So I’ve been skimming through the mass of comments that the Daily Beast piece on the Men’s Rightsers now has trailing in its wake. So far I think this is my favorite exchange.
Yep, that’s DriverSuz — aka Suzanne McCarley, “Senior Editor” of A Voice for Men.
And yep, that’s Angry Harry, the fellow that many MRAs call “the father of the men’s rights movement.”
Some critics of this blog complain whenever I quote some crackpot commenter rather than one of the “big names” in the Men’s Rights movement. Sometimes, it turns out, the crackpot commenters ARE the “big names” in the Men’s Rights movement.
NOooo the blockquote monster got me 🙁
@auggz
Idk. It’s a pack? That holds things? Um…just guessing. I’m not a good word person.
I think it would be like saying “cunt pack” in America. The “pack” part isn’t vulgar, the “fanny” part is.
@Auggz
I thought ‘fanny pack’ was an american thing? where it means backside. In which case it would just be a pack on your backside. I don’t know if it’s used in UK. I’ve used it in US though.
Auggz, imagine you’re talking to someone and they suddenly start talking about their “vagina purse”. With a straight face.
FYI, we call them “bum bags” over here.
Ninja’d by everyone. Sparky is correct.
@titianblue:
That cowl is gorgeous! I love those colours, and the pattern – I haven’t learned that one yet.
How do you find using circular needles? I tried a cowl that way once, and it promptly turned into a Mobius strip. Only time I’ve used them successfully was adding a brim to a completed bonnet, where the thing couldn’t twist around. I’ve a skirt pattern I want to do (made up by the lady who runs my fave yarn shop, and a GORGEOUS garment) but it’s for circulars, so I iz all trepidatious. I’m wondering if putting a strip of duct tape along the needles’ cord, to make it flat and a bit wider, would hold the yarn enough to stop it twisting.
Ha, proper clothes! The idea of measurements and stitch counts and tension and whatnot scares the bejezus out of me. My proper clothes are squares and triangles (that’s all that coat is – cast on the maximum and start reducing).
Have you seen the site Ravelry? It has heaps of patterns contributed by members and lots of ’em are for free. I posted my coat pattern there (or at least, it links to my website, in a vain hope people will read that as well as look for the coat, lol).
Fanny, in the US (and I guess in Canada too, though I never ever hear it here) means your ass. A fanny pack is a small bag/pouch you wear around your waist (if you’re my dad, anyway) and even though the pouch usually hangs in front, it’s called a fanny pack. I guess bc people wore it with the pouch round the back, so it was like a butt purse? Or like a little bustle, but over the clothes, and you could put stuff in it?
Re: my experience with the big ‘C’ word. When I was younger, my impression was that it was considered so taboo bc women’s genitals were considered taboo, as in ‘proper folk don’t say vagina out loud’ type of thing. I was actually angry that the word inspired such shock, when words like ‘cock’ didn’t. Why can we talk about cocks, but not cunts? I thought. I mean, I get why people don’t like the word* now that I’m more seasoned (ie: older)… growing up, I just didn’t think about it as being derogatory towards women, other than to suggest our lady bits were something to be hushed up and not ever discussed. As in, you could say something was a cock-up (ie: a fuck-up), but not say that something needed to be moved a cunt-hair to the left bc OMG, you mentioned vagina-stuff.
*and hence rarely use it, unless in certain company, and I won’t use it here other than, well, how I used it above.
This is a bum bag/fanny pack (the ugliest yet super convenient way of carrying a small amount of stuff): http://emmgannon.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bumbag.jpg
I find it bemusing when people from the UK try and claim cunt is not a misogynist word. In NZ it’s even less gendered than the UK – I recently had a discussion with a British friend who was shocked and amazed by how much it’s used here, and almost more often for men. In fact, it’s pretty common to call a guy a “good cunt” as a compliment. It’s still a misogynistic slur.
Interestingly, it’s quite recent here that it’s become less of a word specifically directed at women. My friend, who’s in her late 30s, HATES the word. In the 80s it was seen as a much more hateful term. I’m 28, and it doesn’t have the same ring to me – it’s still pretty clear that if you want to spit hate at a woman that is the go-to word, and that says something.
I actually struggle not to use it because it is so satisfying. 🙁 I’m working on it. I’m totally down with reclaiming it for your genitals if you like it – some women find it really empowering, for lack of a better word (I hate that word). But you can’t reclaim a word as an insult IMO.
/my 2c. Yeah, I still lurk. Hai all. *waves*
Oh man, I am toooo slow. Not used to the northern hemisphere people being online when I am. lol
I have never heard c*** as an insult without it being gendered. It means women’s genitals and says the worst possible thing is to be like them, or it reduces women to their genitals and is directed at us with utter venom. I’m not buying it being just a US thing. It’s a fucking loathesome word and I agree with hellkell – it’s been weaponised beyond redemption. Even if the misogyny of it were originally USian (which I don’t believe), that meaning of it is so broadly known and understood that it’s way too late to claim separate meaning/status for it elsewhere. It’s like a certain ancient symbol (Godwin alert!) that’s polluted beyond repair because of one particular use of it.
As for using it for actual genitalia – to add to what I said before, I don’t really fancy the idea of talking about my genitals with a word that’s used to express hatred and contempt for them, and for women for simply existing as a block to the men who loathe both but want access to the former. Same goes for bitch: I’m not playing that game.
All of that said – Terrene, thanks for the apology and welcome!
“Less gendered” in as far as being used as much for men as women, not as in not being innately misogynistic, because well no shit. Though apparently a lot of people are unsure on this point.
The difference with slang for male genitals is that there’s always a level of humour, or the contempt is much milder – cock, prick, dick and so on aren’t seen as vile insults, and you don’t get women being called those things. It’s definitely a power based thing: men as the power group may snicker at “thinking with the smaller head” type jokes, but there’s nothing like the venom in the insults based on their genitalia that there is on those based on ours.
That said, I dislike the slang for men’s genitals too – not the insults part but the general use. Talking about someone’s cock or dick or prick, in a context meant to be sexy or appealing at all? Blech, what a turn-off. (MyOpinion™)
I’ve never found penis, vagina, vulva etc too medical or cold. “Penis” seems a damn sight sexier than any other names for it I can think of (at least when said penis is attached to the right person!)
Hi, Hrovitnir! Delurk moar!
^_^ I promise I spy on your photo and knitting efforts with much admiration. 😀
See, that first part is so true but so hard to quantify. I call my little brother (of whom I am a caregiver) a “dick” all the time – and he does the same to me and my partner. I see it as a very lighthearted word. “Don’t be a dick” is along the lines of “stop hassling your friends when you’re playing Battlefield, you are super annoying”.
In terms of erotica, and I can tell you that the lack of synonyms sometimes greatly frustrates me, I’m a fan of “cock”. Dunno, just works for me. Hell no to “prick” or “dick”: that’s like writing about a “vajayjay” or something to me. (I hate that word with the fire of a thousand suns, however. *mutter mutter*) /pointless ramble
Yay for blog pic lurkers! 😀
I hadn’t really thought about “dick” and the like within families; that’s right outside my experience. I was thinking as an actual insult, more broadly. Your example of how it’s used in your family actually supports that: it has a humorous element to it.
Can I add my flamethrower to killing off vajayjay? Fuckin’ stupidest word, coy and trying to be clever and just layer on layer of fail.
“Cock” never works for me ’cause I really don’t associate chickens with sexy, and every time I’ve seen it written, especially when it’s meant to be sexy, it’s just URGH URGH URGH kill the mood. 😀
I have a friend who uses the c-word instead of vagina because she really dislikes the etymology of the word vagina… but no, I can’t ever get behind using it as an insult. I’m very clearly american-centric in that, since I’m not from the UK, but it’s impossible to divorce the slur from the actual meaning of the term. C-word = vagina/vulva. Using it as an insult is implying the person you’re insulting is a vagina and that being that is bad. Can’t do it. Hate the word. Fuck the word.
To be fair, I’m a data point and I’m not totally unique, but I’m generally more sweary and crude than your average person. So there’s that.
Haha, it’s terrible! Have you heard it in real life? I think of it as a USian thing. The first time I discovered it existed I was mind blown. Coy words for body parts for children is a bug bear of mine anyway. What on earth are you trying to achieve?
The funniest story I’ve heard was a woman in the US when my partner was working over there being shocked by hearing his workmate say cunt and saying “do you know what that means?! … *whisper* It’s a woman’s peepee!” 4srs. An adult woman.
That is hilarious. “Cock” as in cockerel is not a usage that comes naturally to me – whenever I read it in the context of “cock fighting” (grr) or similar, I smirk internally. Yeah, I’m a child.
It never ceases to amaze me that they think they should be patted on the back for not being evil. It’s not even make believe regressive society fantasies about mammoth hunting or promising their worth that they’ll protect you from other men it’s “we must be compassionate, we don’t treat you like cattle!”
I guess it’s like how a particular brand of anti-feminist will start creating elaborate dominatrix fantasies about the New World Order that teh ebil matriarchy will bring forth.
@kittehs
Yes. Cannot. stand. vajayjay.
^vajayjay reminds me of a bird and I don’t know why. Plus it just sounds weird. Why not just say ‘vagina’?
Adding my firepower to the War On VaJayJay. Can’t stand it. Sounds childish to me.
I like ‘cock’ for erotica too. I had a gig once writing porn comics, and yes – the lack of good synonyms was totally frustrating. Same when I worked at a phone sex line. ‘Dick’ seemed, well, too funny and lighthearted. Come to think of it, most callers used ‘cock’ and ‘pussy’, with the odd ‘dick’ and ‘cunt’ in there now and again, usually with younger callers. Some UK callers would use ‘prick’ but not many.
Thankfully, no-one ever used ‘beaver’ *shudder* That one confuses the hell outta me. My vagina is pretty awesome, but it cannot gnaw down trees. Not that I’ve tried…
Because then you’d be saying the word and the word is icky. Or shameful. Or something.
::snicker:: You’ve been reading too much Cockrub Warriors of Mars, you have!
I can’t disentangle cock/penis from cockerel in my mind, which is largely why it’s just spppllttpfftnothanks. Noisy peckin’ things with feathers, not in my bed plz! (There’s another one I don’t like, though I think it’s obsolete anyway: pecker. Makes you wonder wtf they were doing with the thing to give it a name like that.)
The French one that was used in the Mister’s earthly days is better – guillery, which I’ve seen translated as “instrument of pleasure”. Much more relevant, tho’ alas I’ve not the foggiest how to pronounce it. I think the proper name (or one of them) was glande, which is about as precise as one could get!
That woman and “peepee” – Great Ceiling Cat, she needs some anatomy lessons, stat!
I’ve never heard vajayjay spoken, thank goodness. I live in hope we haven’t been infected with that particular bit of USian nonsense, but it could be just that I don’t have spoken conversations with anyone likely to know the word (or use it in my presence if they do, ie. younger colleague).
Lol @Marie! VaJayJay reminds me of Beyonce, I guess because they sort of rhyme.
I’m pro-cock in erotica. Dick just seems weird. I was gonna be all ‘cunt seems like a good one for erotica but it seems weird cuz it’s also a slur’ but I like pussy too, so that’s where my vote goes.