Bawdy

One small item from a Mother Jones piece about Trump and Epstein:

Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal’s response rips the hide off Trump’s case on many levels. For instance, it contends, rather reasonably, that reporting Trump was pals with Epstein before Epstein was busted is not defamatory. But the killer argument is that the WSJ article was “consistent with plaintiff’s reputation.” Trump, Murdoch’s lawyers maintain, “admitted to instances of using bawdy language when discussing women. Plaintiff thus cannot allege that the Article damaged his reputation.”

“Bawdy” is doing a lot of work here. Murdoch’s lawyers could have gone with “sleazy” or “lecherous” or “misogynist.” But they landed on a Benny Hill-ish description that’s less offensive in tone. 

Of course they do. Always. Mainstream bros writing and talking in mainstream media always minimize sexual harassment this way. They think it is minimal. They think it’s trivial, and they think women don’t matter enough to make it not trivial. Just bitches whining, amirite?

Murdoch asks the court to “take judicial notice of both the extensive public reporting of [Trump’s] past comments” and notes that Trump “has a well-documented reputation for bawdiness based on his past statements about women.” The complaint serves up examples starting with Trump’s infamous remark: “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

There it is again, in the very next paragraph. “Bawdiness.” Not misogyny, not sexism, not contempt for and belittlement of women; just the playful and forgivable “bawdiness” that’s just good beefy fun for all concerned.

Once you notice this kind of thing you see it everywhere. That’s because it is, in fact, everywhere.