, she said something along the lines of, "I don't want to give him the good ratings." Classy answer, and it makes sense. But then she threw in some comment along the lines of "and I don't want my daughters near someone like David Letterman." Like Letterman is a sexual predator waiting to prey on her daughters. That just rubbed me the wrong way. Don't go on his show, fine. No one can blame you. But I don't feel acting like Letterman will personally assault her daughters is justifiable based on a tasteless joke.

It doesn't matter WHO it is. Slut-shaming is WRONG. I don't care if it's Satan's evil twin sister, Letterman should be getting a good kick in the butt for this.

Because slut-shaming hurts all women. This needs to stop.

As the sister, friend and otherwise loved one of many conservative women, I alwyas have to ask:
If a conservative woman says it, does that automatically mean that it "is smart and calculated and plays so well into the often rudimentary understanding Americans have about the fight for women's rights" ?

I mean, is it possible for conservative women to have ideas that are deeply thought out, and deeply held, and agree with feminism, and it NOT be a calculation, a tool for manipulating the patriarchy-stupid masses?

What's with this weird, "He's a comedian" thing that some of y'all are bringing up? Do I need to remind everyone just how funny everyone thought that Seth Rogan movie was where he raped an unconscious woman who ended up yelling at him when he stopped? "It's a comedy" sure didn't work there, and pulling the comedy card here doesn't work, either.

It's interesting watching people try to justify Letterman's comments: they always seem to start by listing all the things that are wrong with Sarah Palin. It's just like when people try to justify torture by launching into a graphic account of all the horrible deeds committed by terrorists, and it's really depressing to see otherwise well-intentioned people falling into this trap. It goes like this: first, construct your opponent as a lesser person who is therefore not deserving of the same rights you grant to people who behave the way you would like. Second, use the exact same methods you claim to be against in order to take power away from your opponent. Not because your position trumps theirs, but simply because you feel threatened and you want to regain control no matter what. Third, pat yourself on the back and reassure yourself that the ends justified the means. And try not to look too surprised when your opponent uses the same methods AGAIN in order to get back at you the next time.

Really, the cognitive dissonance on display here is astounding. And worse still, Letterman has manufactured a situation in which it is necessary for us to defend Sarah Palin in order to protect women's rights! Even a moderately talented comedian should be able to completely eviscerate Palin's political views, and draw plenty of laughs in the process, without resorting to cheap sexist attacks. This is lazy writing at its worst, because even if Letterman (or whoever wrote the joke, and I'm assuming it had to get approval from Letterman anyway) was scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill out a show that runs five nights a week, the fact that this sort of humour in seen as an acceptable last resort simply shows how deeply ingrained sexism remains in Western culture. (I ranted about this in my liverjournal the other day, in case anyone is bored enough to want to hear some Australian guy's thoughts on how Letterman is hiding behind some ridiculous non-argument to avoid the fact that sexist humour is inherently sexist and not "just a joke").

So now, not only is Palin using this incident to score easy political points, but she actually has a legitimate argument to make, too. Seriously, why must we make it so easy for enormous hypocrites to gain public favour?

Okay, she's not crying feminist.

She's crying "mother" and doing what any decent mother would do, defending her daughter from abuse.

You get to defend your children no matter who you are or what your political background is.

And I'm having a great deal of trouble respecting the opinion of anyone who thinks otherwise.

The very idea that this is about feminism is ludicrous and completely misses the point.

Okay, she's not crying feminist.

She's crying "mother" and doing what any decent mother would do, defending her daughter from abuse.

You get to defend your children no matter who you are or what your political background is.

And I'm having a great deal of trouble respecting the opinion of anyone who thinks otherwise.

The very idea that this is about feminism is ludicrous and completely misses the point.

So now our long pseudo national nightmare is over, the Palin familia honor has been restored.

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly was the joke Letterman made about Bristol? I've done a million Google searches on it but can't find a video or verbatim record of what he said.

I feel like we’re allowing this to become Liberal women vs. Conservative women issue and I don’t see how anything beneficial can come from that. Sexist comments about a woman, no matter what her political affiliation is or how you personally feel about her, are wrong and hurt all women. But Palin (and Meghan McCain) have polarized this issue in order to gain political sympathy instead of taking the opportunity to have a real conversation about misogyny and how it affects our young girls.

Letterman’s “jokes” were inappropriate, but insisting that he was promoting the rape of a 14 year-old is disingenuous at best. I also don’t understand why Palin has been excused for insinuating that Letterman was some kind of pedophile who couldn’t be trusted around a young girl. Those kinds of accusations are just as, if not more, deplorable then the comments he made. The truth is, they're both being asses here.

So the double standard here isn’t among the treatment of Palin’s family in comparison to the families of Democratic politicians, it’s among Palin herself.

think everyone
forgot the other victim:
Alex Rodriguez

except that Sarah Palin only decried Letterman for political reasons, not because she was protective of her daughter or even offended. Anyone who buys her line is suckered in, and Letterman is a sucker for apologizing.

Interesting to see how she still hasnt learned to pick her battles...tsk tsk tsk

Well, I haven't read all the comments yet, but I have a few observations:

(1) A joke about Spitzer, who solicited prostitutes, and the barely-legal daughter of a politician, really?! I don't know what possessed Letterman to go there.

(2) His closing comment was that he did not encourage 14 year olds to have "promiscuous sex." Why revert back to that language, after he had acknowledged that the joke would have been about rape if it had been about the younger daughter. I think it just goes to show how thin a line there is between what we, as a culture, regard as rape and as sex.

(3) I don't see anything problematic about Palin framing this as a feminist issue. In fact, I think it's great. The more public exposure feminism has, the better. If Palin gets more people to realize that lewd jokes like this reinforce rape culture, fantastic! If Palin gets more people to realize that motherhood is intimately connected to feminism, that's fantastic too! Will this singlehandedly defeat sexism? Hell no, but it's still a step in the right direction.

(4) As someone else pointed out, we're not really interested in the jokes directed at Palin herself. The slutty flight attendant joke was just as inappropriate as the others. It all ties in to the sexualization of Palin throughout the campain-- sex dolls, pornographies, etc were made and that's simply wrong. Yet we're willing to overlook Letterman's joke? I really don't understand this. Palin is an attractive woman, much like Michelle Obama. Is there any indication that either woman is a "slut"? Would we be willing to overlook a similar joke about Obama? I think most of us don't even believe in that label ("slut"), so why aren't we more offended when Letterman throws it at Palin?

In short, it does not matter if you agree with her politics or not-- neither she nor her daughters are sluts or sexual objects and should not be treated as such.

I would feel a little more sympathetic if Sarah Palin actually understood the jokes. Letterman's jokes were pretty tasteless, but of course the Palins had to overreact as usual because she and her husband are too stupid to understand that they would be making fun of the daughter who publicly displayed her pregnancy. Do I think it's right for people to make fun of Bristol for having sex or getting pregnant? Not really. But in Palin fashion, they freaked out and distorted what Letterman said as if to play the victim role as usual and make accusations based off of her own confusion.

I just wish the Palins would stay out of the spotlight.

Oh, and Sarah Palin accepted Letterman's apology on behalf of all women - since when did this woman start becoming the icon for the women's movement? Jesus Christ, isn't it clear that she's building herself into the next Gloria Steinem, minus the feminism and brain?

I don't consider 1950esq wifey/mommy things like Palin and her brood of piglets human. If Letterman advocated setting them on fire and I would of brought marshmallows to roast over their burning bodies.

things like Palin keep traditional women's roles and the patriarchal faiths alive and have claimed 4th wave feminism under the guise of "spirituality", do we *really* want them under the feminist tent? They have been throwing feminists under the public opinion bus since the 1960s...paybacks are a bitch.

As for those advocating the "moral high road", no thanks, it dead ends in loserville.

Perhaps if Palin limited the scope of her criticism, and if Letterman had truly apologized, and if "we" didn't qualify our denouncements by calling her children "piglets" and "sluts", this would have blown over last week, and we could have gotten on with more important issues such as health care.

good job world.

not.

Her response to Letterman's apology was such a joke. "Of course it's accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve" And this is coming from the woman who made rape victims pay for their own rape kits. I wish this woman would just dissapear

There's a lot wrong here.

Palin, who objectifies, sexualizes, and exploits her children for political gain, "defending" them? On behalf of "all young women?" Yuck.

Letterman's joke was in bad taste but I really didn't get a rape feel. My husband knocked me up, too. And he was referring to the older daughter, who had consensual sex with an athlete. Bad taste, yes. Ok for a political tool, no.

But Palin would use her daughter being kept after school for detention after chewing gum in class as a "feminist" "profamily" statement if she could figure out how.

Sarah Palin: “I’m pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I am not anti-contraception. But, yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don’t have a problem with that. That doesn’t scare me, so it’s something I would support also.”

Sounds "abstinence only!" to me. Especially that "also" part.

Yes, she's a conservative, so let's project our stereotypes onto her without regard for the facts.

Let's decide that since she has political policies with which we disagree, she is stupid, and only talks about her DAUGHTERS BEING ABUSED IN PUBLIC for politial reasons.

Echoing whoever it was that said these attitudes make me so proud to be a feminist.