Last week, after the whole stupid Rush Limbaugh thing had reached its natural peak and after he had begun bleeding sponsors, and the Republican presidential aspirants demonstrated precisely why it would be a disaster for women if one of them were to be in the position to take out their Sharia-like religious fundamentalism on women’s rights, I started seeing Tweets and Facebook updates saying something along the following lines:

“What Rush Limbaugh said and did for three days straight was flat-out misogyny, but Bill Maher is no better most weeks. He called Sarah Palin a dumb twat! We should call everyone out when they are sexist.”

This is from Democrats and liberal-leaning observers. Firstly, who but the most hardcore lackwit Sarah Palin fan DOESN’T think she is/was a great honking weapons-grade moron? And second, why is it sexist to point it out? Surely it would be sexist to excuse her for being a woman, sexist to refrain from calling her stupid because women are allergic to the unfiltered truth and need criticism packaged in a certain way or not made at all.

Calling a woman a slut and a prostitute for daring to speak up for women’s health is very unambiguously sexist, no question. Bill Maher isn’t.

As far as I’m aware he hasn’t taken the bait this time around, but a few months ago he addressed this criticism on Real Time and I think it’s worth watching, if even just for the line “it’s not because they have breasts, it’s because they are boobs.” For some reason it’s no longer on Youtube so here’s the link.

http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xjzsf8
Bill Maher On Sarah Palin & Michele Bachmann by GWHH19