Only two short months after his sustained verbal assault on Georgetown Law school student Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh announced the launch of a Facebook fan page named after one of his favorite sexist pejoratives, "Rush Babes for America."
Announcing the page, Limbaugh claimed the fan page is for conservative women who are "not being told by faux feminist groups how to think."
Limbaugh scoffed at the idea that his program "laughs at, impugns [or] makes fun of women," but Rush routinely refers to women as:
- "babes"
- "NAGs"
- "feminazis"
- "senatorette[s]"
- "infobabes"
- "clucking hens"
- "bimbo[s]"
- "sex-retary"
Limbaugh also christened the launch of his new page with his brand of sexism, using the terms "feminazis" and "NAGs," in his announcement.
Limbaugh's go-to pejorative for women from first ladies, to congresswomen, reporters to academic and historical figures is "babe." He's used the term describe at least 61 prominent women including Supreme Court Justices, Senators, economists, and astronauts. After all of this, Limbaugh laughablycalled himself a "defender and protector" of women in September 2010.
Limbaugh also referenced a stunt he pulled decades ago, remarking to one of his staffers, "you're thinking we're going to start collecting pictures again, aren't you?" He previously recounted that effort to catalogue pictures of his female callers as a "great period in our program's past."
Despite Limbaugh's insistence that women don't reject the numerous pejoratives he employs, his own callers have urged him to drop the language. In 2009, a caller objected to his repeated use of the term "babe":
CALLER: (giggles) Well, I think you need to get rid of terms like "infobabe." I mean, I know you might like being called an "infohunk," but...RUSH: I invented the term!CALLER: (giggles)RUSH: It's creative and it's artistic, and it is a signature term.CALLER: Well, I think it might be a big turnoff for a lot of women. You know, when I hear that term, I -RUSH: I would say they need to lighten up, for crying out loud! Why do I have to change who I am? Why can't they just lighten up? Infobabe! Why can't they laugh? What is the problem with being light and lovable and just smiling now and then? Why must everything be said through gritted teeth and anger?CALLER: It doesn't have to be that way, but you don't have to label it as an "infobabe."
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