I can also say I forget what it’s like to get upset by being called a slut. I’ve been trying to get angry again.

I’ve been called a slut. The first time I cried; I felt like I had been irreparably broken. I began to think they were right and there was a proper place for women.

But then I stopped caring. My change in attitude partly reflects a confidence in sexual choices that hopefully comes with age, and also a realization of how inane the insult is. Slut hurts because we value chastity in women. If you agree that chastity is an outdated and oppressive virtue, then slut begins to have no teeth. The dictionary definition is almost funny: “A slovenly woman.” “A saucy girl.” Please, call me saucy.

Of course, slut still says a lot about the person who uses it, and about the society that accepts its use. Women go to colleges and graduate schools in equal numbers to men, but they will only make up 23 percent of leadership positions. Women make up over 50 percent of the workforce, but earn only 77 cents to the man’s dollar. Women can have pre-marital sex, but only if not excessively. In Constitutional Law, our class unequivocally supports racial equality, but the god-given differences between man and woman provide the rational basis for gender inequality.

Slut is an attempt to force back into place women who step out of their centuries-old role as chaste and loyal wives and mothers. What do sluts threaten? The order of human social organization that began with Adam and Eve.

Limbaugh is absolutely an asshole. Fluke-- and no woman-- should be subjected to such bigoted slurs that ... maybe we shouldnt pay for women to have sex... THAT IS NOTTHEISSUe

[Added Arlene's signature to distinguish posts- Shaked on 22 March 2012]

I actually really dislike it when advertisers pull from controversial programs. This is perhaps especially true when it's someone like Rush Limbaugh, who's schtick has been around for years and who has said far worse in the past. Certainly his sponsors could not have been surprised that he'd say something obnoxious.

Corporate pressure and political correctness is one of the ways in which free speech is severely restricted in our culture. Limbaugh may be an odious bully, but unpopular speech is the kind that has to be protected; popular speech rarely needs defenders.

For more on this see this clip from Bill Maher's show. Also see Bill Maher's op/ed in today's NY Times, "Please Stop Apologizing."

-- ShakedSivan- 22 Mar 2012

I've had "causes" here and there, but I cannot claim to be a die-hard activist for anything. This is a scary thought: if a lawyer is to be an advocate, then why not an activist? Why aren't students at CLS, like me, more moved to do something if that's what they've supposedly dedicated their careers (and a $250K) to doing?

Anyways, I can identify four simple things here:

1. Women make up half of this country. 2. Limbaugh needs advertiser money to survive. 3. Everyone, including shareholders and executives, cares about some woman somewhere. 4. You and I consume things every day.

If reaching out to companies that sponsor Limbaugh's show, voicing dismay that their company would finance a man who defames a woman, does not work, speaking with money generally does. Would the treat of American women boycotting a company send a message? Companies like AOL, Allstate, Sears, Citrix, and Legal Zoom got the message pretty quickly. I bet they all must have some women on their board of directors. Or fathers, or brothers.

Aside from scheming of a social media backlash and somehow boycotting an outdated internet service, there are legal avenues of remedy. The FCC, which "regulates interstate communications by radio," welcomes consumers to file complaints. Consumers can file informal complaints through the internet for, among many things, "unfair, biased, illegal broadcasts." I am not sure how much traffic FCC's website can handle, but I imagine that if enough people file complaints in a day, it would catch encourage the FCC to act. By the way, the chief of the Enforcement Bureau that handles complaints at the FCC is a female African-American lawyer.

Secondly, if the FCC does not respond to an informal complaint satisfactorily, the next step would be filing a "formal complaint." From what I can gather, it seems like an administrative court proceeding. Wouldn't this be a great project for advocate-activist-law students?

All of the FCC information can be found at this (surprisingly) snazzy government website: http://www.fcc.gov/topic/complaints

Any takers for a mass-FCC-complaint movement?

But I wouldn't consider the moves by these advertisers as a game changer, Abby. Corporate America is always really quick to react and disassociate themselves from the whatever the controversy is at the time, but as soon as the smoke clears, they always come back. My view is that Limbaugh will turn out just like Tiger Woods in that Woods lost all these sponsors after his scandal but just last year after he began competing again, he gained back some of his corporate sponsors. I would like to think it would be different since like you said it's not the first time that he's made hateful remarks against minority groups. I'm sorry to be a pessimist, but I don't think Limbaugh is having a hard time sleeping in the wake of this mess.

-- LizzieGomez - 08 Mar 2012

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/qk2u6/do_not_let_up_here_are_the_companies_that/

After every show, contact information for all of his advertisers for that show is readily available on reddit and all over the internet. A lot of companies have already pulled their ads under a lot of pressure from people complaining publicly, so if we keep filing complaints more and more advertisers will follow and Rush's empire will topple. Again, just posting this list isn't much, but maybe it's a start?

-- JohnBarker - 06 Mar 2012