[Reported by Thinkprogress.org]
Last night, Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) daughter, Meghan McCain, appeared on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, where she continued to criticize Ann Coulter. On her radio show today, Laura Ingraham responded to McCain's critique of far right conservatives, saying that she is "just another Valley Girl gone awry." In a mocking faux-Valley Girl voice, Ingraham made fun of McCain's body, joking that she didn't get a "role in the Real World" because "they don't like plus-sized models":
MCCAIN (on MSNBC): And I think there's an extreme on both parties and I hate extreme. I don't understand. I have friends that are the most radically conservative and radically liberal people possibly ever and we all get along. We can find a middle ground.
INGRAHAM (mocking): Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say.
Listen here:
In the past, McCain has said that she is "proud" of her body. Last summer, she told Glamour, "I got to a point where I was like, I just don't care. You think I'm fat? Fine. I don't care how much you weigh."
Transcript after the jump.
INGRAHAM (mocking): Ok, Meghan. Do you think that anyone would be talking to you if you weren't kind of cute and you weren't the daughter of John McCain? Or do you just think that they would just think that you were just another Valley Girl gone awry?
MADDOW: You picked a fight with somebody who's definitely going to fight back.
MCCAIN: Yeah. Well, if it was, you know, if it was too hot in the kitchen, I'd get out. I know what I'm doing and I know that I'm creating, she probably will respond, she already has, but I'm sure she'll respond harder, but this dialogue should take place. It should. I think that you know, often times and I think it's relevant because I am a Republican. I still consider myself a Republican and that's why it's relevant because I'm someone within the party.
INGRAHAM (mocking): How long before she totally totally abandons the Daily Beast and makes it official at the Huffington Post?
MCCAIN: And I think there's an extreme on both parties and I hate extreme. I don't understand. I have friends that are the most radically conservative and radically liberal people possibly ever and we all get along. We can find a middle ground.
INGRAHAM (mocking): Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say.
Ingraham attacked McCain in an appearance on Fox and Friends earlier this week as well, saying "Our economic lives are in a shamble, Megan: We don't really care about your dating life."
I don't care what political party you're in, what's with attacking each other on SIZE? Megan McCain may not be my bff but I'm not about to mock her and call her fat. I respect her views, and especially agree with her on the ridiculousness of extreme party politics. Ingraham better grow up and start acting her age, not like a fucking four year old.
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I'm not surprised by it anymore but there's still a burning in the pit of my stomach everytime someone attempts to dismiss a woman's opinion by a reference to her appearance.
I don't agree with McCain or Coulter or Ingraham but I'm not going to line my dissenting opinion with negative commentary on their appearance. Why can't peopel just, you know, discuss the issues that are being raised?
Of course, this is just an attempt by Ingraham to insert herself into a public disagreement to increase her own profile and/or ratings. McCain didn't even mention her and I doubt that Coulter needs anyone to fight her battles for her.
Wow. They attack their own too. It's like NatGeo's "Wild" except in politics. You know people like Laura can't defend themselves when they have to resort to cheap Bill-O like shots to make themselves feel good.
Ingraham's antics are textbook from the Rush Limbaugh School.... crazy = media attention
A sure sign that you don't have any good rebuttal to an argument is making some inane slam about the appearance of the other, especially if she is female.
Media stunt or not, I hate when women do this to other women. It just gives men license to do the same. Which is disturbing, given the listener/viewership demographic of programs like Laura Ingraham's.
Yup, stupid statement, and I agree with all that. But one thing that kinda irks me about some of the posts on the site:
"I don't care what political party you're in, what's with attacking each other on SIZE? Megan McCain may not be my bff but I'm not about to mock her and call her fat. I respect her views, and especially agree with her on the ridiculousness of extreme party politics. Ingraham better grow up and start acting her age, not like a fucking four year old."
#1) Megan may not be my BFF
#2) I respect her views...agree with her.
When it's something that's related to a conservative/Republican issue or woman, why do people need to hint at "oh she's a crazy conservative with weird ideas but she's still a woman!" Shouldn't that not even matter?
Isn't it a DUH that a woman doesn't have to be your BFF to be treated with respect? And do you have to respect her views to claim that she was attacked?
I don't know if I'm making myself clear here, it's just in posts that talk about defending women who happen to be conservative, I always feel like the writer is saying DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER I AM NOT LIKE THEM JUST IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING along with their posts. Isn't defending a woman from a stupid sexist argument, well, defending a woman from a stupid sexist argument?
Hi there.
That post was not from the site. I wrote that comment, since, well, this is my post. It's from the feministing community.
I understand your point but I have to disagree with you big time. I certainly didn't mean for it to come across as DISCLAIMER I AM NOT LIKE HER or whatever. I WASN'T hinting at her being "a crazy conservative". What I'm saying is despite what you feel for anyone regarding their politics, personality, etc. it's an incredible low to attack them on their SIZE and LOOKS. I was saying that just because someone isn't something like your best friend doesn't give you license to insult them on such a level. If you're going to attack them, do so intelligently such as pointing out the flaws in their arguement. This is what Ingraham didn't do. THAT was my point and I hope you understand it better.
I know that this is the community, but it did make it onto the front page...
I agree that this post isn't so in-your-face with what I was complaining about, but the thing is that I was making a point that when feminists/liberals are talking about conservatives (and vice versa, I might add), on this site included, that this person's opinion of the other person ALWAYS has to be included.
To challenge the point that:
"If you're going to attack them, do so intelligently such as pointing out the flaws in their arguement. This is what Ingraham didn't do. THAT was my point and I hope you understand it better."
Well, why wasn't that just said? Why did YOUR view of McCain have to factor into this? Why couldn't this just have been said about Laura's behavior?
I understand where you're going with this, and I don't mean to attack you because I do agree with the original message in the post. But reading community and regular posts on this and other blogs, it's a trend to see, for example "Sarah Palin is a crazy idiot but those people are morons for stereotyping her!" Yes, you didn't post that, but I just wonder why we need to make statements saying "I agree/disagree with this person, but (insert feminist argument here)"
Ahh. I don't know. I'm repeating myself.
In nutshell:
This post is about sexism of Ingraham towards McCain.
Does it really matter whether they are conservative or you agree with them or not? Any woman shouldn't be spoken to/of in this manner.
The end.
Fair enough. Point taken. :)
I'm going back to pretending that stuff like this doesn't exist in a moment, because, I swear, it's the only way to stay sane. But I'll just say -- to the extent that I wish I didn't have to deal with a world where adults in positions of power respond to each other by saying essentially "Yeah well... you're FAT!" -- as much as I don't want that, I even moreso don't want to deal with that when the person being called "fat" basically looks like a saner and healthier Lindsay Lohan in the first place. I mean, wow, we (as a society) need serious help, guys, if we are warped enough not just to think "you're fat" is so very damning but also that someone who looks like this does not "look a certain way" enough...
Wow, she is pretty. Really pretty.
That is all.
that is unbelievably mean. i'm an obama girl but i valued mccain as a moderate before sarah palin hijacked his campaign....and his daughter really expresses something i can completely agree with. i feel bad for her. kudos to her for speaking out on such an important point in politics now and for shame on you laura ingraham for pulling a limbaugh
It doesn't surprise me. I often read Free Republic for giggles and what they have been saying about Megan is far nastier.
And on the other side Jon Stewart made a those fat women on the View joke recently. Very disappointing.
This shit is pretty much universal in U.S. culture. When a woman steps out of line or does something another person may not like, the first thing that gets attacked is her appearance. It doesn't matter that most of the time the area of disagreement has absolutely nothing to do with looks. Whether the woman is a politician, a singer, an athlete, a computer programmer, or a classmate, attacks are nearly always leveled first at the way they look rather than a judgment of their abilities in a particular field. Occasionally you hear these kinds of snide remarks against men but they are far rarer and don't hold the same weight. We live in a culture that screams at us constantly that the most valuable thing we can be is beautiful, so criticism of appearance is the ultimate way to cut someone down. As long as women are valued most for their appearance (and other qualities that are structured to benefit men), critics will always have a go-to way to claim that a woman has 'failed' despite whatever other success she may have had.
The stupid thing is that this is done constantly when there is room for completely valid criticism. How often have you heard people say that Ann Coulter is a horse-face or that she looks like a man? I have heard this regularly from men and women alike who consider themselves progressive and unsexist. Why can't we simply address the flaws in the things she says? (Or better yet, just ignore her because she does it for publicity. But for the sake of my argument imagine that she's not being intentionally inflammatory)
This is all manner of awful. For one thing, it is indeed a shameless attack on someone based on something other than their actual argument. So fail.
and then it sells the idea that women specifically should be lambasted for the way they look. more so than any other group, or any other quality a woman possesses. more fail.
and I watched Meghan McCain's argument on Maddow, she's a smart, brave woman who's deciding to put herself out there and try to save her party from the likes of Ann Coulter (and Ingraham, frankly), and get them to a more moderate, sensible place. It's a shame she said she won't run for office.
And for goodness sake, I realize this is sort of buying into the cliche myself, but Meghan McCain looks healthy. So it pisses me off that along with all the other connotative garbage in Ingraham's juvenile argument, it makes use of this societal ideal that one must be size 0, otherwise you are fat. And it's rediculous and damaging to young women's (and young men's) body image and actual medical health.
Actually, as a follow up -- let's ignore the "plus-size" comment for a moment, and look at the "auditioning for the Real World" image. I mean, you know, maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but could it be that stuff like that is what makes your party look even more terribly hostile to young people than it already does?
Ingraham reminds me of girls I steered clear of in middle school. How sad.