Swears, Insults, Off-Color Language, Stereotypes

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Jerkettes sounds like a female quartet from the Big Band Era.
Perhaps, they dressed like bell hops (another relic of the past) and tried to outsing the Andrews' Sister.

I can envision Ed Sullivan or Joe Franklin introducing them on TV.

A few years ago, Joe Franklin gave my friend Marty 's SIG
a free dinner in one of his restaurants on Broadway.

David

1 Reply

Interestingly, should one approve of the C word, Cs do have an element of meanness in them that jerks do not necessarily have. Some jerks are just stupid.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Would they sing along with 60,000 Polish dentists?

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Interestingly, should one approve of the C word,
Cs do have an element of meanness in them

With all respect: I take a different vu.
Genitalia of either gender r devoid of the evil that is so frequently attributed to them.
Alleging that a full human being is a sexual organ defies logic.
Such utterances r meaningless sound.

plainoldme wrote:

that jerks do not necessarily have. Some jerks are just stupid.

Again, I see it differently.
I doubt that a moron is able to be a jerk;
certainly, an idiot is not mentally able to do that.

In my opinion,
a jerk is someone who is KNOWINGLY abusive of etiquette.
He is guilty of intentional malice in his personal relations.

On another thread, there has been a very active discussion today
of a person to whom the qualities of a jerk have been attributed, for years on this forum.
That person (who shares your ideology) is demonstrably NOT stupid and he is well educated.
He is persistently rude and mean-spirited, i.e.: a jerk.

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

Would they sing along with 60,000 Polish dentists?

Maybe 59,000

0 Replies

@msolga,

msolga wrote:

... however, the "c" word as an insult is another matter altogether. I can't even bring myself to say the word, I find it so offensive.

Yeah but why? And what makes it so much worse that than the male anatomical equivalent as an insult? Maybe the history/prevalence of violence against women by men? Or is a more traditional patriarchal respect for women that makes use of the "c" word so virulent?
(interestingly in Australia the word is used to insult men far more often than for women. I think the reverse is true in the US)
Actually that makes me think the insult is actually different. The American usage would be implying that a woman is merely a "c" and that the rest of her is of no value, while the Australian usage implies something inherently nastly about said organ that applies to the insultee.

3 Replies

@Eorl,

Quote:

Yeah but why?

I think because it is the worst thing you can call anyone.

It makes me really pissed off that being called a prick is way less serious than being called a c. (Though using genitalia and sex as insults is pretty goddam weird in and of itself...but that's a whole other story, I guess.)

I think this is part of demeaning patriarchal attitudes to women, and intrinsically no worse than other offensive references to women...like calling a man a "girl" when you think he is being weak etc....but it is just so infuriating that the worst thing you can be is one of the defining physical bits of being female, just as being like a woman in other ways is used to abuse and insult men....god, how terrible to be like a female, for crissake!!!! Grrrrrrrrrr....

The c word in and of itself doesn't worry me, (I am using so c as not to offend Msolga) though I find both it and penis unpleasant sounding words (I prefer cunny etc., though I have no problem with c when used simply to describe a part of the body and in a loving way....)

I don't think the c started off as any worse than any other Anglo-saxon word...but contempt and fear of women has given the poor word a cultural baggage that makes it very ugly.

In my group, we say if you want to use genitalia as a means of insulting people, use your own. "Swear by your own genitals."

Quote:

1 Reply

@dlowan,

Eorl wrote:

Yeah but why?

dlowan wrote:

I think because it is the worst thing you can call anyone.

In my opinion, its worse to call him a commie, a nazi, a cannibal, or politically correct.

David

0 Replies

@Eorl,

Quote:

Yeah but why? And what makes it so much worse that than the male anatomical equivalent as an insult? Maybe the history/prevalence of violence against women by men? Or is a more traditional patriarchal respect for women that makes use of the "c" word so virulent?
(interestingly in Australia the word is used to insult men far more often than for women. I think the reverse is true in the US)
Actually that makes me think the insult is actually different. The American usage would be implying that a woman is merely a "c" and that the rest of her is of no value, while the Australian usage implies something inherently nastly about said organ that applies to the insultee.

Because it is gender-specific insult ... it refers to female genitalia as the lowest form of insult in Oz society ... and as a rule, this insult is used by men to denigrate other men. I have never heard a woman use that term of insult against anyone, no matter how angry they might have been with them.
So the lowest form of male insult to another male is to call them a vagina, but in an extremely crude form of the term. Think about that for a minute & you might get some idea of why it is so deeply offensive to many women. Many men, too, I'd suspect.

I've thought about gender-specific male terms of abuse in Oz. Those which refer to their genitals. The best I can come up with is to call someone a a "prick". And possibly "dick head", though that could refer to either of the orifices of the nether regions, male or female. I'm not sure. But I honestly cannot come up with a more offensive insult than "****". It is awful.

1 Reply

When someone asks about a word in class, and no one can explain what it means , my teacher let someone look it up in a wordbook and read it out loud. The good thing my teahcer does is that he also says "well, it's not only what the word is supposed to mean, it really is how we use it". I think this is really true. Maybe it's good if play down these words, maybe it's not. What we can know for sure is that language evolves, and that there is little we can do about it.

1 Reply

@Lily,

Lily wrote:

When someone asks about a word in class, and no one can explain what it means , my teacher let someone look it up in a wordbook and read it out loud. The good thing my teahcer does is that he also says "well, it's not only what the word is supposed to mean, it really is how we use it". I think this is really true. Maybe it's good if play down these words, maybe it's not. What we can know for sure is that language evolves, and that there is little we can do about it.

I 'm promoting fonetic spelling. Its faster n its ez.
That 's the logical thing to do. Enuf is enuf.

David

3 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Lily wrote:
When someone asks about a word in class, and no one can explain what it means , my teacher let someone look it up in a wordbook and read it out loud. The good thing my teahcer does is that he also says "well, it's not only what the word is supposed to mean, it really is how we use it". I think this is really true. Maybe it's good if play down these words, maybe it's not. What we can know for sure is that language evolves, and that there is little we can do about it.

I 'm promoting fonetic spelling. Its faster n its ez.
That 's the logical thing to do. Enuf is enuf.

David

How do you propose people use a dictionary to look up words phonetically?

1 Reply

@Intrepid,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Lily wrote:
When someone asks about a word in class, and no one can explain what it means , my teacher let someone look it up in a wordbook and read it out loud. The good thing my teahcer does is that he also says "well, it's not only what the word is supposed to mean, it really is how we use it". I think this is really true. Maybe it's good if play down these words, maybe it's not. What we can know for sure is that language evolves, and that there is little we can do about it.

I 'm promoting fonetic spelling. Its faster n its ez.
That 's the logical thing to do. Enuf is enuf.

David

Intrepid wrote:

How do you propose people use a dictionary to look up words phonetically?

The way thay sound; the same as the Spanish.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Ok. You go look up enuf and tell me what you find.

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@OmSigDAVID,

ez ? what does ez sound like phonetically?
Here and in Europe it would be "ee-zedd"

1 Reply

@Eorl,

Eorl wrote:

ez ? what does ez sound like phonetically?
Here and in Europe it would be "ee-zedd"

NO, the ee is OK, but no zeds; its zeeeeee

From your Profile, I infer that "here" means Austrailia.

David

3 Replies

@msolga,

Yeah that makes sense. It certainly explains why many women find it so offensive in a man-to-man context. I have heard women use it to refer to men, however, and it didn't sound like it was meant as a compliment at the time. I guess they aren't really thinking it through in the heat of the moment.
I'll certainly make a point of thanking anyone who refers to me in such a fashion in the future Smile

2 Replies

@Intrepid,

Intrepid wrote:

Ok. You go look up enuf and tell me what you find.

We find that we need fonetic dictionaries.

David

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Eorl wrote:

ez ? what does ez sound like phonetically?
Here and in Europe it would be "ee-zedd"

NO, the ee is OK, but no zeds; its zeeeeee

The point is that your assumption of your shorthand being simple and clear is based on an assumption that letters have universal phonetics throughout the english speaking world.
(You can imagine what a hard time Jay-Zed gets when he tours here)

As far as I can work it out, the only reason Zed is Zee in the states is to help the ABC song to rhyme.

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@Eorl,

Eorl wrote:

Yeah that makes sense. It certainly explains why many women find it so offensive in a man-to-man context.
I have heard women use it to refer to men, however, and it didn't sound like it was meant as a compliment at the time.
I guess they aren't really thinking it through in the heat of the moment.
I'll certainly make a point of thanking anyone who refers to me in such a fashion in the future

I can only refer to American slang, because other slang
is alien to me; the slang is stupidly crafted. It makes no sense.
My impression of the intended meaning of the male sex organ
is low intelligence. As to the female organ, it refers to bickering,
a brittle tendency to raise too many objections in an ambiance of impatience.

I think we all know that female dogs are bitches;
I have found them to be sweet tempered.

Applying this to chicks makes no sense. It defies logic.

David

2 Replies

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