Michelle Wolf has nothing to apologise for. Her critics do, though. By Arwa Mahdawi

By Dilip -
Let me tell you a few deplorable things that happened in America this weekend. Nearly 43 million people woke up in poverty in the richest country in the world. And 3.2 million Americans woke up without health insurance. A further 36 people died because of gun violence, bringing the total number of gun deaths in the US this year to 4,627.

All of that is deplorable. What is in absolutely no way deplorable or shocking or outrageous or unacceptable is a joke about eye shadow. You probably know what I mean, it was headline news on Sunday. But if you missed the controversy, the summary is that a comedian called Michelle Wolf 
made a gag about Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner in DC.
“I think [Sanders is] very resourceful,” Wolf said about the White House press secretary. “Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye.”

Criticism of Michelle Wolf's speech shows we still hold female comedians to different standards

Wolf was referencing Sanders’ well-documented history of defending Trumps brazen lies. Earlier this month for example, Sanders defended Trump’s racist claims that women from Central America are raped at “levels that nobody has ever seen before”. She also justified Trump’s entirely unfounded claims that “millions and millions” of illegal votes are cast in America’s elections by saying that the president “strongly feels” that is the case. Sanders lectures the press about accuracy but spends her days helping Trump fuel racism and hate with shameless lies. Sanders, in brief, is a morally bankrupt person and Wolf was holding her to account. 

Sanders may be a morally bankrupt person but guess what? She’s also a wife and mother and it is really very mean for Wolf to stoop so low as to mention Sanders’ eye shadow. Can you imagine the devastating psychological impact of having a comedian reference your affinity for a smoky eye? Can you imagine how damaged her kids must be by the reference to their mum’s makeup?

Personally, I can’t imagine any of this, but it seems plenty of other people can… read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/30/michelle-wolf-sarah-sanders-whcd-critics


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