Imus in Oblivion
Is this the monkey who insulted the Rutgers women's basketball team?
Oh, sorry. That's insulting to the monkey. Here's the scarecrow in question. Tell me how a man that looks this gross gets away with insulting anybody's looks.
Oh, sorry again. I can tell you: he's in the entertainment industry.I'm white, so maybe that's why the sexist aspect of Imus's idiotic comments struck me more, but it's also that I spent many years in Hollywood, working in comedy, and what Imus said brought back lots of memories.
In the world of television sitcoms, women are disposable and mostly valued for their looks. Hence, the many years of Imus being an idiot, making all manner of comments about women, people of other races, etc., and his getting away with it. In comedy, anything that makes anyone laugh is fair game and you're not supposed to get all politically correct about it.
Women rarely rose to the top on the shows I worked on. Sitcoms are a male bastion, giving us the finest in fart, dick and boob jokes. I sat through many years of being in the room with the writers working on scripts where wife beating, insults and cries of "lesbian feminist!" anytime you stood up for women were rampant.
It's from this background and the comfort of his fraternity of wealthy entertainment industry a**holes that Imus grew. The thing that struck me most obviously was that these are the kind of comments Imus must make all the time off-microphone for them to have so easily slipped off his disgusting serpent tongue that day.
The lesson here is: all those rich white guys in Hollywood need to get out more and GET FRIENDS OF DIFFERENT RACES. Really, boys, try it sometime. Once you get to know other types of people, you'll find those nasty thoughts don't even pop into your mind and, consequently, don't flow out of your mouth.
The entrenched power of rich white guys in Hollywood is so strong that they're used to getting away with this unquestioned. Imus's look of angry surprise all week was fitting. He's The Man. He's not used to getting slapped down - and I'll admit that it's unfair for him to get this punishment while truly evil people like Rush Limbaugh are still on the air. I hope Rush is right, that "they're coming for me next."
The Rutgers women stood up for themselves and for being judged not by their looks but by their accomplishments - something Hollywood may never learn. Just watching the news media sexism as reporters age is enough to bring this home. The parade of bad facelifts - from Andrea Mitchell to Katie Couric to every other woman on the news - is almost as frightening as Imus's wrinkled face. You can be bald, fat and ugly in both news and TV comedy if you're male - and you still get the pretty skinny women! That's the Hollywood reality.
So I thank those young female stars at Rutgers. They showed guts and class this week to us all.
Now somebody go throw a bucket of water on Imus and melt him, please.
posted by dcnative @ 4:19 PM
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