{"id":1093,"date":"2004-09-20T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-20T20:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/09\/20\/scattered-thougths-on-girly-men-and-other-gendered-insults\/"},"modified":"2004-09-20T12:28:00","modified_gmt":"2004-09-20T20:28:00","slug":"scattered-thougths-on-girly-men-and-other-gendered-insults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1093","title":{"rendered":"scattered thougths on girly-men and other gendered insults"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feministe has a good round-up<\/a> of recent posts discussing male liberal bloggers who use “gendered language as insult.” She quotes Body and Soul<\/a>, who (predictably) gets to the core of the issue:<\/p>\n

Every time I read a liberal post which uses language that disparages women, I feel excluded. I feel like there’s a big sign on the blog that says my (weak and stupid) kind isn’t wanted. And obviously I’m not the only woman who feels that way. Now I don’t particularly care if Kim du Toit wants to exclude me, but I don’t like it when bloggers I read every day feel compelled to remind me every once in awhile that I’m not really <\/i>as good as they are. More important, insulting half of your potential audience does not strike me as a politically astute move.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, there’s also the fact that buying into misogynist garbage — along with the gay-bashing that accompanies insulting men by associating them with women — is a great way to reinforce the right-wing view of the world: There are inherently strong people and inherently weak people, and only the strong ones count. The rest can go hang out with the lesser orders. If you’re gay or female, that would be you. And me.<\/p><\/div>\n

The comments thread following Jeanne’s post is especially worth reading. I’d also recommend this post <\/a>on Des Femmes and, indeed, everything on Des Femmes<\/a>, if you’re interested in this issue.<\/p>\n

An issue that comes up a lot is the question of satire; what about lefty bloggers who use terms like “pussy” and “bitch slap” as an ironic reference to right-wing points of view? As Atrios <\/a>wrote in Jeanne’s comments<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If I say Bush “isn’t a real man,” I’m speaking the language of him and his supporters. I don’t think it’s insulting, but they do. It’s meant to be doubly mocking – hit them where it hurts and mock them for being so stupid as to be hurt by it.<\/div>\n

There’s something to be said for that. In a post like this<\/a>, Atrios is obviously making fun of misogyny, not endorsing it.<\/p>\n

And as MaryBeth<\/a> points out:<\/p>\n

I do take exception with the focus on Atrios as the embodiment of this pervasive undercurrent of misogyny on the Left. While Duncan may have exhibited of slip of the tongue (although I do accept his explanation), his actions over the past two years that I’ve been reading Eschaton indicate a deeper sensitivity to feminism (and racism as well) than I’ve encountered in most regions of our corner of the ‘Net.<\/div>\n

Well, great. Except: how the heck did this become a debate over if Atrios is a good person or not?<\/p>\n

Look, he’s a great guy. But that’s not the point.<\/i> The point is, when language like this become normalized, it’s a problem just like Jeanne says. It’s not about what I call “the politics of personal purity” – who is pure and who is not. It’s about the atmosphere created when using gendered insults like “pussy”<\/a> and “bitch-slap”<\/a> becomes the norm.<\/p>\n

To see what I mean, take this Atrios post <\/a>– which, as I wrote before, is obviously anti-sexist parody.<\/p>\n

Girly Men <\/b><\/p>\n

Suck it up if you’re unemployed. Pussies.<\/p><\/div>\n

But then read some of the comments <\/a>on that post left by Atrios’ readers….<\/p>\n

It’s easy to play a bigass tough guy in Hollywood where you get an air-conditioned trailer and a nice, catered lunch, your choice of pussy and a seven-figure paycheck without ever having to worry about a real enemy coming out and blowing your fucking head off. […]<\/p>\n

guys like you are the reason this country is going to shit. you’ve been a pussy and a blowhard know it all your entire life, and now you have a voice in the form of the Unelected Fraud and his corporatist overseers.<\/p><\/div>\n

Or, for that matter, after I debated a female blogger (Megan McArdle<\/a>) on the “Majority Report” radio show, how about this appalling comment left on the “Majority Report” blog by a reader:<\/p>\n

Barry WON. Barry Won.<\/p>\n

He OWNED HER!<\/p>\n

Barry is the WINNER.
\nSmack down!<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s not Atrios’ fault, or my fault, or Janeane Garagalo’s fault that these comments are made. But although it’s not our fault<\/i>, it should be our concern<\/i>. If you’re against sexism, then you have to be against the woman-excluding atmosphere these comments create – and against the way such comments seem to be becoming more common as the election heats up.<\/p>\n

If Atrios makes an ironic anti-sexist comment on his blog – or I talk against sexism on the radio – and the comments we get indicate that some of our audience, some of the folks who think they’re on our side, don’t get it <\/i>– that’s a matter of concern.<\/p>\n

If a leftist as smart and thoughtful and not-particularly-thin-skinned like Jeanne is feeling excluded, that’s a matter of concern.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying don’t use irony. I am saying do use thoughtfulness. If you’re gonna use such language ironically, use it in such an over-the-top fashion that no one can possibly mistake who it is you’re blasting. (Comics readers may remember when cartoonist R. Crumb did a parody comic of racist views – only it was too subtle, and some racist publications reprinted it because they thought it was supporting their views). I am saying the question we should be asking ourselves is not “am I personally pure and good of heart?” but “is what I’m doing, regardless of my good intent, contributing to the problem?” And: “Am I remaining silent when I should be objecting?”<\/p>\n

Finally, something that isn’t the point of this discussion, but is still worth thinking about. From a conversation with a Republican operative, reported on TAPPED<\/a>:<\/p>\n

…a D.C. Republican operative tells me that this election will come down to the votes of single women. But don’t take that to mean the GOP is going to be competing for the Planned Parenthood supporter vote any time soon. Single women, in particular, hate negative campaigning, he says, which is one reason the Bush campaign hasn’t hesitated to go negative this season. Every woman who is repelled from politics by doubts about John Kerry and disgust with George W. Bush — the “pox on both your houses” outcome — is effectively another vote for Bush.<\/div>\n

The more women feel alienated from politics, the better things will go for the GOP. And if what we want to fight that alienation – not just for electoral reasons, but because it’s the right thing to do – then the lefty blogosphere could be doing a lot <\/i>better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feministe has a good round-up of recent posts discussing male liberal bloggers who use “gendered language as insult.” She quotes Body and Soul, who (predictably) gets to the core of the issue: Every time I read a liberal post which … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism-sexism-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}