The entire nation has been talking about the new legislation that will require all private health-care providers to cover the cost of birth control without women having to pay a co-pay or deductible.
Everyone has something to say about it but one commentator has drawn attention to himself by lashing out at young women. After calling college student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for supporting a woman’s right to birth control, Rush Limbaugh lost over 50 advertisers including Netflix, Allstate Insurance and AutoZone (The Atlantic Wire has a full list of pulled advertisers, including the company’s comments on their decisions).
This hasn’t stopped Limbaugh from continuing to make misogynistic comments about young women with college degrees. Yesterday, Limbaugh spoke out against Tracie McMillan, a young writer – Limbaugh referred to her as an “authorette” – who won the prestigious James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journal for her book “The American Way of Eating.” Why? According to Limbaugh, McMillian is part of a new movement of “young single white woman,” who are “overeducated,” but not intelligent, and are hurting our country. Limbaugh cited McMillan as a prime example. According to the official show transcript, McMillan should be faulted for attending college and being successful.
Limbaugh concluded yesterday’s show by saying, “McMillan, the author of this book, seems to be just out of college and already she has been showered with awards, including the 2006 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. She has a B.A. from New York University in political science. She’s a political scientist. She’s a journalist. She has received awards for social justice journalism, and she has a book out on food justice.” He seems to be taking issue with McMillian investigating and reporting on an important social issue outside of the words written on her college diploma.
By the way, Limbaugh commented repeatedly throughout his show that the current “war on women” doesn’t exist. His insistence that a war on women is “hilarious…it’s so contrived. It’s so forced. It feels so unnatural. ‘Cause there is no war on women,” only highlights the fact that by citing a young woman’s marital status in a triad against her for being a successful journalist could be classified as an act of war.