inappropriate

warning: long post

Count me as one of the “humorless feminists” who can’t “get over” grope-gate.  This is mainly because I’m increasingly infuriated at the defensiveness I’m reading from (mostly) men over Favreau’s “private” behavior and our societal imperative to leave him alone to act out occasionally.  If you haven’t been following NYC Weboy’s “debate” with Adam Serwer at TAPPED (one, two, three, four, and five), do it now.

Lest you think we’re making any progress in opening people’s eyes to this case of sexual harrassment and the creation of a hostile work environment (not to mention how Favreau’s terrible judgment defies the stated essence of Obama’s candidacy and governance), before I continue with my rant check out this smattering of comments from the peanut gallery of liberal dudez who just wish we’d leave them the f— alone and spare them our puritanical judgy-ness – and didn’t you know, Clinton’s a racist anyway, and don’t we have more important things to gripe about,  like world peace and hunger, or something???

Favreau’s behavior might not be perfect, but there’s 10 million other more serious issues to worry about first. Posted by: Richard Cownie | December 10, 2008 12:49 PM

– –

This clearly shows Favreau is an immature jerk, a fool, and unfit to hold any government office let alone have been such a crucial member of the Obama team. There is no excuse for this. Posted by: Mike | December 10, 2008 2:59 PM

Jeez Mike. Little wound up today?  Posted by: Chris | December 10, 2008 3:43 PM

– –

But vote for and support a trillion dollar illegal war of aggression that kills millions and you get a job as chief diplomat. Oh please won’t someone think of the cardboard cutouts! Posted by: Fledermaus | December 10, 2008 4:27 PM

– –

Fire him. Of course a standard so ridiculously high will be set no one will ever again be fit to serve in any capacity, but it seems nothing short of that will do for some of you. – Bob

– –

What a pitiful non-story all created by petty and bitter people, either too PC or sad losers. The totally uncalled attack on Jon Favreau is just a weak attempt to try and embarrass Our President Elect Barack Obama. Jon Favreau is a very talented young guy and it is clear how well he has and does work with Barack Obama, I have followed Jon since his days at Holy Cross College and working on the John Kerry Campaign and he has much to offer and will do at The White House. All this petty discussion when young children are suffering on Zimbabwe with Cholera and people World Wide have huge debts and face losing job and homes this Christmas and the Few see this as so important.  Posted by: John B Sheffield | December 12, 2008 2:10 AM

– –

Racism is way worse then sexism. Not every woman experiences sexism, BUT anyone with a skin color other then white will or probably has experienced racism. This being the case, if impacts, men, women and children. 2 totally different situations all together. Posted by: jc | December 11, 2008 2:45 PM

– –

That he gets to ride the “boys will be boys” train on this one while Clinton is still implied as a racist for a clearly off-hand remark is – to say the least – odd.   Posted by: Joan | December 11, 2008 3:21 PM

Should he be fired? He cupped the breast, but did not tweak the areola. What’s the standard? Finally, “Sexism is one of the ways the world has gone wrong”. “has gone wrong”? Joan, please re-read your bible. There has been progress. Posted by: red | December 11, 2008 6:05 PM

I have to admit, I’m chagrined by how much this particular storyline is bothering me, given the ubiquity of sexism during the election. (Could the comments above be anymore predictable?)  But silly me, I am FLOORED at the circling of the wagons around Favreau by mostly people who don’t know him but wish to retain their own right to harrassment and degrading behavior behind closed doors, as well as the resorting to pillorying Clinton as someone despicable so why do we give a sh*t anyway?

One of the powerful aspects for me of supporting Clinton this year, and of chronicles like Shakesville’s Hillary Sexism Watch, was seeing sexist and misogynistic behavior leveled at someone I wasn’t sure I liked way back when.  It was a very powerful juxtaposition, witnessing such high profile, undeniable, systemic sexism against a woman considered so polarizing and conniving (though that’s part of the sexism meme) that for most of us our brains are oriented to blame the victim and dismiss the behavior.  No doubt I came to embrace Clinton in part because of what she took on as a woman running for POTUS; her own actions and responses to the climate were almost irrelevant.  It was seeing what was leveled at her from society that was shockingly alarming for me.

It seems the Favreau Fan Club is undergoing a similar collective identity attack.  How dare you question these white dudes and their freedom to mime sexual violence against a woman and elected leader of our country?  How dare you consider brazenly disseminating that behavior in public (via Facebook) a relinquishment of their right to privacy?  How dare you demand this golden (white) boy change his behavior to respect the rights and bodies of women?  How dare you expect President-Elect Obama to sanction this kind of behavior?  How dare you expect Favreau to conduct himself at all times as someone who is in the public eye, as someone who is a public servant?  Get a godd*mn life!  He didn’t grope you!  (And he totally wouldn’t want to anyway, you’re so freakin’ angry and hostile.  Hell, maybe if you got felt up once in awhile you’d relax.)

In my Google reader, which has only slightly fewer blogs than those listed to the right, there have been only 16 posts on grope-gate.   16 – and from only 12 blogs, which includes the right-wing Redstate and The Corner.  Just to give you some perspective on how many blog posts come in during the week, I have 274 posts on Blagojevich alone, the majority written in the last three days. Turns out people just don’t think grope-gate is important; hell, people actually find it an inappropriate topic for discussion.  Don’t you know Obama has a country to run????