Mike Huckabee doesn’t like foul language. Especially from women.
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Version 0 of 1. If you're interested in regional stereotypes and cultural caricatures, Mike Huckabee's got you covered. In Huckabee's world, the land of the "Bubbas," women are apparently not supposed to use the kind of foul language afforded to men. Here he is on the Iowa radio program "Mickelson in the Morning," talking about how just plain shocked he was at the kind of verbiage he encountered in New York, presumably in meetings for his Fox News show. Huckabee, who says he doesn't curse in his everyday life, said it was "absolutely a culture shock": In a business meeting that you might have in the South, or in the Midwest, there in Iowa, you would not have people who would just throw the f-bomb and use gratuitous profanity in a professional setting. In New York, not only do the men do it, but the women do it. And you're just looking around saying 'My gosh, this is worse than locker-room talk.' This would be considered totally inappropriate to say these things in front of a woman and for a woman to say them in a professional setting. ... As we would say in the South: ‘That’s just trashy.’ In a business meeting that you might have in the South, or in the Midwest, there in Iowa, you would not have people who would just throw the f-bomb and use gratuitous profanity in a professional setting. In New York, not only do the men do it, but the women do it. And you're just looking around saying 'My gosh, this is worse than locker-room talk.' This would be considered totally inappropriate to say these things in front of a woman and for a woman to say them in a professional setting. ... As we would say in the South: ‘That’s just trashy.’ These are the kinds of episodes Huckabee recounts in his book "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy" -- a book that plays on the idea of Huck takes Manhattan. An even better example of what Huckabee is up to is captured in "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse," one of the best "Sesame Street" skits ever produced. (Country mouse lives in a haystack and eats acorns. City mouse lives in apartment and doesn't recognize the sound of birds chirping.) Huckabee is playing into a cultural worldview where Larry the Cable Guy is the dominant comedian, country is the soundtrack, and being scrutinized by The New York Times (or The Washington Post) is a badge of honor. He says he wants to affirm people in flyover country (he lives in Florida) who need to know they aren't alone. But while Huckabee had the culture warrior thing to himself in 2008, he's got competition this year. What was clear in Iowa this weekend is that space is now filled up with people like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ben Carson, among others. Unlike Huckabee, though, they aren't bashing Beyonce and foul-mouthed ladies. |