Weekend star Ed Schultz once called Laura Ingraham a “slut”.

Keith Olbermann—obviously no longer with the network—has referred to Michelle Malkin as “a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it.”

And through the years, we haven’t seen the men of MSNBC taken to task by the network’s female hosts/anchors the same way Kelly and Van Susteren just did in blasting Dobbs and Erickson. Rachel Maddow certainly isn’t shy on taking on anyone, particularly Republicans during its whole alleged War on Women during the 2012 campaign. But since coming a major star on the network in 2008, she’s been oddly silent after the likes of Matthews, Schultz or former BFF Olbermann made their unambiguous comments about women.

Mika Brzezinski of Morning Joe is also a prominent woman on MSNBC. At a reported $2 million per year (as opposed to co-host’s Joe Scarborough’s $4 mil), she’s also is there to primarily serve as opinion-maker. But like Maddow, Mika hasn’t challenged Matthews or Schultz (or Olbermann in the past) despite being given ample opportunity to do so on her three-hour daily show (on cue, she did recently slam Fox’s Dobbs and Erickson).

Given Maddow and Mika aren’t afraid to offer perspective on anything and everything, what’s been holding them back from taking their male counterparts to task in the past?