Obama supports student at centre of ‘slut’ row

This is a story of a young woman who spoke out about a matter of public policy – and was branded a “whore” for her pains. It is a story of quite unbelievable misogynist insults, shocking even for a man whose shock value is his stock in trade.

Last night President Obama weighed into the controversy with a personal phone call to law student Sandra Fluke, branded a slut over her views on womens’ access to contraception.

Fluke said she had been greatly heartened by the call: “He encouraged me and supported me, and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women,” she told MSNBC, adding that it had meant a lot to her when Obama said her parents should be especially proud.

He… thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women. Sandra Fluke

But what happened to Fluke this week shocked and outraged many people. The 30-year-old Georgetown law student went to the Hill to testify about Obama’s controversial plan to make birth control freely available under health insurance coverage. Yet this, it appears, was enough to turn provoke Limbaugh’s astonishing attack, on his Wednesday radio show.

He claimed her position “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? Makes her a prostitute.”

Not content with this diatribe, Limbaugh returned to the fray the following day with yet more incendiary remarks, calling on Fluke to supply a sex tape. “If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”

‘Mysoginistic and vitriolic’ remarks

It is as if the sixties had never happened. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama thought the remarks were “reprehensible”, and said it was “disappointing” that a young woman who had simply expressed her views to Congress should be subjected to such personal and crude attacks.

In a statement, the president of Georgetown University, John DeGioia, accused Limbaugh of “behaviour that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student”.

Senior Republicans, too, lined up to condemn Limbaugh. House Speaker John Boehner called it “inappropriate”, while presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said “I’ll just say this, which is it’s not the language I would have used.” Even Rick Santorum, himself no friend of free birth control coverage, told CNN “He’s being absurd, but that’s, you know… an entertainer can be absurd”.

Massachussetts senator Scott Brown went the furthest, calling for Limbaugh to apologise. Among those weighing in behind the radio host – the equally outspoken Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who claimed Fluke was asking the government to pay for her “social life.”

Advertising backlash

More crucially, though, the widespread outcry has already pushed at least six firms to pull advertising from Limbaugh’s show. Sleep Train Mattress was the first to respond to the hashtag #BoycottRush, announcing on Twitter “We don’t condone negative comments directed toward any group”.

She’s every mother, wife, sister and daughter who has ever tried to make a difference. Krystal Ball

Another mattress firm, Sleep Number, was next “Recent comments by Rush Limbaugh do not align w/our values”, followed by a loan firm who cited “continued inflammatory comments – along w/valuable feedback” for their decision to withdraw ads.

Limbaugh himself has been completely unrepentant, laying into Fluke yet again yesterday, mocking Obama for calling her, and suggesting her parents should go into hiding to escape the “shame”.

But what exactly did Ms Fluke say? She spoke to a congressional panel organised by house minority leader Nancy Pelosi, about a presidential policy on health care. She also mentioned some female students who had stopped taking contraception because they could not afford it – with some serious health implications.

‘Slut-shaming’

According to Krystal Ball, whose attempt to run as a Democratic candidate for Congress were dashed when sexually provocative pictures of her student past were plastered all over the internet, what happened is a classic case of “slut shaming”.

“Sandra Fluke is not alone,” she wrote in the Huffington Post. “She’s every mother, wife, sister and daughter who has ever tried to make a difference in civil society and been demeaned in order to terrorize her, shame her, silence her and punish her. No more. Never again.”

Never again indeed. Fluke herself described Limbaugh’s comments as “outside the bounds of civil discourse”. According to The Daily Beast, she is now considering a lawsuit against him, saying she has been told she might have a case.

If things do not go that far, we could just echo another controversial foray into the heated birth control debate: if Limbaugh is tempted to plough on with his diatribe, perhaps he could just try putting an aspirin between his teeth.

Felicity Spector writes about US affairs for Channel 4 News