The Media Research Center isn't a big fan of women who play sports, and it's concerned that women's lingerie might not be slutty enough. Also, Tim Graham got ratioed for trying to slut-shame Monica Lewinsky.
By Terry Krepel Posted 12/29/2023
Tim Graham
The Media Research Center is a little too concerned with masculinity, the corollary of which is that it's also a little too concerned about women not being sufficiently feminine.
MRC sports blogger John Simmons may have hidden his Lia Thomas transphobia behind a concern for women's sports, but that doesn't mean he actually likes women playing sports. Simmons had a meltdown in an April 2022 post because the makers of Cracker Jack introduced a "Cracker Jill" variant:
If you've ever gone to a professional baseball game, you'll likely end up buying a package of Cracker Jacks. But the next time you go, you might have to get the woke version of this iconic snack.
To celebrate "the women who break down barriers in sports," Frito-Lay announced they will be donating $200,000 to the Women's Sports Foundation and that the mascot for the caramel-coated popcorn will now be "Cracker Jill," with women cartoon characters from five different ethnicities replacing the big, bad white male on the snack's packaging.
That's strike one for stupidity.
Simmons then oddly invoked his hatred of Thomas to justify his hatred of a delicious snack:
Okay, but can we really celebrate women's sports if we no longer keep strict boundaries between men and women in sports?
After all, Lia Thomas just decided he wanted to be a female and has thrown women's collegiate swimming into chaos. Every time a state passes a bill to keep men from being in women's sports, society erupts in disbelief that someone would have the common sense to maintain a boundary between the genders.
So as it turns out, society at large really does not care about women, and therefore the snack company cannot properly celebrate them.
Sorry Frito-Lay, that's three strikes you're out at the old woke virtue-signaling game.
In a post the following month, Simmons mocked a woman playing men's baseball under the headline "Some Crying In Baseball?"
Last night was a historic night for the MLB’s partner league, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB), but for the wrong reasons.
In a game between the Staten Island Ferryhawks and the Gastonia Honey Hunters, Kelsie Whitmore became the first woman to start in an ALPB game, batting ninth for the Ferryhawks and going 0-2 while being hit by a pitch. Whitmore has five prior years of experience pitching for the U.S. women’s baseball team.
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Sorry to be the one to rain on the parade, but hopefully we only see men in the MLB as long as it is in existence.
Men should have leagues of their own where they compete against other top male performers, and the same goes for women. If Whitmore is so concerned about competing at the highest level, then she should find the highest level possible for women in this sport.
Blurring the lines between the genders in any sport only leads to confusion and ultimately, nothing beneficial. We have to ask ourselves why we think a woman participating in a male sports league would be a good thing. Is it for the sake of “progress,” which is today’s codeword for breaking down basic perceptions of reality and how to keep a society functioning, or rather because we think that women earn an extra level of value by competing with men? Both of these motives are extremely harmful to society at large, and applauding people like Whitmore for their actions only makes the problem worse.
The analysis and only logical take on these situations might seem repetitive and overused, but it bears repeating because apparently people still need to hear it.
Just like a man to mock women for being too emotional and insisting they can't do a job as well as a man.
A few days later, a post by Simmons dismissed female athletes who have opinions on abortion that don't conform to his right-wing views as nothing but "lesbians and hardcore feminists" who should be ignored because their sports aren't popular:
The potential overturn of Roe v Wade as a national precedent has predictably drawn countless knee-jerk reactions from left-wing crazies who want to keep the practice of murdering babies going strong.
Some of these radicals are in the sports world in all the places you’d expect to find them: the WNBA, former Olympians … and of course, Billie Jean King.
In no way is it surprising that a league full of lesbians and hardcore feminists would be against anything that goes against “a woman’s right to choose,” and it is even less surprising that the WNBA is making it a priority to use their platform to advocate for voting for politicians that support abortion.
It might be effective too, if more than a handful of people had ever even seen a WNBA game.
Simmons went on to lecture: "It’s not a woman’s right to 'choose' to kill a baby for convenience, it is murder cloaked as 'healthcare.'" If abortion is murder, Simmons should be demanding that women be imprisoned and even executed for having abortions, but he was silent about that logical endpoint.
Less slutty lingerie?
The MRC is also concerned that women's lingerie isn't slutty enough. Veronica Hays expressed her concern in a June 2021 post:
The Golden Age of Victoria’s Secret and the “Angels” has come to an end. Women everywhere will be excited to learn that the likes of lesbian Megan Rapinoe and a transgender woman are the brand’s new image. And if you don’t think that's sexy, you’re a bigot.
Victoria’s Secret has been in decline for some time now. Poor business management, scandalous associations between the owner Les Wexner and the late pedophile Jeffery Epstein, changing sensibilities with the toxic #Metoo movement, and a global pandemic the corporate giant has been faced with a plethora of internal and external issues.
Now, in their darkest hour, Victoria’s Secret is desperately grasping at a complete brand turn-around. Inclusivity is Victoria’s Secret do-or-die strategy. The classic allure, style, and femininity of their products are likely to be sacrificed in this endeavor. The iconic Victoria’s Secret Angels are now considered out of vogue, backwards, and unappealing to women’s modern feminist sensibilities.
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Apparently Megan Rapinoe, the World Cup Soccer Champion and rabid leftist is what women want. The soccer star will be joined by actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech, freestyle skier Eileen Gu, Brazilian transgender model Valentina Sampaio, plus-size model Paloma Elesser, and journalist Amanda de Cadenet in this rebrand attempt. Selecting a transwoman (a fake woman) to represent feminine beauty is deeply insulting to women everywhere.
Thank the Lord and His great mercies though, as none of these characters will actually model lingerie. Rather, they comprise Victoria’s Secret’s new initiative called “The VS Collective” -- “leading icons” and changemakers” to “shape the future of the brand.”
Remember, the MRC absolutely despises Rapinoe for committing the offenses of not being heterosexual and for having criticized Donald Trump. And we all know how much the MRC hatestransgenderpeople.
Hays was bizarrely amused by a fellow hateful right-winger claiming that Victoria's Secret was targeting "the ugly commie demographic," then concluded by whining, "Usually, the saying goes 'go woke, go broke,' but in this case, Victoria’s Secret is broke and now going woke as if that is the best strategy towards renewing its success."
Interestingly, this isn't the only instance of Hays complaining about a disturbing lack of sluttiness in lingerie. A few days later, she attacked a brand that isn't even sold in America:
Ladies, is your underwear down with the struggle? Err, we mean, does your intimate apparel broadcast your politics? Err ...
British retail giant Marks & Spencer is honoring the memory of BLM Martyr George Floyd by adding five new shades to its collection of neutral or nude-colored underwear. This “inclusive” range is inspired by the “global conversation on racial inequality” prompted by the tragic death of Floyd while in police custody.
M&S is adding darker shades to the collection bearing gemstone names like Topaz, Amber, and Rich Quartz, adding further significance to “things that are special and precious.” Up to this point, the collection has focused too much on paler complexions.
Yes, a white woman is complaining that women's lingerie is being made in colors that reflect non-white people. She referenced her Victoria's Secret post, then sneered, "Let’s hope it backfires for both."
Tim Graham's slut-shaming failure
MRC executive Tim Graham thought he was being cute. After Monica Lewinsky, the inadvertent star of Bill Clinton's adultery scandal as president, tweeted out a link to an article she wrote for Vanity Fair about the importance of the midterm elections in protecting reproductive rights, issued a tweet that sneered: "Don't be shocked: the intern who has sex with a married president wants the right to abort." Lewinsky responded by linking to his tweet and tweeting a response: "correct." That generated dozens of responses a large number of which supported Lewinsky and called out Graham's lame attempt at slut-shaming.
Being the professional complainer he is, Graham spent part of his Oct. 28 podcast complaining that he got ratioed and lashed out anew at Lewinsky's article, and took more sexist shots at Lewinsky -- yes, he really did call her a "thong-snapper" -- as well as bizarrely accusing Margaret Atwood of being a drug user:
I got ratioed for tweeting over Lewinsky's tweet about her article. I said, Don't be shocked: the intern who has sex with a married president wants the right to abort." Oh, this made the liberals mad. Monica Lewinsky reweeted me and simply said over it "correct" with a check mark. This is what Monica Lewinsky wrote in this article, in part: "It's a bit odd to think about this election, though. I find myself asking, 'Could Tuesday, Nov. 8, be the last election where representative democracy actually works?' (I'm not being melodramatic.)" Uh, yes, you are. Anybody who says this is going to be the last election in America is being melodramatic.
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Monica Lewinsky's article continues: "The sad truth and consequence of the coming election, the most significant midterm in memory" -- people always say that -- "makes it all the more incumbent to make bloody sure we give our consent to be governed." Yes, do use the phrase "make bloody sure" when you're talking about abortion. "One subject above all others is on the ballot: a woman's body. It's the gateway issue. Once our bodily autonomy is gone ,we are on a one-way ticket to the Republic of Gilead. Or in other words, for the 2 percent of you who haven't seen or read 'The Handmaid's Tale': It's the autonomy, stupid."
Yes, I haven't read "The Handmaid's Tale" because it's a pile of crap. I only know of the show because they can't stop talking about it and trying to compare modern-day America to somebody's marijuana-driven imaginations, or whatever it is Margaret Atwood was smoking. Canadian! I guess being Canadian isn't all bad, but we don't want the Canadians lecturing America about what a dystopia we are.
Yes, Monica writes: "This is the first major election after the Trump-led Jan. 6 insurrection, which rocked our foundation of decency and democracy like a 6.0 earthquake." Yes, Monica, lecture us about or decency, thong-snapper!
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Lewinsky summed up: "We need to vote because representative democracy isn't a right but a privilege, one that can be upended by judicial decisions, by presidential policies, appointees and executive orders, by secretaries of state, attorneys general and governors, and by an extremist Supreme Court." Yes, I would argue the people who passed Roe v. Wade were a extremist Supreme Court, but that's me.
Even though he refused to apologize for his misogynist slut-shaming -- and even added to it in his podcast -- Graham ultimately decided it was a bad look and deleted his tweet. Unfortunately for him, the Internet is forever.
Too female, and the wrong kind
Elise Ehrhard spent an Aug. 24 post complaining that the new "Star Wars" TV series "Ahsoka" is led by women she doesn't like, and that the men "don't really factor into the show":
For the past decade, Disney has taken a hatchet to the Star Wars franchise, creating only a few gems. Hopes were high that the new Disney+ series Ahsoka, about a former Jedi knight, could save what was left of the Lucasfilm magic.
Alas, in Disney's latest attempt to prove "the force is female," writers again forgot that characters should also be interesting and multi-layered, whether they're women or men.
The biggest problem in the first two episodes of the new series, titled "Master and Apprentice" and "Toil and Trouble" respectively, is the amount of screen time devoted to a former Padawan named Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Wren smirks a lot, rolls her eyes and is otherwise obnoxious and unlikeable. In Hollywood, this is code for "a strong, independent woman."
The audience is introduced to Wren after she has skipped out on a ceremony she was supposed to speak at, embarrassing everyone involved. No reason is given for not doing her duty except that she didn't feel like it. She's seen racing away on her speeder as she disobeys reasonable orders. It's hard to believe that she is actually an adult rather than a moody teenager.
Unlike Wren, the other female characters are bearable, but boring. They show little emotion and inner life, as if the only thing that matters about them is that they are in charge. Male characters don't really factor into the show except as villains, incompetents or irrelevancies.
The only acceptable female characters, Ehrhard insisted, are those with a man in her life and who have "maternal instincts":
Hollywood used to be able to create exciting female sci-fi heroes. The late 1970s and 80s produced Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy and other iconic female protagonists in films, like in Alien and Terminator 2. The women in these franchises were tough but interesting, because they could show moments of affection, warmth and vulnerability. Princess Leia was charmed by Han Solo. Maternal instincts drove Ellen Ripley in the Alien series and Terminator 2's Sarah Connor.
Unfortunately, in Hollywood today, maternal instincts are passé and the desire for love or romance is supposedly regressive. So, audiences instead are left with wooden women or smirking girl bosses.
And, thus, the MRC's issues with women who deviate from its rigid traditional ideological models (and may not even be heterosexual!) continues.
