How Limbaugh Engages Women on his Best Day

“I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.”

— Rush Limbaugh on Fox News‘ “Fox & Friends,” Feb. 3, 2010 (via LAT)

With Limbaugh in the headlines for misogyny, calling a Georgetown law student a slut and a prostitute for defending medical insurance coverage for contraception, I thought: surely Rush can’t be that screwed up when it comes to women, can he? For an alternate view, I sought out the best visual evidence I could find illuminating how Rush could subsume himself to, and honor a woman. The photos I’m drawing from come from an twenty photo online photo album on Rush’s Facebook site, posted a-year-and-a-half ago, titled: “Rush & Kathryn’s Wedding.”

Hand-picked for the public, some things seem to come out a little funky, however.

You’d imagine a wedding album — especially a PR-version — would amplify the chemistry of the couple, and above all, allow the bride to shine. It doesn’t exactly plays out that way, though, the album feeling as much like a vehicle for Rush, as you see above — or, maybe Rush and Elton, the latter the subject of almost half the photos.

If there isn’t one photo in the album that amplifies the chemistry of the couple — one that highlights the betrothed exchanging looks in a knowing moment, for instance, that we can also be privy too — these two are probably most representative of the matrimony.

Rather than celebrating a union, we get Rush (looking off this way while Kathryn, in her own bubble, demurely looks down) signaling that he has scored somehow.

A variation on the last pic (there’s getting and and there’s getting-got), we see another demonstration to the crowd. In this case, far from reflecting something mutual, Rush emphasizes his submission allowing his bride to win the prize.

Beyond his verbal eruptions, the world has no access to Limbaugh’s day-to-day treatment of women. Taking the most favorable “data” available, however, you can see that his engagement with women is a lot less about common ground than about achievement, possession and “excellence in broadcasting.”

Update: In an article cutting deeper to the bone, Modo reminds us this is Rush marriage #4.

(photos: Donna Newman)