While NewsBusters really doesn’t target op-eds, especially ones that are printed in the New York Times, egregiously absurd arguments merit exposure and ridicule. Enter Frank Bruni's August 14 column, wherein the Times scribe discussed how our culture facilitates the objectification of women.
Curiously, Bruni buried longtime Democratic politician Bob Filner, who saw women as objects he could grope, towards the end of his column. The decay occurring in our popular culture is a valid point Bruni makes, but he hurtled off the rails when he had this to say about ultrasound laws:
Boys see women objectified in popular entertainment and tossed around like rag dolls in pornography. They encounter fewer women than men in positions of leadership. They hear politicians advocate for legislation like the Virginia anti-abortion bill that would have required women who wanted to end pregnancies to submit to an invasive vaginal ultrasound.
“Before you make a reproductive choice, you are going to be required to have somebody penetrate you with an object,” he said. “That’s very paternalistic: we know what’s right. You’re not in control of your own body.”
How dare conservatives pass laws aimed at creating a culture of life and respect? That’s something that Hollywood rarely puts at the top of their list when it comes to marketing. What's more, the transvaginal ultrasound requirement was ultimately nixed from the Virginia abortion bill, and was signed into law with only requirements for non-invasive abdominal ultrasounds.
At the same time, Bruni decided to bury Bob Filner to the 12 th paragraph, and only used him to convey the point of a psychologist, who feels that sex scandals are really “violence scandals.” OK, but what about Anthony Weiner? What about Eliot Spitzer? One sent lewd photos of him to younger women, indulged in phone sex, and other forms of self-gratification. The other solicited prostitutes and in the process ran up a bill of $80,000 to satisfy his penchant for objectifying women.
Lastly, nowhere in Bruni’s piece does he discuss a depraved undercurrent amongst pro-choice, or “bro-choice” men, generally single 20-somethings who are pro-choice because they don't want the responsibility of fatherhood to dampen the fun of commitment-free premarital sex. Does anyone think that this mindset won’t lead to further objectification of women?
Far from conservatism objectifying women, it's liberalism/progressivism, which leads to women being treated like meat.
