On "Bitch" and other Misogynist language
Cross post from Another forum. With an addendum. I did NOT block out or use punctuation for certain words.
This article is from 2007. Have things gotten better? Or worse? Given the yet again, 'dust ups' over language, I found this post apropos to current events in general. What's sad is we still have to explain, over and over, why context is everything. This is a much longer post than the excerpt I have here and has a couple of embedded articles.
By which I shouldn't be surprised, given that, as I said, I've had this conversation before, and it always goes the same way. So let me just respond to this point-by-point, since they're the same responses I inevitably get in such exchanges, and all of them have been raised in the comments of Shakes on multiple occasions:
1. The Brits use it. Some segments of British society are indeed fond of using the word cunt a lot. There are pubs in London where three seconds doesn't go by without someone shouting "yeh feckin' cunt!" at his or her mate. And…that really has nothing to do with its use at an American blog about American politics.
It also, btw, has nothing to do with whether it's intrinsically sexist. There are also bars in America where not three seconds pass without one guy calling another guy a fag. The frequency of its use in specific regional areas doesn't make it not homophobic—in those areas, or anywhere else.
Relatedly, the attempt to rip misogynist slurs from their roots to try to redefine them doesn't fly. "I'm using it in the European way" is just a cynical ploy to justify the continued use of misogynistic language that feels good to use. "Asshole" just doesn't have the zing! of "cunt," which is why we get these tortured explanations about how "cunt" isn't being used in the misogynistic way, but in the British or European way, where the word's ubiquity is fallaciously used as evidence that the word has lost all its meaning.
Throwing around the word cunt as if it has no meaning anymore—or some "new" meaning separate from gender—is ignorant and lazy, and contributes, in spite of all protestations to the contrary, to a culture of inequality.
2. I use it. My using the word cunt to describe myself and a man using it to describe another man are fundamentally different contexts. To pretend that this difference is not patently fucking obvious is what August calls a fabricated belief. No one with two brain cells still knocking together honestly believes that white people using the n-word as an insult and black people using it for any reason are equivalent, nor that a gay man describing himself as a faggot is the same as Ann Coulter describing John Edwards as a faggot. And no one should have the slightest bit of trouble wrapping their heads around the idea that my (or other women) reclaiming the word cunt (or bitch, or other sexist euphemisms) to describe ourselves is not the same as a man using it as an insult.
I love the word cunt, and I'm all for reclaiming it—but reclaiming "cunt" is about a woman wearing it herself and wielding it ironically, which is necessarily as a compliment, not an insult. If I call my girlfriend "a beautiful cunt" for expertly handling a sexist wanker, that's got reappropriative power. If I call her "a dumb cunt" because she does something foolish, not so much.
There are ways to use words and there are ways to use words—and knowing the difference, rooting out the subversive context from that which simply perpetuates oppression, is not remotely difficult.
And no matter how often women use it in a reclaimative fashion, it doesn't give anyone (of either sex) permission to use it as an insult. The whole "you use it" justification strikes me as a rather pathetic bit of whining; why do you get to use it and I don't? As if that's some big coup for the girlz. Trust me—in the whole "undeserved privilege since birth" v. "getting to use cunt" cage match, you've got the better end of the bargain. So STFU.
3. The guy who used it is "no misogynist." He was using this term for female genitalia to insult a man, after all, and his intent was not to be misogynistic. Okay, first of all, let’s pull this apart into two pieces:
A. Intent: If you're turning part of a woman's body into a slur to insult someone, the implication is necessarily that cunts are bad, nasty, less than, in some way something that a person wouldn't want to be or be associated with. That's how insults work. When cunt is used as a slur, it is dependent on construing a woman's body part negatively—and it thusly misogynistic, because it inexorably insults women in the process. Specifically using a misogynistic slur against a man can't be anything but intentionally misogynistic. If you don't intend to demean women, then don't use misogynistic slurs. It's really as simple as that.
B. Not a Misogynist. How often does one have to use misogynistic language before one can be identified as a misogynist? Twenty times? A hundred? An infinite number of times, as long as he doesn't beat women? During the "cunt/whore" dust-up recounted here, Piny wrote a great post addressing this very question:
I wholeheartedly agree that there is a difference between someone who posts an ill-conceived blackface photoshop caricature and, say, Nathan Bedford Forrest. I will also happily concede that there is a difference between someone who openly identifies as feminist but casually uses misogynistic slurs and graphic misogynistic riffs to deride people–women in particular–and, say, John Knox.
This does not mean that it’s a good idea to restrict “a racist,” “a sexist,” and “a misogynist,” to the very worst of the worst. …t reduces complaints about all of these words to matters of personal affront, such that “sexist” and “cunt” are equated. “Sexist” becomes not a criticism of someone’s demonstrated beliefs, a term like “reactionary,” but an epithet as crude as the slurs to which it responds. It’s mean and unfair to call someone a sexist.
http://www.shakesville.com/2007/11/on-bitch-and-other-misogynist-language.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
You stupid fucking crankshaft--
You think like a Chrysler transmission shifts--
You are acting like a Pinto's ass 
nicely done 
Sid
I'm a gearhead so it kinda comes naturally to me. 
Word Police to the left, Dramatic Labels to the right...
(Personally, I like to use "Grammar Patriots" if I feel my argument isn't strong enough on its own, and must validate it with dramatics, but I imagine 'Word Police" does the precise same thing... 
)
...and just because you don't hear something doesn't mean it isn't done. 
You know the rest. 
I don't use the word "dick" to describe someone for the same reason. There's an argument that there's a societal power differential and therefore words that hurt women have a stronger societal "sting" to them, but I don't really worry about that in my personal life and just in general avoid calling people by the name for their genitals.
"Cunt" is in common usage in the UK, much more so than in the US; but in British usage, it's almost exclusively used of men, not women, and frequently as a sort of rough term of camaraderie, even (a not uncommon working-class greeting in, say, Glasgow: "how are you, you old cunt?"
But then on this side of the Atlantic "bitch" also retains its meaning of "female dog" much more frequently than in American usage where it's by and large become purely a term of insult.
when Nick Frost's character asks his mates "Can I get any of you cunts a drink"
Cultural differences can make for interesting situations
Sid
I am very sorry for what you had happen to you. Breaks my heart and I wish I could give you a hug in real life. I know it's not easy to talk about even on a message board. You are very brave.
I feel bad that the f word is a trigger word for you. And that is just what it is, it's not misogynistic. Just think for a second, any word, color, smell, sound, etc. could just as easily be a trigger. Breaks my heart for you but I don't think we can expect people to stop using that word.
It says bad words! 
Did you see that post? Oh, yeh, I suppose so; here's where you posted in that thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1882761
So you apparently believe that the word Mother*****r is appropriate for GD, in the title of a thread in GD, which made it to the Homepage of GD. Did you alert on that post, or any of the many posts containing the word motherf***r in their subject lines, or did you think it that that word, and the myriad of other colorful words in that thread, were perfectly appropriate for GD?
But you voted to hide an expository graphic that debunks the excuses of misogynists for the use of misogynistic language, posted by a woman who was trying to make a perfect point, and used the the explanation that her post was inappropriate for GD?!?
Why? What is your reasoning here?
Yes, I totally agree, and the reason for that is institutionalized and enculturated (meaning socialization: the adoption of the behavior patterns of the surrounding culture) misogyny. Many people have difficulty recognizing misogyny within their processes and behaviors, simply because misogyny has been a cultural norm for their entire lives, and for thousands of years prior, so they generally don't recognize the latent misogyny within themselves, at least until some life changing event leads to an epiphany (ie a sudden realization about the nature or meaning of something) and reveals to them the existence of their own unrecognized misogyny.
And this phenomenon is not just a "man thing", it is frustratingly prevalent among women as well, although it appears to be a bit more common among men.
Thank you so very much for posting the jury results, and for your candid response to my question as well.
Obviously, it hit a very sensitive nerve among a certain segment of the DU population who have difficulty with being confronted with criticism of misogynists and the language of misogyny
Classic example of the whole cliche about how "the truth hurts".
Never mind the "Word Police".
The real threat is from the "Truth Police".
Teacher Writes ‘You Can’t Be A Democrat And Go To Heaven’ On White Board
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021883997
REASON FOR ALERT:
This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate. (See <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=aboutus#communitystandards" target="_blank">Community Standards</a>.)
ALERTER'S COMMENTS:
Is using the word "bitch" in this way now acceptable to DU?
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Nov 26, 2012, 12:31 PM, and the Jury voted 1-5 to LEAVE IT.
Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Even though I voted to leave this post alone, the OP should be aware that the B word offends many at DU and should refrain from using it in the future. You use of that word on DU displays you to be a callous jerk. To the alerter, I wish you would address the OP directly instead of sniping at them with an alert. You could have done just as much good, if not more, by confronting the OP directly about their use of the B word.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: I would recommend changing the commentary a bit. "Snapper Head" is a far better and more original insult.
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: It's not acceptable to me.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.
I was juror #5, the lone hide vote. I'm not entirely surprised that the post was left, more that the vote went 5-1 to leave it.
Sid
