Really, O'Reilly?

O'Reilly mocks Dem Maxine Waters for wearing 'James Brown wig'
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said Tuesday he "didn't hear a word" Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said during recent comments on the House floor because he was focused on "the James Brown wig." 
Seriously. Watch it:


This right here? Is why women still believe we are not taken seriously. This is why we need loud feminism. Here is a powerful woman being ignored and treated flippantly because a random man (and there are few men as random as O'Reilly) was so focused on the way she looks. She doesn't look unattractive, inappropriate, or clownish - she looks professional, which she is - but O'Reilly can't seem to help himself: the man's eyes somehow stop his ears and brain from working. Although, let's be clear, I don't particularly care if she was Deadpool ugly in clown make-up and a tutu: she should be heard. She should be taken seriously. 

That a loud man with a large audience can treat an elected legislator this way and be expected to get off with a weak apology is disgusting; but do you think women without her level of power and visibility fare better? Of course not. 

It's such a widely accepted setup — intelligent woman talks; people stare at her hair/dress/legs/baby bump — that we even sneak it into children's entertainment. Remember "Lego Movie," when the fierce, fearless Wyldstyle is talking to Lego Emmet (who harbors a secret crush on her) and all he hears is, "blah blah blah proper name place name back-story stuff."
Ha ha ha. I can't hear you. You're too beautiful. Or you're not beautiful enough. Or you don't fit my teeny-tiny definition of beautiful. Something about beauty, which is a woman's duty to uphold, above all else. 
It might be 'the way things are', but it's not the way things ought to be. And if men are so distracted by the way a woman looks that their brains turn off - well, the problem ain't with the women.

Maxine Waters, herself, responded beautifully to O'Reilly's idiocy, as you might expect:
“Let me just say this: I'm a strong black woman and I cannot be intimidated. I cannot be undermined. I cannot be thought to be afraid of Bill O'Reilly or anybody,” Waters said on MSNBC's “All In with Chris Hayes.”  
“And I'd like to say to women out there everywhere: Don't allow these right-wing talking heads, these dishonorable people, to intimidate you or scare you. Be who you are. Do what you do. And let us get on with discussing the real issues of this country.”
That said, I will admit, my own first response was more along the lines of  CNN commentator Angela Rye's tweet:

I don't know about you, but I could use a pretty picture:



Links!
  • Library Land
  • Health, Science, & Technology
    • First Drug for Aggressive MS Nets FDA Approval  "The drug, called ocrelizumab, takes a different approach than the more than a dozen other MS drugs on the market. It blocks certain immune system cells called B cells that Hauser’s lab discovered play a critical role in the disease. The other drugs target the immune system’s T cells, long thought to be the main culprit in MS."
    • Congress Overturns Internet Privacy Regulation "The House of Representatives has gone along with the Senate and voted 215-205 to overturn a yet-to-take-effect regulation that would have required Internet service providers — like Comcast, Verizon and Charter — to get consumers' permission before selling their data. President Trump is expected to sign the rollback, according to a White House statement.... ISPs collect huge amounts of data on the websites people visit, including medical, financial and other personal information. The FCC regulation would have required ISPs to ask permission before selling that information to advertisers and others, a so-called opt-in provision." But, no - now your ISP can sell that information without your knowledge or permission. I mean, maybe you don't care who knows where you are or are planning on going; maybe you don't mind people snooping through your browser history; but are you really OK with who-knows-who digging through your medical information? And, if so - why??
      • OH, WELL IN THAT CASE… "Anti-government invective paired with pro-business propaganda has produced some monumentally strange results in the belief systems of many Americans." So very true.
      • Congress Votes to Sell your Dignity "Privacy is dignity. We all struggle in our lives, but at least we have the agency to bring our best self to work or to school or to church. We have the capacity to reinvent ourselves before our next job interview without our every decision brought under scrutiny. We have the ability to grow as individuals without forever being haunted by a former online gambling addiction or involvement in an ugly chat forum. Even if we have nothing at all to hide, do we really want telecoms to be selling details about our dating histories, our every insecure search query, our every file download?"
      • Data Privacy: Is Trump's FCC Redefining Public Interest as Business Interest? Short answer: Yes. The real question is, what are we going to do about it? "Media is more than just our window on the world. It’s how we talk to each other, how we engage with our society and our government. Without a media environment that serves the public’s need to be informed, connected and involved, our democracy and our society will suffer."
  • International
    • Scottish Parliament passes motion in favor of referendum on independence "Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, wants the referendum held within two years. In such a scenario, Britain would be engaged in negotiations to leave the European Union — a process often referred to as Brexit — while, simultaneously, Scotland would vote in a referendum on independence from Britain."
    • Speaking of Brexit: Brexit: 50 things the UK needs to do after triggering Article 50  "Brexit officially began Wednesday after UK Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50, kicking off Britain's withdrawal from the European Union and the painstaking legislative to-do list that comes with it."
    • We Cannot Bomb Our Way to Peace in Mosul  "The awful thing is that we know … this will never work. We cannot bomb our way to peace. When the airstrikes stop and all the bodies are finally pulled from the rubble, Mosul will be left with destruction, not harmony.  In this conflict, we can’t even bomb our way to victory, because each airstrike that takes innocent human life or blasts a hole in someone’s home in Iraq or in Syria simply plants the seeds of future extremism."
  • U.S. News
    • Ronald Reagan understood ‘the humanities teach us who we are’ — what’s happening today? "'The humanities teach us who we are and what we can be,' [Reagan] said. 'They lie at the very core of the culture of which we’re a part, and they provide the foundation from which we may reach out to other cultures. The arts are among our nation’s finest creations and the reflection of freedom’s light.'"
    • House Science Committee Calls on Alt-Science to Drive Policy  "Today, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing that will frame climate change as a debate, by including the field’s most prominent skeptics as witnesses. It also will explore the hostility faced by those who come forward with views outside the mainstream. In addition, a bill that would allow for greater industry participation in U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board, which can strongly influence regulations on industry, is expected to pass the House this week." Gross incompetence and corporate greed strike again. Actually, that appears to be the very heart of this administration.
    • Montana Tribe Sues Trump Administration for Lifting Coal Moratorium  "The Northern Cheyenne Tribe, located in southern Montana, said the administration lifted the moratorium without hearing the tribe's concerns about the impact the coal-leasing program has on the tribe, its members, and lands."
    • Seattle Sues Trump Administration Over Threat to ‘Sanctuary’ Cities  "Seattle Mayor Ed Murray told reporters the Constitution forbade the federal government from pressuring cities, 'yet that is exactly what the president’s order does. Once again, this new administration has decided to bully.' 'Things like grants helping us with child sex trafficking are not connected to immigration,' Murray said, adding: 'It is time for cities to stand up and ask the courts to put an end to the anxiety in our cities and the chaos in our system.'"
    • White House forgets to read the article, shares parody lampooning its cruel budget "If this is a tradition to include a parody lampooning a key item of the president’s agenda in these newsletters at the end of the week in lieu of a 'casual Fridays' dress code change, it will become evident next week."
    • Devin Nunes Could Be Facing an Ethics Probe for Spilling Secrets  "House rules compel Congress to ‘investigate any unauthorized disclosure of intelligence.’ That’s what the intel chair seems to have done when he talked about Team Trump and foreign surveillance."
    • O'Reilly isn't the only man having issues with women recently: ‘Stop Shaking Your Head’: Sean Spicer Lashes Out at Reporter April Ryan 

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