I don’t do enough link posts. Or any, really. (I mean, I think I’ve done a few, but that was years ago.) Anyway, I’ve decided to remedy that. So here are some interesting and/or appalling recent stories I’ve run across. Add more in comments!
Fanboys, White Knights, and the Hairball of Online Misogyny, by Tauriq Moosa at The Daily Beast.
You Can’t Fight Rape With Nail Polish, by Kate Harding at Dame.
Answering questions asked of feminists by a misogynist, by Amanda Marcotte at The Raw Story.
College dudes worried that movement to take rape seriously is ruining their sex lives, by Katie McDonough at Salon.
The Chilling Effect of Misogynistic Trolls, by Victoria Turk at Motherboard.
Disney World Princess Does Reddit AMA; Receives Creepy Messages, Of Course, by Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel.
Also, while I’m plugging things, I want to mention the GiveForward campaign to raise money to help pay the medical expenses of Christy Mack, the porn actress now recovering from a savage beating (allegedly) at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, the MMA fighter/ex-porn actor/convicted felon War Machine. (Note: Link contains picture of the injured Mack.)
Robert: Okay. I want to ask why though. Does it have a particular meaning across the pond? In the UK it means “stupid dickhead”.
Just googled “twat” and seen how it can be offensive. Huh. Growing up I’ve only ever heard it used to mean “stupid dickhead”, sometimes even in an affectionate manner like calling someone a muppet. NEVER heard it used in reference to female genitalia. I’ll still refrain though.
sunnysombrera- I am often baffled by regional differences as well. It can be a difficult thing to parse sometimes. That’s why standard English comes in handy. Lol but yeah here it’s best to avoid using the word “twat.” 🙂
“Twat” is sort of like “fanny” in reverse — fanny being unoffensive in the US, otherwise in UK.
NonServiam:
Yup, spiking is only involved in a relatively small number of date rapes. Alcohol itself is far and away the drug most commonly used to facilitate date rape. If anything, this gimmicky nail polish thing is going to give women a false sense of security.
Grumpyoldman: I see your point, although “fanny” is not offensive in the UK either. As far as I know, anyway.
I don’t think fanny is thought of as very offensive in the UK nowadays. Just good for a snigger when American’s talk about ‘fanny-packs’
As far as I know, “fanny” IS mildly offensive in the UK, as much as any other reference to the female genitals is in a country where “cunt” is used as a punctuation mark.
What got me about US TV was that “wanker” slipped past under the radar screen so easily.
Kotaku contacted Sanrio: Hello Kitty is a cat. I think what caused the issue is the pronoun. Animals, as a rule, have a different pronoun than people. Hello Kitty gets the people pronoun. I suspect that correction led the translator to a mistaken idea of Hello Kitty being not a cat.
Re such a beast still has claws. It can still draw blood. that was the bit I used to twee that story.
I KNEW IT. I WAS RIGHT. 😛
Phew. My world is right-side-up again. XD
@cloudiah: thanks for the video, I smiled.
@pecunium: I feel vindicated now in my attempts to reconvince my social circle over the past few days that Hello Kitty is a cat.
I’ve had a surreal few days and knowing that Hello Kitty is a cat is deeply reassuring. I wish I was joking.
LMAO about “wanker” — yeah. Also, “frigging” (which was once British schoolboy slang for the exact same act as “wanking”) as a more acceptable form of “fucking”. Another one is “scumbag” — not British, but in my youth meant a used condom. Of course, some people may use “scumbag” with even more relish knowing its origin. Would seem to fit Paul Elam to a T.
Do you need an excuse to laugh at people with fanny packs?
There was a company created to make fun of The North Face, called The South Butt…and of course they had a butt pack.
I had a hot pink fanny pack in the early 90’s.:( There’s a trend I hope doesn’t return.
I’ve had to stop using a local insult since I found out what it means – drop-kick. It’s another one I’d always heard, and used, to mean a prat, an idiot, a fool. But it’s another term for punt, and punt in this case is rhyming slang. 🙁
Oh heck, I thought drop-kick was a rugby reference and meant missing the goal or something.
I thought it was AFL (because there is such a kick) but yeah, when I saw that reference I was downcast, I tell ya!
#notasportsfollower
Whoa! Take it easy with the um, waist pack (is that a better term, or just nonsensical?) hate*. If I were a prayin’ person, that would be my main petition to a deity: “Pleeeeeze make fanny packs not an awful thing worthy of ridicule!!”
*This is an actual first-world problem for me as someone with tendinitis in both shoulders and carpal tunnel in both hands; purses and backpacks are just not in my repertoire of accessories. AT ALL. Because of the fanny pack aversion (and yes, they ARE ugly and ridiculous), my only real recourse is cargo pants**. I wear them roughly 90% of my waking hours.
**MEN’S cargo pants, to boot, since women’s pants generally have naught but laughable excuses for pockets, cargo-style or not.
Those Bavarian sausages look delicious.
Question to consider – if you called someone a “merchant banker”, would they be less or more offended if you said you meant it as rhyming slang?
Well, we do have some fairly obscure rhyming slang down here.
They’re “bum bags” here if that helps, though I suppose in the US that might be something the homeless use and I don’t think changing it to “butt bag” would help.
It’s a “chaos pouch” if you’re particularly unselfaware and into dressing in all black with patches, piercings and white-boy dreadlocks, which I think actually is a nod to the homeless, so maybe that takes it full circle.