The controversy sparked by Rush Limbaugh's slur of Georgetown law
student, Sandra Fluke, has brought reproductive rights to the forefront of national news and attention. The story has galvanized members from both parties raising a host of controversial issues at the center of American society. Not only has it raised questions about funding for contraceptives, but it has also raised red flags regarding women’s rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and revived one of the longstanding debate surrounding the role of government in individuals’ lives. Since Limbaugh’s offensive remarks (reprinted
below) aired publicly, virtually every press outlet has blown up, including
newspaper articles, op-eds, blogs, social media and websites all over the Internet, even the president has taken a strong stand on the issue.
The Sandra Fluke scandal reflects a continuous
struggle between liberal politics and religion in American society that has
been at the core of the debate over reproductive rights. The uproar in its wake can be seen to have
essentially disproven the post- World War II Consensus School, which maintained the
theory that Americans share a fairly small set of liberal political
values. Limbaugh’s hyperbolic rhetoric
is an extreme embodiment of the radical, religious right’s conservative opposition to
liberal values. Although most Americans may claim to believe in certain
fundamental points, Limbaugh is a present day populist and his beliefs have
proven to be can powerful “counter values” to the so-called American Creed.” However, it has also revealed that when it comes to women’s
rights, both sides are riddled with hypocrisy.
In his Op-Ed column, "One-Way Wantonness," from The New York Times, Frank Bruni responds to Paul Theroux's argument that liberals have created a double standard for they have used similar incisive rhetoric attacking Republicans in the past, but have emerged largely unscathed. However, Bruni counters this argument by pointing out the real double standard, which is the stigmatization of female promiscuity at the center of our society: “What’s a male slut?...A
role model, in some cases. In others, a presidential candidate…The lady is a
tramp.” He continues to point out that Theroux's argument “ignores the precise type of language Limbaugh turned to and assumes an even
playing field where one doesn’t exist. While both men and women are called
idiots and puppets and frauds, only women are attacked in terms of suspected
(or flat-out hallucinated) licentiousness. And only for women is there such a
brimming, insidious thesaurus of accordant pejoratives.” It is this thesaurus of derogatory terms associated with women's sexuality that has posed one of the most formidable barriers for discussing reproductive rights in a civil manner in American politics.
Three-time
divorcee, pain-killer addict, and Viagra advocate, Limbaugh’s censure of a young woman’s request to
have an aspect of her health care covered is the apotheosis of this
hypocrisy, which some people are beginning to expose. Mary Papenfuss poses the question "if Rush Limbaugh doesn't want to absorb some of the cost of female contraception as a health insurance consumer, others are wondering: Why should we pay for Limbaugh's Viagra?" Dr. Nancy Snyderman also noted in an MSNBC interview that Limbaugh "has no children, so "I assume he has used some form of contraception." Herein lies the real double standard that Bruni addresses.
In the wake of
this discussion, some women have begun to express their readiness for a female president, for as Bruni points out, many "American women have suddenly realized that their emancipation in the 21st century is not as secure as they had assumed.” In “Don’t Tread on Us,”
Maureen Dowd praises Hillary Clinton’s handling of the situation, and expresses hope that this will be the catalyst necessary to propel Clinton into the Oval
Office, for “women may need more than Obama.” Dowd’s argument does not seem farfetched when one reads Janet Heller's letter to the editor from The New York Times op-ed column: “At a tad over 80, I feel as if am being dragged back into the dark ages for women. Contraception and abortion are being played out in the political arena, where efforts to limit or deny women’s reproductive rights are being debated by those people least qualified to do so.”
Many male politicians, including President Obama have responded to incident by rallying behind women, and those politicians who have failed to respond adequately to these plebiscitary pressures or have strengthened their opposition to reproductive rights as result, namely some of the Republican G.O.P. candidates, have seen some of their poll ratings take a hit. Dowd warns, “The attempt by Republican men to wrestle American women back into chastity belts has not only breathed life into President Obama, it has roused and riled Hillary. And that could turn out to be the most dangerous thing the wildly self-destructive G.O.P. leaders have done.” However, whether women come out to vote in this election will be the true test of whether we are ready to secure the first female president.
This entire incident has proven that politicians, especially presidential candidates, must be in tune with the public mood: “The sudden return of the 'culture wars' over the rights of women and their place in society has resulted, the women said, in a distinct change in mood in the past several weeks. That shift adds yet another element of uncertainty to a race that has been defined by unpredictability, at least for Republicans.” Saulny continues, “ in a New York Times/CBS News poll last month, the president finished ahead of Mr. Romney among all women by 57 percent to 37 percent. He held much the same advantage over Mr. Santorum.”
Although Americans may only be “semi-sovereign” by classical democratic standards, it is essential that these women, who have now become swing voters in the next election, come out on Election Day and that they stay engaged in politics if we want to see any real progress made when it comes to issues related to women's health and reproductive rights. This is what President Obama emphasized by calling up Sandra Fluke and holding her up as a model to his daughters he was underscoring the importance of active political participation and an engaged citizenry.
This controversy has exposed conflicts at the core of the American politics and society. It has increased awareness about women’s rights and raised reproductive rights as a “problem” in the media demanding the public’s immediate attention. The question is now
which politicians and interest groups will capitalize before the “window”
closes. In Kirsten Kukowski's, a
spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, quote that the Republican Party is planning on tying these "kitchen table issues" of women's rights to discussions of the economy, already we can see an example of spill over as unrelated issues become attached to the same problem.
One can hope that this increased media coverage and attention will help mend the divide over the issue of reproductive rights. In "The Bad News is Good News," following the logic of the old saying that “Any publicity is good publicity,” Gail Collins argues that this event will help the nation close the gap. She writes, “The longer this goes on, the easier it will be to come up with a national
consensus about whether women’s reproductive lives are fair game for government
intrusion. And, when we do, the politicians will follow along.”
Finally, the battle is already being brought to the courts.
Gloria Allred has called for Limbaugh's criminal prosecution, citing a Florida statute that prohibits speaking “falsely
and maliciously” of any woman in regards to “her a want of chastity." It will be
interesting to see the court's ruling on this case and what
repercussions the decision will have on reproductive rights and its discussion in the media in the future.
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“What does it
say about the college coed Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and
essentially says she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It
makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to
have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She
wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make
us? We’re the pimps—the johns. No, that’s right—pimp is not the right word.”
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--Rush
Limbaugh
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