Meghan McCain appeared on The View today to talk about her call for a discussion among Republicans about the future of the party, and conservative Laura Ingraham’s response that the fat girl should shut up.
Although Meghan Tweeted a short response last week, the long form appeared in The Daily Beast today. Meghan, who admits to being teased about her weight as a kid, said:
I expected substantive criticism from conservative pundits for my views, particularly my recent criticism of Ann Coulter. That is the nature of political discourse, and my intent was to generate discussion about the current problems facing the Republican Party. Unfortunately, even though Ingraham is more than 20 years older than I and has been a political pundit for longer, almost, than I have been alive, she responded in a form that was embarrassing to herself and to any woman listening to her radio program who was not a size 0.
In today’s society this is, unfortunately, predictable.
I mean, she has a point. If Laura Ingraham is so stymied by the criticism of a 24-year-old newbie writer that she has to resort to mocking her accent and her weight, then that is truly embarrassing for Laura Ingraham’s skills as a talking head. Meghan then asks:
Why, after all this time and all the progress feminists have made, is weight still such an issue? And in Laura’s case, why in the world would a woman raise it?
Well, that’s easy enough: women are not united. The idea that there is some female solidarity in the world is a false one, as everyone from Laura Ingraham to Phyllis Schlafly to Rian at The Skinny are more than happy to demonstrate. It would be great if it were true but the thing about the patriarchy about which I love to caterwaul is that it doesn’t just affect men — either in terms of the opportunities it offers them or in terms of the stereotypes it inculcates in women.