Michael Wolff’s lengthy defense of Chuck Schumer calling a flight attendant a “bitch” is a staggering exercise in cluelessness and point-missing. He doesn’t even use the word “bitch,” instead obliquely referring to the use of “a mild epithet concerning the flight attendant who asked him (politely perhaps, but more likely peremptorily) to stop using his cell phone.”
The discussion which ensues is interesting and somewhat plausible, though I ultimately find it unconvincing. But by eliding the term “bitch” he manages to completely avoid the subject of sexism, which I think is at the core of the complaint here. But the term is a pure contentless gender-slur. It’s like you’re saying “I disagree with what you’re doing and also you’re a woman which is a bad thing to be!!!!!!!!”
Even if a woman is doing something legitimately bad, it’s no more appropriate to insult her with that term than it is to break out a racial slur just because a guy you have a legitimate beef with happens to be black. That’s the issue here.
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