Category Archives: David Letterman

Gloria Steinem Lists Best Reasons for Men to be Involved in Feminism

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Last month Gloria Steinem addressed UT Dallas as part of their gender studies lecture series. One of the most interesting things she discussed was how much men have to gain from feminism. She actually made a top ten list a la David Letterman –

Top 10 Ways that Men Benefit from Feminism

10. Through feminism, men are liberated from stereotypes, too.

9.  Women’s skills are required to raise children. But, men have them too.

8.  Men have been shortchanged by being told to marry someone who can cook rather than someone who can be a companion. “I’m sure that men who have been trained essentially to marry their housekeepers were lonely,” Steinem said.

7.  The women’s movement can increase a man’s life by an average of four years. Steinem said that if men were to eliminate causes of death typically attributed to masculine roles, including deaths from violence, speeding and tension-related disease, their life expectancy would almost equal women’s.

6.  Boys can remain close to their mothers.

5.  If men aren’t hooked on dominance and hierarchy with other men, they are saved from the self-loathing that comes from the need for control.

4.  Laughter can once again become commonplace, even in serious rituals.  “In ancient cultures like Wilma’s, seriousness and laughter are not separate,” said Steinem.

3. Men can continue discovering talents, without being divorced from them.

2. Sex and race are intertwined. You can’t uproot one without the other.   “There’s really no such thing as being a feminist without being an anti‑racist,” she said.

1.  Eliminating the sexual caste system – the cult of femininity and masculinity – eliminates the root cause of almost all violence.

I think the natural reaction for men  is to go the defensive when they hear the term ‘feminist’. They may feel like the discussion of feminism inherently places blame on men in general – but obviously that is not true. If we were placing blame, women can be just as anti-feminist as some men. In reality, feminism often recognizes the parental rights of men and how beneficial their voices can be in our movement. Gloria’s strategy of appealing to men directly reduces any defensive reactions and promotes feminism as essential for everyone. This is definitely a list to pass on.



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Human Rights Campaign Demands Apology For Tasteless Joke Made at Transgendered Woman’s Expense

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18

The largest gay rights coalition in the United States is demanding an apology from David Letterman and The Late Show.

As we reported earlier this week, President Barack Obama appointed the first openly-transgender woman to the Commerce Department in an empowering turn of events.  Tuesday’s episode of the Late Show featured Letterman speaking about the woman’s appointment and the story, at that point, remained newsworthy and relevant.  Only then did Alan Kalter, long-term announcer for the Late Show exclaimed off-camera:

“What? Amanda? Amanda used to be a dude?”

Needless to say Kalter’s ”joke” which was intended to refer repulsion at the fact that Simpson is a transgendered woman — which, in my opinion, was really no other way to take it — fell flat for many human rights groups.

The Human Rights Campaign is now requesting a full apology from David Letterman and The Late Show for its abominable insult — what the producers themselves probably considered an “innocent” poke at humor.

What do you guys think?  A harmless dig or a perpetuation of sexual discrimination?



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Tina Fey Was a “Traditional” Bride

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And by “traditional,” I mean she saved her virginity for her husband.

Tina Fey, business bombshell and diatribe dynamo, speaks out about her personal choices on a rather revealing David Letterman show.

While current controversy regarding sexual relations swirls around Letterman and his late show, it comes as an almost welcome breath of fresh air that there still are individuals in popular society that consider their sacred choice to withhold sex to be that of a moral one.

Letterman, on his show, recounted various women who had held onto their virginities past sixteen and Tina had arrived on the list, stating that she had just about topped the record and had given it up at age twenty-four to — her husband.

Fey joked that it was either “just good, Christian values, or, being homely.”

I’d have to beg the former rather than the latter, as Tina Fey, in my opinion, is one of Hollywood’s bright, sexy and down-to-earth women and there’s nothing more appealing than a good combination of those three traits.

I, myself, was raised in a Christian home and had values instilled in me that sex was to be waited for until marriage.  However, and despite years of being told otherwise, I had lost my virginity at eighteen – which is still a pretty good wait, in my opinion, considering there are twelve and thirteen year-olds nowadays that treat sex as flippantly casual as a trip to grocery – to my high school sweetheart.  I can hardly say that I regret doing the deed prior to sanctimonious marriage, but I do give the individuals who do commit themselves to waiting some pretty mad props.

What about you ladies and gents?  At what age (unless you yet haven’t) did you give it away?  Do you think that women, particularly, are stigmatized more nowadays for losing their virginities at younger ages as opposed to men?



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