“When a man uses profanity to support an argument, it indicates that either the man or the argument is weak - probably both”Anonymous Internet commenter (whom, for the sake of clarity I shall henceforth refer to as, BellyacheR) had this to say about my latest blog post:
~Unknown
BellyacheR: "Go make me a sandwich you poor nigger dyke bitch..."
Nothing surprising here; any woman who has ever dared to speak online has dealt with a thousand incoherent flames identical to this one. But what is noteworthy about this particular bit of prattle from a hater like BellyacheR, is that he secretes the exact same limp comment verbatim that fills the moderation queues of many a woman's blog. Yet I am a straight white male!
Despite making it obvious to readers that I am a man (it's the first thing listed on my profile), BellyacheR's comment lacked any words that would be personally insulting towards straight white men. Let's analyze his response in detail:
- "bitch"
This word attacks women. (The dictionary definition is: "a lewd woman.") - "dyke"
This word attacks lesbians. (The dictionary cites it as a disparaging slang for, "a female homosexual; lesbian.") - "nigger"
This word attacks African-Americans. (The dictionary cites it as an extremely disparaging and offensive slang [1] for, "a black person.") - "poor"
This word can apply to men; but it is classist more than sexist. - "Go make me a sandwich"
An extremely disparaging and offensive slang used against women, used to signify a woman's status as a slave to the male commenter. This cannot apply to men since, according to the mainstream media, dudes cannot cook. - "..."
This is a grammatically incorrect use of ellipses only insults the intelligence of the commenter. - "you"
Well, I guess this does apply to me. Not very insulting though.
See? Language is so rigged in men's favor that people can't even comprehend how to insult straight white men [2].
The closest they can come is to accuse other straight white men of being a woman, but that is a complete cop-out. Using derogatory slang for women against men shows that the Dudes do not really want to attack other men; they are afraid that if they attacked other men as viciously as women, it would jeopardize their own status of invulnerability conferred to them by their gender.
In other words, these Dudebags are cowards.
Alas, deep down I was hoping for more creativity from the dregs of society. Perhaps they will make it up to me in the future and create some swear words for straight white men. Until then, I hope they enjoy ranting at my Delete button.
[1] Since "nigger" can also apply to men, the dictionary warns readers that the word is, "Extremely Disparaging and Offensive." The warnings for words used solely against women (such as "bitch", "dyke", and "cunt") are not nearly as severe.
[2] Even "cracker" -one of the few swear words that can actually be used against white men- is ridiculously limited in scope! By definition, a "cracker" is a disparaging term for, "a poor white person of the rural, especially southeast United States." Which, by the way, means that it still doesn't apply to most straight white men.
Copyright December 2008 by F*ck M*sculinity
Wll told!
ReplyDeleteBellyacheR must think you're a woman that just lied on her profile because, obviously, no sane straight man would rebel against the Patriarchy, right? Otherwise, he'd have called you gay.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but "gay" still doesn't get past the problem.
ReplyDelete"Gay" is just another way of accusing a man of not being a straight man. It's still attacking a minority, it's still attacking a guy for not being dutifully masculine, and it's still avoiding the use of a direct swear word against a straight white men.
How does one swear at a straight white man without calling them something they are not?
Oh most definitely agreed. Obviously, if you're not straight (and white and male), you're other-than-straight (etc.) and therefore bad. I prefer the f-bomb, and use it quite a bit with various suffixes (er, wad, wit, etc.). Though I can't say that I haven't been chastised for it. It's "not lady-like" and such. An old neighbor had a good one, she used to use the term butt-nugget, which I thought was pretty inventive, though not technically swearing.
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting swearing can be done with the use of "ass" and various suffixes as well (wipe, hat, hole, etc).
you can call someone a "dick" or a "cock," which means he's a jerk. That applies to straight white men.
ReplyDeleteBut calling someone a "cunt" or a "pussy" is, like, a million times more vulgar for some reason.