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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Bill Burr monologue on SNL - rants about white women

87 replies

WeeBisom · 12/10/2020 01:38

Bill Burr did a gross misogynistic monologue on SNL, and I think it's an interesting insight into the mind of the average liberal American male. Namely - they are very sexist. This is honestly why the feminist movement in America is on its knees - no one really thinks women are oppressed.

Here's what Burr said:
"white women have...hijacked the woke movement....Generals around the world should be analyzing this... somehow, white women swung their Gucci booted feet over the fence of oppression and stuck themselves at the front of the line...I don't know how they did it. I've never heard so much complaining in my life from white women...
The nerve of you white women! Listen, I don’t want to speak ill of my bitches here. I dont, but let’s go back in history here, OK? You guys stood by us toxic white males through centuries of our crimes against humanity. You rolled around in the blood money, and occasionally, when you wanted to sneak off and hook up with a Black dude, if you got caught, you said it wasn’t consensual. Yeah! That’s what you did! That’s what you did! So, why don’t you shut up, sit down next to me, and take your talking to?"

Of course any woman who objects to this is being called a "Karen".

Some history: in 1993 Catharine MacKinnon published an article called 'from practice to theory or what is a white woman anyway?" In it, she argued that if women are truly oppressed by virtue of being women, then even that most pampered, effete, bon bon eating creature - the 'white woman' must be oppressed also. She revealed a deep assumption in American culture, namely that white women aren't actually oppressed - they are in fact the secret, evil behind the throne; whispering like Lady MacBeth into men's ears to make them oppress others.Black women are oppressed by virtue of being black, and poor women are oppressed by being poor, but rich white women aren't oppressed at all. Women aren't oppressed by virtue of being female, so feminism is a sham.

It's actually admirable how clear Burr is about all this, as he tells us 'bitches' to 'shut up' (nice abusive language by the way.) White women campaigning for their rights and freedom from oppression is framed as 'hijacking', illegitimate, taking something that doesn't belong to them.' 'Somehow' white women swung our Gucci boots (haha because we're also rich bitches!) over the fence of oppression. I really think that women in America are the only oppressed group that aren't allowed to acknowledge and fight against their oppression - their oppressed status is belittled and constantly cast into doubt.

This is coming from a man in a supposedly first world country that has no maternity leave. Abortion rights are precarious and highly contested. Women have to walk past hordes of shrieking crowds to have a D and C. Women cannot get contraceptives without first submitting to a once a year internal examination. American women have some of the worst maternal death rates in the developed world. Women's health care is expensive and not covered in standard insurance plans. Women do not have any kind of equality act to protect them. Three women are murdered by an intimate partner a day in the USA. Many states still allow child brides. 10 year old girls have been married off to older men in the USA in the 21st century. Women are raped and their rape kits lie untested and their rapists go free after two months in jail because 'he's a nice guy and he misses BBQ.' Women have been sexually assaulted and their abuser goes onto become a Supreme Court justice. Women. have been raped and their rapist goes onto to become president of the United States. Me Too showed that some of those Gucci wearing 'bitches' can be raped over and over again for years while Hollywood turns a blind eye. Bill Cosby drugged and raped multiple women, some of them white. Were these women lying about Cosby? If women aren't oppressed then why does it fucking feel like it?

And then he gives us a charming history lesson. Women 'stood by' while men committed atrocities and crimes against humanity. What's the first rule of misogyny again? Oh yes, that women are responsible for what men do. Men did the lynching and the enslaving and yet the blame, once again, is deflected onto 'white women'. And here's a real history lesson - women stood back and 'let' men do these things because women were property. They had no separate legal personality. They were essentially bought and sold into marriage contracts. Black people actually got the right to vote in America before women did. I think people forget that not so long ago women couldn't own property - not even small pieces of sentimental value. They had no legal existence of their own. Men owned their children and could stop a woman from ever seeing them again. Men could commit their wives to mental institutions for life if she became an annoyance. Marital rape was entirely legal.

The cruellest irony is that women are the original victims of male oppression, the ultimate test case, and yet men like Bill Burr have the absolute gall to turn around and say that actually women aren't really oppressed at all and all that evil shit that men did is actually women's fault. Because we 'let it happen', despite having an average life expectancy of 33 due to childbirth complications.

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WeeBisom · 12/10/2020 01:41

Oh and I forgot to add that this was followed up by Pete Davidson making a joke about how 'transphobic' JK Rowling is. Apparently she's stupid because she can imagine loads of fantasy creatures like elves and wizards but can't wrap her head around Laverne Cox who's a national treasure. So interesting to observe how her original words have been twisted and obscured beyond recognition.

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yourhairiswinterfire · 12/10/2020 01:58

Apparently she's stupid because she can imagine loads of fantasy creatures like elves and wizards but can't wrap her head around Laverne Cox who's a national treasure.

I saw this, and I'm not sure if it was intended or a blunder, but is he comparing LC to a fantasy character? Whoops.

Also, he regrets getting a Harry Potter tattoo when he was young, but don't be mad because he couldn't predict the future...

Yeah, JKR was making that point, only the consequences she was talking about for children who are altering their bodies with drugs are far worse than shitty tattoo regret Hmm

DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 12/10/2020 04:33

It’s uncomfortable and infuriating. But it’s a good thing that their ingrained misogyny is getting daylight.

Also WeeBisom: excellent rant!

PearPickingPorky · 12/10/2020 04:47

At some point, "white women" in America are going to get fed up with this.

Vermeil · 12/10/2020 06:08

Just had a look, it was typical Burr scattergun obnoxiousness, he’s an edge lord who likes to piss people off. More interesting has been the online reaction, who’s focussed on what part-
*
roxane gay
@rgay
That Bill Burr monologue was fucking hilarious. And so well crafted minus the cancel culture part that bombed.*

Roxane Gay, recent signatory of ‘be nice’ open letter #1376, didn’t like the bit about cancel culture, eh?
But the rest is just fine and dandy. Huh.
Tbh, there is a good point to be made about how certain types of white middle class people embrace wokedom, but this wasn’t it. Feels like a missed opportunity.

Mominatrix · 12/10/2020 06:22

You do know that SNL is a satirical comedy show...

Iggly · 12/10/2020 06:31

There was a nub of truth and that’s around the BLM movement.

And in some ways, saying that “all women have been oppressed” when the conversation around BLM was about black people, is a little bit “whatabouttery”.

quixote9 · 12/10/2020 06:46

Whataboutery? when half of black people are women? Did the point about intersectionality and its cuts in all directions miss you?

SunsetBeetch · 12/10/2020 07:50

I'd be surprised if this was meant literally, given what I know of Bill Burr (which admittedly isn't a huge amount).

TweeBree · 12/10/2020 08:00

SNL has been misogynistic for a while. Michael Che (Weekend Update) has serious issues with women and has been called out on it multiple times online for it. Colin Jost is just as bad, but he hides it behind his humble white guy schtick. Good luck with that, Scarlett...

Burr's monologue was lazy and gross because he was punching down and he did it badly. White American women should have to answer for certain things, but nothing he said accurately captured it. Also, he's a WHITE MAN. He could have used to voice to take down white male entitlement.

White women ARE victims of oppression, like all women. If he wanted to cut through the bullshit and get real he'd have admitted that, then highlighted the contradictions. He didn't. He just shit on them, smirking all the while through. It wasn't clever. There was no new insight. It was pure misogyny.

Pete Davidson has serious mental health issues and has a record of treating women very badly in his personal life.

The only American male comedian I really like atm is John Mulaney. When Louis CK was being #metoo-ed, his (very powerful) manager Dave Becky seemed to escape unscathed, despite being instrumental in blacklisting several of Louis's victims from further work. John was also a client. He fired Dave immediately. Didn't make a big show of it, just said it wasn't right and took his business elsewhere. Meanwhile, feminist comedy heroes like Amy Poehler are still with Dave and have never commented on it.

Vermeil · 12/10/2020 08:04

Oh yeah, Burr is probably laughing his arse off at the reaction.

ErrolTheDragon · 12/10/2020 08:44

@Mominatrix

You do know that SNL is a satirical comedy show...
Do you think this was 'comedy'? If it was supposed to be, I fear it fell foul of Poe's Law.
RoyalCorgi · 12/10/2020 08:57

I have feminist friends in the US, and from what they say this attitude is pretty common - white women are the enemy. It's fine to abuse white women. They get blamed, for example, for electing Trump (even though the latest polls show that Trump has much more support amongst white men than he does amongst white women).

It's just the same old shit - men hurling abuse at women. But these days they get to pat themselves on the back about how progressive they're being at the same time.

IwishNothingButTheBestForYou · 12/10/2020 09:09

@Mominatrix

You do know that SNL is a satirical comedy show...

Who or what was this man satirising?

EvenSupposing · 12/10/2020 09:19

I think the fact of it being satirical doesn't mean that every single utterance is ironic? Is that your understanding? Confused

TweeBree · 12/10/2020 09:30

They get blamed, for example, for electing Trump (even though the latest polls show that Trump has much more support amongst white men than he does amongst white women).

This was always the case.

Exit poll data found that 52 per cent of white women voted for Mr Trump, compared with 63 per cent of white men.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/who-voted-donald-trump-white-men-and-women-most-responsible-new-president-elect-voting-data-reveals-a7407996.html

Don't get me wrong, the numbers are horrific, but yeah, it's white women's fault for failing to control their men. Hmm

IwishNothingButTheBestForYou · 12/10/2020 09:36

Does anyone know if the BB monologue was meant to be funny or "satirical"?

RoyalCorgi · 12/10/2020 09:44

Absolutely right, TweeBree - 11 percentage points is a big difference. For some reason, white men don't get the blame, though.

This is from an article a few days ago about the latest opinion polls:

"Biden has expanded his edge over Trump among women, from 57% to 37% in September to 66% to 32% now. That shift includes substantial gains for Biden among white women with college degrees and women of color."

That is a massive lead for Biden amongst women, much bigger than his lead amongst men.

edition.cnn.com/2020/10/06/politics/cnn-poll-biden-trump-2020-election/index.html

TweeBree · 12/10/2020 09:54

@RoyalCorgi Interesting, thanks for those figures!

Ben Shapiro is a big fan of Burr, which should give some context to his style.

CaraDuneRedux · 12/10/2020 10:19

As attempts at satire go, it's hardly Swift's Modest Proposal is it?

Also isn't it one of the rules of misogyny, that women are responsible for what men do?

But yeah, white comfortably off man attacking women, great look.

ErrolTheDragon · 12/10/2020 10:24

Who or what was this man satirising?

The only way this would work as satire, imo, would be if his target was actually the white men who have hijacked 'woke'. But if that was his intent he failed badly.

Freespeecher · 12/10/2020 11:18

I think part of it is that he sees other groups as piggybacking on black oppression - didn't he also have a bit where he pointed out tha Black History Month takes place in February (terrible weather, only 28 days long) when Pride month is June (then going on to say they should switch BHM to July).

I don't mind comics that like to stir up the anthill, key thing is to do it in the round.

WeeBisom · 12/10/2020 11:18

Yes I know it’s a comedy show, but comedy often has revealing grains of truth about a society. Look at how powerful Nanette was, or Dave Chapelle on the death of George Floyd. Also I don’t even think this particular monologue was funny. It was basically a rant that targeted white women in particular. It’s very telling that people are furious at the cancel culture part. They are furious he said that gay people aren’t as oppressed as black people (that wasn’t intersectional). But loads of people who are supposed to be feminists, like Roxanne Gay, are falling over themselves to show how utterly FINE they are with a white man basically saying that women as a class aren’t oppressed.

Also you can complain about white women’s racism and contributions to white supremacy without entirely shitting on the idea that women are an oppressed group as well. Remember that thing called “intersectionality” ?

But my simple point was that it’s now a common trope in America that Whitt women are public enemy number one and that compared to other oppressed groups they have nothing to complain about . They are collaborators. As I tried to explain with the McKinnon quote, if white women aren’t oppressed then there’s no such thing as a distinct female oppression, because it when you hit a certain privilege level the oppression evaporates. This is really bad news for the USA feminist movement which will have a lot of work to do if Trump gets re elected. They are going to have to work hard to persuade a sceptical public that women need certain rights, whereas the oppressed status of other groups is taken for granted.

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Collidascope · 12/10/2020 11:27

Helen Lewis wrote a good article about the acceptable misogny against white women a while back, iirc.

www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/karen-meme-coronavirus/615355/

TweeBree · 12/10/2020 12:03

But loads of people who are supposed to be feminists, like Roxanne Gay, are falling over themselves to show how utterly FINE they are with a white man basically saying that women as a class aren’t oppressed.

Roxanne has been a nasty jerk on social media for so long I can't even remember anything redeemable about her.