Anyone who’s listened to much of Rush Limbaugh’s conservative radio show knows he isn’t exactly an ally of women.
He’s said that feminism is a ploy to get “unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society,” called a female law student campaigning to get birth control covered by health insurance a “prostitute,” and most recently poo-pooed the Violence Against Women Act. So it was no surprise that, this week, he picked a new female target, one known the world over. Not Hillary Clinton. Not Nancy Pelosi.
He took on Beyoncé.
Seems that while many of Bey’s previous songs like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” and “Run the World (Girls),” extoll the virtues of girl power, Limbaugh claims that the pop star’s latest single, “Bow Down/I Been On” is all about bowing down to men.
The 62-year-old got on the topic thanks to a recent opinion piece that ran in Britain’s The Telegraph, in which author Felicity Capon writes that Beyoncé’s global sisterhood message has changed recently, thanks to the tune “Bow Down” and the fact she’s named her upcoming tour “The Mrs. Carter Show” (in a nod to hubby Jay-Z’s last name).
Here’s an excerpt from the transcript of Limbaugh’s Wednesday show: “She's got a new song. Can I say it? It's on the popular charts. ‘Bow Down, Bitches’ is the new tune. A total 180. Beyoncé's now saying, ‘Go ahead and put up with it,’ and you know why? I'll tell you why. Because she got married. She's married to [a] rich guy. She's even calling herself Mrs. Carter on the tour. She has shelved Beyoncé. She's no longer being called that. She's gonna call herself Mrs. Carter on the Bow Down, Bitches Tour. That's the title of the single that's fronting the tour. The advice to these women is, ‘Go ahead and put up with it. Put up with it now. Bow down, bitches," because why? She got married. She married the rich guy and she now understands. She now understands it's worth it to bow down, and so now she's passing on this advice.”
On Thursday,the radio host addressed the media coverage of his rant, blamed “the left” for attacking him, and stood by what he said. “I made up nothing. I didn't create a phrase. I didn’t create the title of a song,” he said on the show. “I just read what was in this U.K. story. So in essence what I did, I held up a mirror to the left, and they saw themselves, and now they're attacking me for doing this.”