RUSH: This is an outrageous story that I’m holding here, my friends, in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. This is a story from the Australian. It’s a newspaper in Australia, for those of you in Rio Linda and Port St. Lucie, and it’s actually a French News Agency story. ‘The official Vatican Daily newspaper said in an International Women’s Day commentary on Sunday [yesterday] that the washing machine has had a greater liberating role for women than the birth control pill.’ I know that you think that I’m making this up. No, got it right here. It was published on March the 9th, at seven morning this morning, yesterday, International Women’s Day. ‘The Vatican Daily said the washing machine has had a greater liberating role for women than the pill.’
Now, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, I conducted a Female Summit and outreach on this program just a week and a half ago or so. You all know after that summit the profound respect that I have for women. You know the awareness I have of the trials and tribulations that women have undergone as second-class citizens for way too much of their time in the United States of America, and you also know that I highly respect the pope and the Catholic Church. But I simply can’t let this statement by the Holy See go unchallenged here, that the washing machine was more liberating than the pill? This comment does a disservice to women everywhere. It plays upon stereotypes. These stereotypes must be challenged; they must be swept aside.
There have been way too many stereotypes of women throughout our history. There have been way too many jokes at women’s expense, particularly in this day and age when nobody has a sense of humor. Some of those jokes are not even understood. They are instead considered to be insults or put-downs, and this is most unfair and improper. Women are already at a natural disadvantage through much of our culture here in the United States and throughout the world. And for now the pope… I don’t know if it’s the pope. Well, now the Catholic Church to come along and say that the washing machine… (laughs) I’m tempted to laugh at this, as though it were a joke. But this is highly insulting to my sensibilities and my sensitivities. I mean, the washing machine more liberating than the pill? (sigh)
This continual playing to stereotypes must stop. It must be challenged, and it must be swept aside. Women face enough tough decisions each and every day particularly during this recession. We all know that during economic downturns women and minorities are hardest hit, and it’s no different now. And in this time of economic challenge, downturn, hopelessness, where is the next car coming from, the next job for the husband…? The husband! Where is the husband coming in? Where is the next man coming from? To sit here and pretend that you are a comedian and to say that the washing machine was more liberating than the pill according to the Catholic church, this has gone far enough. Besides, everybody knows it was the vacuum cleaner that liberated women more than the pill.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To the phones. Kelly in Steubenville, Ohio. You’re up first today. It’s nice to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m a second-time caller; avid, avid, avid fan.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: This is the first time I’ve ever vehemently disagreed with you about anything. Your comment about the washing machine and the pill? As a married woman, mom —
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I didn’t say that. The Catholic Church did.
CALLER: No.
RUSH: I was defending women.
CALLER: Yeah. No. I agree with the Catholic Church. I feel far more liberated by — by the washing machine than the pill for two reasons.
RUSH: Oh, boy.
CALLER: Very simply. Very simply.
RUSH: It’s the vacuum cleaner, not the washing machine anyway.
CALLER: Hey, I’ll take the vacuum cleaner, too. But, first of all —
RUSH: We really have no disagreement here.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I just disagreed that it’s the washing machine. It’s the vacuum cleaner.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I think it’s the washing machine, but yeah.
CALLER: All right, well, let me explain to you why the pill is not liberating in any way. It’s actually completely atrocious for two reasons. One is, from health issues, if you just examine the health views regarding the pill and the incidence of cancer related to female reproduction, particularly cervical cancer, it’s amazing that we push the pill — particularly at young, unmarried women — like there are no health risks.
RUSH: We’re not just pushing the pill, we’re pushing condoms.
CALLER: Absolutely. (garbled)
RUSH: We want our little children out there behaving like little rabbits.
CALLER: And, you know, Rush, that’s why home-school. That’s one of the huge reasons why home-school right there. But the other issue about the pill being oppressive just comes down to the differences between men and women. My husband always joked and we say if we both functioned like he did, we’d have 50 children. If we both functioned like I did, we’d have no children. Men and women are different and for me to be on the pill and then beholden to having sex whenever my husband wants to have sex, um, how horrible a relationship would that be? We do NFP, Natural Family Planning, and it’s a — it’s a mutual understanding.
RUSH: Well, now, wait a second. I think we’re going a little astray here and just a bit far.
CALLER: Uh-huh?
RUSH: Did I hear you right?
CALLER: Uh-huh?
RUSH: You said if you were on the pill —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — and you would thus be beholden to having sex whenever your husband wants to have sex, what a horrible relationship that would be? That’s what I understood to be your point.
CALLER: Exactly!
RUSH: Well, does your husband like sex?
CALLER: Absolutely he does. He’s a typical —
RUSH: He’s a rarity.
CALLER: No, he’s a typical man.
RUSH: Most married guys get tired of it after the first two to three years.
CALLER: Well, you know why he doesn’t get tired of it, Rush?
RUSH: Why?
CALLER: Because we do NFP, because it’s not sex-on-demand.
RUSH: I’m just kidding here, folks. I’m just having a little fun with the caller.
CALLER: I know. But — but — but —
RUSH: Yes, just kidding here.
CALLER: But people should understand this.
RUSH: But that’s such a strange statement that (ahem) if you’re on the pill you’d be having sex as often as your husband wanted it, whereas you’re not now, obviously.
CALLER: Well, no, it’s — it’s — it’s — a relationship (garbled).
RUSH: How does that help the relationship?
CALLER: Wanting to achieve pregnancy or wanting to avoid pregnancy.
RUSH: No.
CALLER: And so obviously —
RUSH: How does avoiding having sex help the relationship?
CALLER: Because I don’t feel used. I don’t feel like an object to him. I’m not objectified in the act of sex.
RUSH: (groans)
CALLER: I am his mutual partner, somebody that… We love each other, and our relationship is of mutual agreement. It’s not, ‘Okay, we’re on the pill, so there’s no consequence to this. So why not?’ And if it comes down to that question, you know, the average man is far more interested in sex than the average woman.
RUSH: (laughing) Oh-ho-ho, no! No. (coughs) Pardon me. Still fighting a dash the ravages of an unknown virus, which is leading to a hacking cough.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: That’s a generalization that you can’t make, just like my generalization that husbands lose interest in sex after three years, that’s a generalization. You can’t go out there and say that most women don’t want sex.
CALLER: Look, one of the first things out society does —
RUSH: Let me… I’m just going to tell you something. No, I’m not. You know what? I’m through sharing personal anecdotes, ’cause all they end up doing is get distorted, thrown out there in the mainstream media and so forth, so I’m through sharing personal anecdotes. But…but… Ahem. (sigh) Look, let me just move on here. Kelly, I appreciate the phone call. I thank you for the (sigh) for the perspective out there. (sigh)