CNN Op-Ed Attacks Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Adam Carolla & 'Masculinity'
An op-ed was published to CNN's website earlier this week, written by a woman named Nicole Hemmer. The article took aim at comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Carolla and Bill Maher.
Their crimes? Thinking that having masculine men in society is a good thing for the United States. Crazy take, huh?
Hemmer's bio on the CNN website says that she is "an associate professor of history and director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University."
You would think that a professor of history might understand the role that men have played in creating the greatest country on the planet, but Hemmer believes that America is better off headed towards a more feminized society.
RELATED: The Myth Of Toxic Masculinity, Embracing Femininity
She makes her position pretty clear in an early paragraph, in which she's discussing a recent viral clip between Seinfeld and Bari Weiss. Seinfeld talks about missing masculine men and longs for a time in American history when masculinity was celebrated instead of labeled as "toxic."
"Such an obsolete vision of the past may not intentionally be expressive of the revanchist politics of the current moment, when women are denied medical care, professors are fired for teaching Black history and Supreme Court justices are openly questioning the constitutionality of same-sex marriage," Hemmer writes.
What a paragraph. OK, we start with some fun use of language by the esteemed history professor. "Women are denied medical care."
Women are not "denied medical care," this is a fancy way that the pro-abortion people like to position this issue so they sound better. It started as "pro-choice," moved into "reproductive rights" and now we've elevated it to "medical care."
Fine, that's her position. Sure, she's purposefully misleading people, but hey, that's how propaganda works.
Women hold up signs at a pro-abortion rally, including a sign that says "abortion is health care."
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images))
Then, she moves into "professors are fired for teaching black history" and links to one Florida professor who claims that's why he lost his job. Maybe the story is true, maybe it isn't. The point is that this isn't some sort of epidemic.
Critical Race Theory is far more common in schools than schools that don't allow history to be taught solely through a racial lens – a racial lens, by the way, that simply paints white people as oppressors and black people as oppressed. Again, you'd think a history professor might understand that. Alas.
As for her last point on same-sex marriage, questioning the constitutionality of something is kind of the job of the Supreme Court. Again, a history professor … never mind, you get it.
CNN op-ed quickly pivots to comedy, which the author insinuates is deeply rooted in sexism and misogyny.
Hemmer turns her attention back to the Seinfeld comments, in particular.
"But whether he likes it or not, his vision of gender and masculinity — shared by many male comedians (and not for nothing, conservative politicians) — is deeply political, and its prominence in the comedy world bolsters the retrograde politics now flourishing in many parts of the US," Hemmer writes.
"Schticks about women have long been a prominent feature of stand-up comedy. But the 'take-my-wife-please' comedy of the mid-20th century has gradually morphed into something with more bite: a cultural commentary that frets over the emasculation of men and lays the blame at the feet of women."
Actually, I can tell you for certain that one of the comedians she's about to name, Adam Carolla, doesn't blame women at all for this shift. He blames weak men. Which is kind of the point, though she seems to miss that.
She quotes several passages from one of Carolla's books, In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks, and uses them – disingeniously, I might add – to bolster her own point about feminism.
A recent op-ed on CNN.com took aim at comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Carolla (pictured) and Bill Maher and attacked masculinity.
(Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
Then, she does the same with Bill Maher's book, What This Comedian Said Will Shock You. But, don't worry, she's not just offended by comedy on behalf of women. She's also very concerned that these comedians hate gay people, too.
"While women take the brunt of the blame from these comedians, their critiques are also linked to anti-gay and anti-trans panic proliferating and being visibly weaponized in the political arena," Hemmer writes.
"Anti-gay and anti-trans panic" is a funny sentence to me. Why? Because I have not met a single person who is "panicked" by either group of people. Do some people not want their young children indoctrinated in these subjects? Sure, that's perfectly reasonable.
Panicked over their mere existence? Please, this is a strawman. And a history professor should … dammit, never mind.
As is standard practice, the author of this op-ed wants to police language.
Carolla used the word "metrosexual" in his book, and Hemmer wants you to know that language is no longer acceptable. It's crazy how often people like this demand language changes, isn't it?
She calls it "a now-dated term for heterosexual men with good grooming habits picked up from gay men." I just want readers to be aware not to use that word, or else you might get called a bigot.
Later, she goes after comedy itself, which is not up to the level of academia.
"No need for fact-checkers or analytical essays; the comedian’s accuracy can be measured in audience laughs — a sign of recognition that the comedian has hit upon something we all know deep down but that no one else is wiling to say," Hemmer writes.
Ah, that's interesting. So Hemmer thinks that comedians aren't held to the standard that academics, such as herself, are held to. They have to deal with "fact-checkers" and "analytical essays."
A recent op-ed on CNN.com took aim at comedians Jerry Seinfeld (pictured), Adam Carolla and Bill Maher and attacked masculinity.
(Noam Galai/GC Images)
Well, let's go back to a 2021 op-ed, on CNN.com, written by Hemmer. In that essay, Hemmer wrote over 2,000 words about, wait for it, how "misinformation" around "COVID vaccines" and "masks" were going to kill countless Americans.
Hmm. Hemmer was completely wrong about everything. I could quote several parts, but there's no reason to do that. She said what everyone else on the left said at that time, and they were all wrong.
Too bad those guard rails of "fact-checkers" and "analytical essays" weren't up at the time to stop people like her from spreading the actual misinformation that she so quickly accused others of spreading.
CNN author is worried about the impact of comedians, but seems to have it backwards.
To Hemmer, the message of these comedians is considered "dangerous." She warns of the far-reaching effects that such rhetoric can have on our fragile society.
"But sometimes "what we all know deep down" is simply "what we all have learned," and that can be, and often is, wrong-headed, cruel and in service of the powerful over the powerless.
"Comedy can be transgressive and liberating, but it can also be regressive and blinkered, and many comedians — even household names such as Seinfeld — can’t always tell the difference," she writes.
This is my favorite paragraph, and I'll tell you why. She claims that the views espoused by the likes of Seinfeld, Carolla and Maher represent servicing "the powerful over the powerless."
In this way, she's actually making their point, but probably doesn't realize it. You'd think a history professor … I PROMISED I WOULD STOP DOING THAT.
A recent op-ed on CNN.com took aim at comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Carolla and Bill Maher (pictured) and attacked masculinity.
(Noam Galai/Getty Images)
You see, she's thinking about the "powerful" as being the "masculine men." Instinctively, that's how she feels. To her, the "powerless" are the women and the gays.
Except, is that actually true in the structure of today's American society? Look at all of the biggest American institutions: Hollywood. Big Tech. The United States Government.
Are those institutions run by people who are, and are pushing, the narrative of masculinity above all else? Absolutely not. In fact, it's the exact opposite. The power currently resides with the left-wing, which dominates all the most important sectors of American society, including each of the ones I just mentioned.
I would argue, Professor Hemmer, that it's YOUR rhetoric attempting to keep the power with YOUR group and away from the "powerless," "masculine men" that you seem to fear so much.
To take that idea a step further, Hemmer essentially argues that 1950s and 1960s America was a terrible place and this new, progressive United States is the one built to thrive.
Were there policies in those decades that we can all agree were bad? Of course, we can.
However, you'd be hard-pressed to find many Americans right now, though, who believe that the country is in a better place since it started to shift from lauding masculinity – which led to the United States winning important wars, including ones that took down dictators who murdered millions of innocent people – into labeling it as "toxic."
History will not be kind to these people, those who push far-left politics, which have also never worked in the history of mankind. You'd think a history professor…
Never mind.