When a man—Bill O'Reilly, say—does something totally despicable, as part of a long pattern of contemptible things, and people comment on it, they often start their comments like "This asshole" or "This wankstain" or "This diabolical scumbag" or "This nausea-inducing and rage-making human manifestation of pure, unadulterated evil," as in "This jerk wouldn't know an honest statement if it walked up and introduced itself in seven different languages."
But.
When a woman—Sarah Palin, say—does something totally despicable, as part of a long patterns of contemptible things, and people comment on it, they tend to start their comments like "This woman..."
I'm sure that's not reflective of a profoundly misogynist culture in which calling someone a woman in that particular way, spitting it out like venom, is worse than calling her a monster.
Ahem.
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