The Rosie Debate
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
In recent weeks I have had many conversations with Bunko girls, family and co-works about Rosie O'Donnell. There have been many opponents of Rosie out in the media world lately and I just wanted to provide my 2 cents here on my blog. 
Some may disagree with me which is fine but I just want to say it. Feel free to comment if you so desire.
Rosie once had a show of her own. It was a great talk show and I was a regular watcher back in high school. Now she is on a show with many other women called The View. This isn't the same Rosie I remember from high school. On The View Rosie openly expresses, criticizes and talks about her opinions, sexual orientation, political issues and conditions of our country. Some have said that her comments are very "far-left", "over the top", "too extreme for main stream housewives watching The View" and that she is sharing an "orgy of left-winged nonsense". I think this is less about Rosie and more about freedom of speech.
Please view these Youtube videos for further background if you are interested, if you can handle listening to the women talk over each other and if you can stomach Bill O'Rielly.
O'Rielly on The View
O'Rielly on Rosie Part 1
O'Rielly on Rosie Part 2
Here is my opinion. Take it or leave it.
Embracing All Views
I think it is important to hear ALL views. Right, left, middle or somewhere in between. We should embrace all thinking so that it creates an environment for us to think a little more about the what we feel about issues in our world. Why should we be afraid or frustrated when someone expresses a view that we don't agree with? You can speak passionately about issues but we shouldn't fear different opinions.
Housewives & Househusbands
Whose to say that housewives aren't interested in debates and issues of the world or that they are uneducated? These are the women (and men) shaping the future generations and should be hearing all sides and perspectives so they can be educated, become critical thinkers and eventually teach their children how to be critical thinkers!!!! If Rosie is wrong than at least it is creating political conversation and motivating The View watchers to hopefully get a little more educated on the issues.
Elizabeth & Rosie
Its been said that Rosie "hectors" Elizabeth. I personally think the Rosie and Elizabeth have a healthy relationship full of progressive discussion. Obviously Rosie has a stronger personality than Elizabeth - anyone can recognize that but when they disagree and discuss they in turn GET ALONG. Isn't this a great model to see. You can get along with people that may have different political views as you!!! I'm glad that Elizabeth speaks out to Rosie. This is healthy. I think more political consultants should model their kind of relationship.
Censorship & Social Change 
If Bill O'Rielly (or other Rosie opponents) feels justified to express his/their right-winged view on his/their own show, why shouldn't anybody be free to express their views (though they may be left-winged) in any forum? I just don't understand why people whose job it is to voice their right-winged opinions to the world would criticize someone else that is vocalizing their left-winged opinions. It raises some interesting questions on censorship. Do we only want people who agree with what we believe to have a voice? If we become too narrow in what is projected in the media the masses could become one-sided and stagnant as a society. (Lets face it, The Daily Show wouldn't be nearly as funny if it was all one-sided.) We need the Bill's, Rosie's, Oprah's and Jon Stewart's to provide voices and healthy opposition but we also need to find a bit more middle ground. Like Lee always says, "The art of good politics is compromise".
Our society could not generate powerful conversations to push social changes if we all agreed with each other. There would not have been the civil rights movement or the women's right movements if there weren't people pushing the issues. Looking back historically those were significant changes and I hope we continue to evolve and become more of an accepting and loving society of all opinions, races, sexes, and sexual orientations. And it takes voices to do that!
Final Thoughts
So my conclusion is that whether or not you agree with Rosie or think she is irresponsible or even like her for that matter, she does has a voice and has the right to use it. And I think people should leave her alone about expressing herself. God bless America and the freedom to say whatever the hell we please - Left, Right, Independent, Traditionalist or Secular Progressive.
And like Bernie says, if you don't like it, don't watch it.....
5 Comments:
so...I'll be the first to comment. I do believe people should be able to express their opinion. And in my opinion Rosie doesn't take the right approach if she really wants to engage people in making a change!
Shannon
(I hate this cyber stuff -- I'm "other" because it doesn't agree with the password I entered)
Interesting point, Shan. I appreciate the comment. What would approach would make you want to listen more?
This kind of goes along with how I feel about the "enlightened liberals." Just for the record, I too tend to lean more to the left, however....
I think you can be pushing your voice so hard, pusing to be heard, pushing that you are so open minded that you are just as narrow and closed minded as the people you are talking about. As I sat in my social work classes, the so called "liberal minded" ranted about how open they were and bashed everyone else. I just thought it was ironic that they were so busy with their own message they weren't in an OPEN position to hear others in return (nor do I think they necessarily wanted too.)
It's great to have a voice but I think there is a big difference between talking with someone and talking at someone. I think there is a big difference about wanting to be heard and hearing in return. I'm not into Rosie enough to know where she lays on this spectrum but that's just my perspective in general
So true Kristin. I do think so many have trouble listening to the opposite side. (Even me at times). But truly listening needs to happen more often.
Both extremes are too much.
I'm registering as an independant this year.
I think I'm a little behind on this one, looks like it was posted last week. But my feelings on Rosie lately is how I feel about Tyra, "I was the first black women to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.." Banks. They use these shows to talk about themselves and how great they are and how great their opinions are. This is where I have a problem.
And I do agree that it's important to debate, but it's a one sided debate with her. She doesn't listen to others.
I personally don't like watching the show anymore because she gets on my nerves. And I like you Aimee, used to watch her regulary when she had her own show.
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