Comedian Damon Wayans seems to be a shoo-on for this week’s Shitty Rape Apologist Shithead of the Week award.
In an interview on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club show on Friday, Wayans attacked Bill Cosby’s accusers — or at least the majority of them — as money-hustling “bitches” too ugly to have been really raped.
Wayans’ explanation for why 50 women have stepped forward with similar stories of drugging and sexual assault at the hands of Cosby?
I don’t believe he was raping. I think he was in relationships with all of them, and then he’s like, ‘You know what, [I’m] 78, I can’t get it up for any of y’all, bye bitches.’ And now they’re like, ‘Oh, really? Rape.’ Forty years — listen, how big is his penis that it gives you amnesia for 40 years? …
If you listen to them talk, they go, ‘Well, the first time…’ The first time? Bitch, how many times did it happen? Just listen to what they’re saying and some of them really is unrape-able. I look at them and go, ‘I don’t want that. Get outta here.’ [Laughs]
He added:
Look, I understand fame. I’ve lived it. Women will throw themselves at you. They just want to be in your presence. There’s some that innocently will come up there, but not 40-something women. They’re not that naïve.
You’re talkin’ about, what, in 1965 he just walked into someone’s dressing room and put his penis in their mouth?
Backtracking a little, Wayans later said that he thought some of the accusations could be true.
And for them, my heart goes out to them. For anybody who was raped by Bill Cosby, I’m sorry, and I hope you get justice. You other bitches, look. …
What’s the joy of banging someone who’s asleep?
Lovely.
Breakfast Club co-host Angela Yee pushed back against some of Wayans’ assertions, pointing out that many of the women came forward decades ago. In an aside that seems to have gone unnoticed in the coverage of Wayans’ remarks, she said that when she was a little girl her mother told her she knew someone who’d been drugged (and presumably raped) by Cosby.
50 women have already come forward; I wonder how many more there are?
For more quotes from the interview, see Gossip Cop. Or you can watch the actual interview below; skip ahead to 26 minutes in.
Sugar maples!
Horses!
Ally, I think of coal mining.
Initially, cashmere. Then I realised that was Alpacas. So horses.
Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copeland
https://youtu.be/W2R7eDwD2TY
I think of the mountains too. (I think maybe that’s because I’m on the west coast?)
Not an American, but I’ve sometimes heard references to Appalachia as a cultural (as opposed to topographical) region. The only background knowledge I have is from a book on the historical “backwoods pioneer” culture of early Anglo-American settlers (IIRC, the authors were named Jordan and Kaup).
Apparently, the lands in Appalachian Plateau were relatively poorly suited for agriculture, so the growth of white farming population was fairly slow, and almost entirely based on the offspring of hardy pioneer settlers on small farms. The big cities grew elsewhere, so Appalachia remained rural and poor, and didn’t attract new waves of immigrants. Rural, poor, ethnically White (with some Native contribution), English-speaking, politically conservative, fundie Protestant.
Apparently, the popular perception of Appalachia is rife with “rural eastern US area” stereotypes often associated with the South generally. One might say that Appalachian Mountains are the original “hills” in the “hillbilly” stereotype.
Mostly, when I think of Appalachia, I think of general US white settlement history, being the history geek that I am.
Ally, I think of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and the Appalachian Trail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford_disappearance_and_extramarital_affair
Thank you all so much for your responses, these are great! I assumed most people would go with the classic “no shoes, kissing-cousins” motif so thanks for thinking a little more outside the box!
@Ally – Bluegrass, but fondly.
Most of my Mom’s side of the family’s from Appalachia (one of my great-Grandfathers started in the mines at 6) and my husband’s Mom’s an honest-to-goodness Hatfield (Devil Anse is her great Uncle or something and /her/ father’s father died in a mining accident when he was in utero), so it’s close to my heart.
Poverty, too, comes to mind.
One Spring Break I went out with Habitat to work on some houses in deep West Virginia…to see that there were uninsulated shacks acting as people’s homes was heartbreaking. There was one student with us from West Africa (she didn’t get more specific and I didn’t press), and she said as we drove in, “I had no idea people lived like this in the US.”
Appalachia? I think of mountaintop removal.
Note. I’m in Australia, not America. I’ve been interested in climate change for a couple of decades. That might explain my skew on the topic.
If I’m not too late: I think of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Appalachia was one of its focuses and the story of how the New Deal was implemented there is heartbreaking.
@Chiomara
Welcome! I appreciated your touching comment.
I was very sorry to read that you were raped. I hope that you can find a group or a counselor that can help you process that trauma. If not, you do have us to talk to.
I suggest that you look at feminist books and magazines. They’re likely to explain feminist theory and issues clearly–and they won’t yell at you. Try your local library or bookstore for writers on Brazilian and international feminism.
“Ms.,” a US magazine, helped me to develop my feminist thinking. And Gloria Steinem, a US feminist, is a wonderful, humane, empathetic writer. Alice Walker’s short novel “The Color Purple” is about a black American woman. Women worldwide love, love, love this book. The main character, Celie, learns to stand up for herself despite extreme oppression. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It’s also a US movie.
I hope to see more comments from you.
Best wishes.
I did a report on West Virginia in fifth grade, before I knew any of those stereotypes, so my associations are all less “marrying your cousin” and more “the state bird is the cardinal!”
@Chiomara
If you do want to look into some counseling options, you might want to check this out:
http://www.hotpeachpages.net/samerica/index.html
All best wishes.
“When I think of Appalachia, I think of ___?”
HOME!!!!
Thank you to everyone who responded to my poll! It’s much appreciated!
@ weirwoodtreehugger: I’ve never had the chance to catch “Deliverance” but I definitely know it’s reputation and infamy, especially for that “one scene.” I think that was set in West Virginia? From Kentucky here, but I promise you we Appalachians are much gentler in person, LOL! Think less The Hills Have Eyes and more Cletus the Slack-jawed Yokel, LOL!
@ pandapool: I’ve see those mountains out my window right now as I type. I seen them every day for years and never thought much about them until this Humanities class.
Sugar maples, horses, and coal-mining. Yes, you guys are giving me such good stuff to work with!
@ mockingbird: Same here. My entire extended family and my husband’s–they’re not the same family, I promise, LOL!–have lived in the Bluegrass State stretching back generations. It’s in our blood!
@ EJ: Nope, definitely not too late, thanks for the input. We’re actually going into that now, regarding Roosevelt’s New Deal. Most people immediately think of New York City when they think of the Depression–because of the suicides and the bread-lines and Cinderella Man, etc.–so many people don’t consider that the already mostly poor Appalachia was hit *extremely* hard by the Crash. Very good answer!
@ Katz: Yes, I hate it when people immediately go to the stereotypes, it can become insulting after awhile. I’m glad there are more sensitive and well-informed people like you out there!
@ rugbyyogi: I, too, think of home, naturally: I’ve lived in Kentucky my whole life. Whereabouts in Appalachia are you from? I actually live in Ashland, Ky. which if you’ve been following the national news lately, you’ll know we’ve had a little negative attention of late because of Kim Davis. She’s the county clerk in Rowan County who’s refusing to issue marriage licenses for gay couples on the grounds that it’s against her religion. Here court last week was held here in Ashland, so you might have seen it on The Today Show, etc. I think she’s being bigoted, personally, and I’m afraid it’s incidents like these that keeps the Appalachians= inbred idiots stereotypes going in perpetuity. As you well know, we’re not all like that. Small town, not small mind!
Thank you again for all those who participated I might have missed! Every response is much appreciated!
I hear sugar maples are going disappear from Appalachia due to climate change 🙁 But there will be more of them in Canada.
Sorry for necroing an old thread, but I wanted to comment on the comedians/colleges article.
I’ve been to NACA. As WWTH mentioned, the colleges send students (with an advisor or so as basically a chaperone) to select acts to bring back. My college sent the student programming board (9 students, though sometimes not all could attend). Some colleges sent their student government or one or more fraternities and sororities. Some sent students from all above.
From a numbers perspective, it’s really easy to get a few hundred really enthusiastic students from only 18 schools. If the writer was sitting near the stage, a few hundred students sitting nearby really enjoying themselves could appear like the whole ballroom thought the act was great even if that wasn’t the case.
Sorry for length
On the subject of ‘acceptable’ comedy I would like to use Bill Bailey as an example. I know that at least one of the regs knows who he is because they use a photo of him as their profile pic. Probably one of the best comedians at being utterly funny, but at the expense of virtually no one!
If he does take the piss he goes for world leaders (Dubya was a great source) and other dodgy politicians, and his bit about doing a gig for a Swiss Bank and being told that he shouldn’t talk about Nazi Gold – well that is hilarious.
I am not making any statement about should a comedian change their material/ not do fat/ rape/ religious/ whatevs jokes – I would probably avoid comedians like that, and I think most unis (certainly in the UK) would not book someone who relied on ‘controversial’ material. But yes, I do support a freedom of artistic expression – look at some of the shit that is in the mainstream – Jeff Dunham anyone?!