NOW Condemns Letterman

After this week's flap between Sarah Palin and David Letterman, which started when Letterman cracked a joke about Palin's "slutty flight attendant look" and another about her daughter getting "knocked up" by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, the National Organization for Women has condemned Letterman's jokes and is asking its supporters to write to CBS and voice criticism. "The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days -- it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves," the group writes on its website, pointing to Letterman's jokes as an example.

But, for NOW, it's not about politics: the group says conservatives have been just as guilty, over the years, of sexism. "NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren't professed conservatives," NOW writes.

Despite Sarah Palin's ascendancy as a female vice presidential candidate, NOW did not support her. Far from it, in fact: NOW's political arm called Palin "a woman who opposes women's rights" and her nomination a sop to disappointed Hillary Clinton supporters.

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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/06/now-condemns-letterman/19259/