Regular Salon contributor Mary Elizabeth Williams is the textbook definition of a New York-centric post-modern feminist -- which is a nice way of saying that she's a bit of a cliché. She appeared on the NBC Nightly News a couple of weeks back to call this year's batch of juvenile Super Bowl ads downright sexist and "hostile" to women, but is confident and comfortable enough in exploiting her own sexuality to pose nude for Time Out New York. She writes for a lot of different publications and has admittedly churned out some interesting stuff, but she's consistently hamstrung by the traditional lack of anything even approaching a sense of humor.
Which is why it's not the least bit surprising that she's jumping on the anti-Family Guy bandwagon with both feet in the wake of that show's very indirect shot at Sarah Palin last weekend.
At this point I'm not sure it's even worth rehashing, but for the cheap seats I'll make it perfectly clear: What Seth MacFarlane did by referencing Palin's son Trig's disability was a) what he always does, which is push the envelope past the breaking point, and b) cleverly and preemptively call Palin out for her hypocrisy in slamming Rahm Emanuel for his offensive comment a couple of weeks ago while giving Rush Limbaugh a pass for saying the exact same thing. MacFarlane no doubt knew that Palin would pitch a fit over the gag, even though Family Guy is a comedy show and Palin herself said that throwing around the word "retard" was okay as long as it was done under the banner of satire. (And it's not as if the word "retard" was used anyway; all that was humorously implied was that the mother of a kid with Down Syndrome was Sarah Palin.)
Alas, Williams agrees with the Palins -- this time both Sarah and Trig's sister Bristol -- in their predictably opportunistic taking of umbrage with the joke, saying, "I've got to hand it to them -- when the Palin women are right, they're right."
Yeah, except that they're not. They're doing what they always do -- which is narcissistically exploiting a perceived slight for personal and political gain the same way they exploited young Trig's handicap for the same reasons in the first place.
Anyway, read the article, decide for yourself, and pay special attention to the comment section. Hell, somebody refers to Trig as Sarah Palin's "damaged little cupcake."
Man, and people think I'm vicious.
Salon: "Did Family Guy's Joke Go Too Far?" by Mary Elizabeth Williams/2.16.10
(Update: Cesca makes a great point about how Sarah Palin's suddenly all about the political correctness.)
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