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Sandra Bernhard threatens Palin with Rape

Posted by gingerbeer25 • 9/22/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: comedy, election, palin, racism, sexism

Sandra Bernhard in a comedy routine decided to call Palin a whore and bitch. She then proceeded to threaten her with rape from her big black brothers. www.womanist-musings.com/2008/09/sandra-bernhard-racist-and-colluder.html
This is on the heels of Margaret Cho, announcing what she would like to do with her sexually www.womanist-musings.com/2008/09/margaret-cho-colluder-of-week-tap-that.htm...
At what point do we draw the line between comedy and out right racism and sexism?

User Comments

9/22/08

Anok

Where does Bernhardt advocate rape? You quoted her, but I didn't see anything remotely to support your interpretation.

While I find the language to be out of line - and offensive - I again, don't think this is a gender/sexist issue simply because it's about a woman.

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9/22/08

gingerbeer25

it is followed with a warning for Palin to stay out of Manhattan least she be "gang raped by her black brothers",

From the post.

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9/22/08

xmarks

Where do we draw the line? Everybody draws it in a different spot. I find Sandra and Margaret offensive on pretty much any topic they talk about. Therefore, I turn the channel and won't go to their concerts. Free speach allows people to say terrible things. Freedom of choice allows us to not listen to it.

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1. 9/22/08
  
  bradhart
  
  Very true we all have the freedom of choice to change the channel, but we have to be very careful how we advocate tuning people out. Dick Smothers made a very good point on the Emmy Awards last night, "Freedom of speech is worthless, when we have been denied the freedom to listen to it."
9/22/08

womenslegal

Sandra is (((((((MAD)))))))

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9/22/08

gingerbeer25

@xmarks so your position is that freedom of speech should apply to hate speech? Bernhard threatening Palin with rape is definitely hate speech and it is a call to violence.

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1. 9/22/08
  
  xmarks
  
  One, I read the excerpt that Sandra was saying the Sarah would be raped, not that Sandra was threatening to arrange a rape. Either way the comment is just wrong.
  
  Two, yes. Freedom of speech also applies to hate speech. The KKK can demonstrate. Skin heads can say all kinds of mean things. Mel Gibson can say a bunch of stupid stuff when he drinks. I don't agree with what any of them say but I defend their right to say it.
9/22/08

AngieSS

I'm still not finding the reference on the video to rape. Am I just deaf?

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9/22/08

aningeniousname

Sandra Bernhard is a comedian as in a person who exaggerates for comic effect. I mean really.

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9/22/08

womenslegal

That's what makes her ((((mad)))

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9/22/08

gingerbeer25

no sorry not on the video link but still referenced as coming from her...sorry about the confusion...the two links at the bottom of the post also refer to the rape comment.

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9/22/08

gingerbeer25

aningeniousname....there never has been or every will be anything funny about calling a woman a bitch or a whore, or announcing that she needs to be raped.

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1. 9/22/08
  
  bradhart
  
  comedy often isn't about being funny, it is as much about making a statement and while you are right about rape, the point that was trying to be made is about Palin's stance on rape. She had her police department charge victims for their own rape kits. She has made comments dating back as far as her college days according to many sources (unconfirmed but all people who knew her or have had dealings with her) that most women who get raped deserve it from dressing like they do or being provocative in some other manner. She has been accused of telling a rape victim who was fighting the $1200 charge for the kit she should shut up and just be happy god gave her a baby out of the rape while mayor and on duty in the town hall. She has openly said if her daughters were raped and knocked up she would make them have it because it is gods will. Sarah Palin has opened the doors for this line of commentary about her all by herself. Do I like it? No, but that doesn't stop it from being poignant to many.
  
  While calling someone a whore is never nice, it does often times apply and is accurate no matter what angry feminists want society to believe. She has sold herself as mayor and governor to the highest bidder too many times to say she isn't a whore. It might be a political whore rather than one of the flesh, but principal is still the same.
2. 9/22/08
  
  timethief
  
  While calling someone a whore is never nice, it does often times apply and is accurate no matter what angry feminists want society to believe. She has sold herself as mayor and governor to the highest bidder too many times to say she isn't a whore. It might be a political whore rather than one of the flesh, but principal is still the same.
  
  IMO bradhart is right on.
3. 9/22/08
  
  gmoney
  
  @ bradhart that is some deep deep shit...... you lost a lot of people on that one. way to go!!!
9/22/08

zawadi

what's racists about what Sandra B said ? I would do Sandra but she is so loud though

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9/22/08

Friday13

*cough*
www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/09/19/2008-09-19_sandra_bernhard_issues_gan...
*cough*

Ack, this darn subliminal link cough again.

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1. 9/22/08
  
  bradhart
  
  ah the NY Daily News where they are as likely to report two headed alien babies living in the sewers of NYC under ground zero as they are anything of real value.
2. 9/22/08
  
  Friday13
  
  I know nothing of the NY Daily News, really. I'm just providing an article in which she explains why she said what she said, that's all.
9/22/08

gingerbeer25

While calling someone a whore is never nice, it does often times apply and is accurate no matter what angry feminists want society to believe. She has sold herself as mayor and governor to the highest bidder too many times to say she isn't a whore. It might be a political whore rather than one of the flesh, but principal is still the same.

Calling someone an angry feminist because she decides to fight against womens oppression is patriarchal language meant to silence and control women. The idea that fighting for justice necessarily makes you angry just plays into the idea that women are meant to be submissive and docile.

Finally there is never a good time to call someone a whore. There is no make equivalent to this term and it exists for the sole purpose of controlling womens sexuality. Yeah I know that our culture celebrates she's a whore and he's a slut and this is exactly why such language is unacceptable. Why should someone be judged on what they do with their genitals?

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1. 9/22/08
  
  Anok
  
  Whore-ism doesn't revolve only around genitals. Brad gave an excellent example. And men are called whores too. Lest we forget that some men are whores and prostitutes.
  
  But, as usual, this is a non issue (other than some rude name calling) that will be blown up into some "fight for equal rights for women".
  
  *shakes head*
2. 9/22/08
  
  legbamel
  
  "The idea that fighting for justice necessarily makes you angry just plays into the idea that women are meant to be submissive and docile."
  
  Ah, but you're not fighting for justice. You're fighting to control other people's words and actions because you find them offensive.
9/22/08

voodooKobra

Meh, non-issue. Let the Secret Service do their job and move on with your life.

Anyone horny enough to try to rape a VP nominee is just looking to get their nuts tazered anyway.

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1. 9/23/08
  
  womenslegal
  
  OMG -- that's very true!
9/22/08

gingerbeer25

Brad gave an excellent example. And men are called whores too. Lest we forget that some men are whores and prostitutes.

What he is ignoring is that statement is qualified...male slut or male whore therefore the term whore or slut specifically applies to women.

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1. 9/22/08
  
  timethief
  
  @gngerbeer25
  I like you and want to tell you in the nicest way possible that it may be a good idea if you take a deep breathe and consider selecting your issues more carefully. It seems to me that almost every week you are posting these "non-issues" to the forum under the feminist label and getting all worked up about them. Over and over members disagree with your viewpoint but you seem to be unable to accept their reasons for disagreeing.
  
  I'm with Anok on this. But, as usual, this is a non issue (other than some rude name calling) that will be blown up into some "fight for equal rights for women".
  *shakes head*
2. 9/22/08
  
  bradhart
  
  whore needs no qualifier to be accurate. If your mindset makes it a single sex term then the problem is with you and not the word. George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove are whores of the highest order, not only did they sell themselves and the positions they hold to the highest bidder, they have done it with the entire country and we are all getting screwed because of it.
9/23/08

Theresa111

Sandra, Margaret and (hate to admit it) Bill Maher, have gone absolutely too far over the edge. Inasmuch as I do not agree with McCain's VP pick and that I personally do not believe Sarah Palin is qualified for the position, she is still a person who deserves better than these horrible utterances.

I must admit that I have not always spoken kindly about her (S.P.) myself, but these ugly, vile and repulsive comments are extremely horrendous.

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9/23/08

TheBigRuski

Oh ya...the woman "they" love to hate!

How anyone can even argue in support of this "comedy" is amazing!

At least with Bush, they just said he's dumb....over and over and over again.

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9/23/08

satijournal

Look at some of the things Ann Coulter has said over the years. And she's a regular on all the right-wing talk shows!

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9/23/08

Hucky

When Ann Coulter talks about the merciless liberal savages and their known political stance of Infanticide for the sake of their slow motion Marxist inssurection when has she been wrong?

On the other hand Sarah Palin is attacked without any reason or logic, the cold blood of the bleeding heart Liberals just overflows when A woman makes the right choices in life.

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9/23/08

cooper

Having seen Bernhardt some time ago when I lived in NY I found her painful to watch. Is she demeaning women? Of course, more with the hair and Walmart clothing comment than anything she is putting herself out there as better than "that women", women do this to women all the time.

Women sometime can be women's own worse enemy. The funny thing about this particular show of her's is that if You look around at the commentary on it you find a lot of hate speak about Bernhardt, some very vicious and more than vulgar, comments how men want to burn her vagina and so on. It is one big perpetual circle of ugliness toward humanity in general from people on both sides of the coin from Limbaugh to Bernhardt, it doesn't start or end with this particular comedienne or pundit, but runs full circle through all ideologies.

I don't find this kind of thing particularly anti- women (she was clearly in that statement references Palin stand on no abortion for rape or incest in a vulgar way), but I find her whole routine anti human being. That people in the name of comedy, art or talk radio – often due to their own pain, or their own history — perform or pontificate by turning that pain outward in hateful vulgar ways to the point where much of this crap does not make any social comment it just degrades the human race.

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