How little does Patricia Heaton matter in the world of celebrities? It took until noon today, after the aging former co-star of "Everyone Loves Raymond" spouted off over the weekend about college student Sandra Fluke testifying about insurance companies needing to cover birth control for students, for me to even hear about the aging has-been opening her stupid mouth.
I agree with the testimony of Sandra Fluke, insurance companies would be wise to cover birth control options for both women and men (yeah, that means vasectomies, guys). There are plenty of insurance companies who do not provide that coverage -- sometimes costing as little as ten dollars per month -- for women. And the women seeking it out are more often than not in relationships and are obviously capable of making smart decisions. The world doesn't need tens of thousands of unplanned pregnancies which tend to result in births which just so happen to be covered by insurance companies and cost them well over $10,000. Simple math says that any smart insurance company could afford to provide a few hundred months of birth control for women before they equal the cost of covering one birth.
It's easy for someone as disconnected from reality as Patricia Heaton, living on royalties from the 90s sitcom she was a part of, to rattle off a few poor attempts at jokes at the expense of Sandra Fluke who was brave enough and believed in her convictions enough to go out in public and testify before congress about her beliefs -- a belief that insurance companies who just so happen to cover the cost of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, allowing older guys to sport more wood than a lumberyard and harrass their aging wives for some sexing; should actually cover a medicine that improves the lives of women. And yes, I know all about the condom option but I'm sure there are plenty of women who, just like guys, don't want to deal with the perceived hassle and would rather take the responsibility of safe sex in their own hands.
Maybe Patricia Heaton has begun to learn that she isn't going to see eye to eye with others on the topic of birth control. Maybe Patricia Heaton just heard about the idiotic and intentional controversy stirred up by Viagra abuser Rush Limbaugh and decided to pile on. Or maybe Patricia Heaton is just an ignorant D-list Hollywood celebrity nearing the end of her viability who just wants to keep her name in the pages of the media.
5 comments:
Not that this is completely relevant to your arguement, but she is currently starring in a fairly popular sitcom on ABC. She's still an idiot when it comes to spouting off about birth control (she's a devout Catholic), but she's not quite is irrelvant to society as you described.
I hadn't seen anything about what Heaton said until now. I wasn't exactly offended by it, but I'm glad she apologized. (I also don't see why you think this is still an issue given her apology.)
However, I wouldn't call Sandra Fluke brave. She's a 30-year-old activist who's been advocating this issue (and others) for a long time. I think she's being portrayed as an innocent, naive college student who was pushed into the lime light. She's gunning for the lime light for a long time and has been milking it, appearing on numerous shows to talk about it since the Limbaugh fiasco (without which this wouldn't even be a blip on the news radar).
As for the debate, there's no reason the government should force religious institutions to offer something they're convicted is wrong. I have no conviction against birth control and am not Catholic. I think their conviction is silly. But that's my opinion. If you think their opinion is wrong, don't work for them.
How is birth control suddenly a fundamental human right that we must legislate all insurance providers to cover? The pill didn't even exist until after most of our parents were born. I have a real problem with the government requiring things like this out of private institutions. Fluke is not simply suggesting that it "would be wise" for insurance companies to cover birth control options (and I agree that it would be). She's saying they should be required to and that our government should force private companies to do so.
Also, I find some of the language in this post far more flippant and inflammatory than anything I read from Heaton. It's nice to be able to say whatever we want in relative obscurity without the intense scrutiny that follows celebrities, but it doesn't make it any better.
Thanks for the feedback. I only called Heaton irrelevant because her current series, "The Middle", is nowhere near as popular as "Raymond" was. As for the fact that Fluke is basically a professional activist, I had no idea until reading the comments here.
As for my inflammatory language, I sometimes like to take the stance of a talk radio host and just spout off just as much as some celebrities do. I know that nothing I write will change anyone's mind but if it ruffles a few feathers then it has at least caught someone's attention.
In the end this crap won't matter at all in a week and I'll have another uninformed and little-researched post floating around in the vastness of the internet.
Heaton is definitely largely irrelevant, as are most actors and actresses in my opinion. But I don't read People every week so maybe I underestimate their influence.
I enjoy a good opinionated piece regardless of whether I agree with it. Keep 'em coming.
Also, talk radio hosts suck. :)
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