Not too long ago, Adorable Child muttered to a friend that her teacher was “a b*tch” as she was leaving the classroom. Unfortunately for her (in the short term, but good in the long), she was overheard… and the subject of AC’s comment was incensed.
The teacher called me, very concerned about AC’s use of this word — specifically this word — toward a fellow female. Ultimately, AC was called upon to write an essay about the Women’s Rights Movement, and she received several lectures on the topic.
I don’t know whether the lesson really hit home for my 11-year-old, but the relationship with her teacher was damaged beyond repair. AC’s struggled to stay out of her line of sight since.
I have no idea who this teacher supports, politically, but I’d be willing to wager pretty much anything that she’s absolutely livid about the idiots thinking it’s okay to call Hillary Clinton a b*tch, just because she’s Hillary.
Here’s my problem with the whole situation: In the course of my lifetime, I’ve been called that word quite a few times, but I never took it as a reflection on my chromosomal structure. It’s a slur and a cuss word, and it’s demeaning (to me) in exactly the same way any other flagrant, uncouth, and ill-bred attack is. It’s across the line every time on those grounds alone. At the same time, I recognize that there are women — many of them — who take the word b*tch extremely personally every time it’s used, regardless of who was being verbally attacked. Using it on any woman is a slap in the face to all of them.
Just because I don’t internalize the outrage doesn’t mean I approve of the term.
In terms of the Democratic Primary, I think it would behoove Barack Obama to condemn the ongoing, casual application of the term to Hillary. It’s wrong. He knows it… as does everyone else who didn’t grow up in a barn.
But at the same time, I’m just as disgusted (maybe more so) by the bigots across the Appalachian region, and I agree totally with David Gergen: Hillary should tell those who are voting for her because they “won’t vote for a black person” to keep their votes, thanks anyway.
This primary has exposed a nasty, ugly, utterly revolting aspect of our country, and I’m more than embarrassed by it. I’m angry.
It’s appalling that bigots and/or misogynists are being treated lately as if their votes are more important than elsewhere in America.
How pathetically small-minded many Americans have turned out to be.
*****
Added: More expansive commentary on the David Gergen comments here. Via memeorandum.
I’m just as disgusted (maybe more so) by the bigots across the Appalachian region…Hillary should tell those who are voting for her because they “won’t vote for a black person…”
Yeah. I know what you mean. I was up in the Ilinois region in Chicago and those bigots there would announce out loud that they would never vote for that “white bitch” Hillary. Of course this was a very large area of, well, Obama supporters who looked alot like him…shall we say?
I personally find the whole morass both deliciously ironic and sadly pathetic. It seems that the same crowd who in the past whipped up hatred with such soundbites as “the Republicans want to feed your aging parents DOG FOOD!!!” have turned on the Democratic candidates in what can be seen as philosophical cannibalism. Two candidates, whose differences are more genetic than anything else, are portrayed as eternal enemies, and their respective fanbases whipped into a feeding frenzy which could end up fracturing the Democratic party, and will almost certainly keep the current poisonous political climate alive for decades to come.
~EdT.
Joe — I’d really love to engage with you, and try to play “who can come up with the most defensive tale”, but it’s really hard to see the point of the game.
EdT — If I didn’t think having a single party system would be the worst thing that could happen to our country, I’d be joining the Republican partisans who are crowing with glee at the Democrats lately. And I agree totally: it’s doubly sad that a campaign that started off based upon trying to move past the poison is now being dirtied by supporters who cannot seem to remember that we’re supposed to be better than that.
Supporters on both sides.
I’m not too worried about a single-party system in this country. Our politicians seem to be adept enough at screwing things up, to keep folks riled enough to prevent that from happening.
~EdT.
In my family (single mother, sister and me) bitch was a compliment. It is a word that normally gets applied to women who are Alphas (Boring women rarely make history). Neither my mother or sister has ever found a situation they couldn’t take charge of and normally improve.
My mother was kind and sweet… until you tried to stop her from doing what needed to be done. She often left men babbling as she cut through red tape and petty bs as she worked on making a better life for her kids. She was often refered to as a bitch for it.
My sister is a special ed school teacher. The other teachers (most of whom have non-special ed classes) use her as a threat to the students. It is due to her not cutting them any slack and holding them to the same high standards she holds her students to. She knows they call her a bitch behind her back, but the parents say it is amazing how much better the kids behave around her.
My wife fits into the same mold.
You’re angry about this election? As one of the permanently disenfranchised in this country, I’m a little past angry. I’m livid. I’ve come to the conclusion that the only sane thing to do is to protest the entire thing. I for one won’t be supporting the winner regardless of who that might be. I’m done with this whole process and anyone who supports it. Let’s examine for example what’s not happening. The country is in the midst of a fuel crises, while at the same time fighting an ill advised war, while we’re in a rapidly deteriorating economy, in the midst of a world wide food crises prompting scores of illegal aliens to pour into the country because there’s no effective management of the borders so, for example AC may well be at one of those schools where there’s an anouncement of exposure to TB. What have we heard out of Washington on this? In two words, not much. So much not much as to virtually equal zero. Happy with the silent treatment from your elected officials?
Now, if we cogitate on this phenom, we’re forced to face the truth of the Pelosi Congress and the Republican Executive Branch of government, i.e., that the U.S. gov’t is nothing more than a caretaker gov’t and one so removed from the reality of the average Americans life as to be an absentee caretaker gov’t.
After Billions will be spent in the longest election campaign in the history of human kind, we’ll get virtually the same thing over again. So to all you proud supporters of this system and the gov’t it produces, I’d have to say that you take great pride in supporting a dead horse. Unless and until this system is severely restructured, it’s going to be a long dead horse. Is this the legacy of 9/11? I don’t know, but I must admit that in so many respects this reminds me of the do nothing, near invisible gov’t of the 1920’s. To me at least, anymore this more and more feels like a foriegn gov’t. I must not be alone because today I noted that the Governors of 4 border states are meeting with the Mexican president to discuss the border violence problem. They’ve tired of waiting for word or help from D.C.
This whole thing has the feel of some old novel about the last days of the Ottoman Empire; the beleagured Governor of a remote provence anxiously awaiting word from Istanbul concerning his plea for help with brigands who regularly raid the warehouses in the Provencial port. Finally after no word arrives, he’s forced to negotiate a meeting with the leader of the Brigands band with whom he works a deal to pay them to watch the wharehouses. Shortly thereafter 5 Cannon arrive from Istanbul, but with no ammunition.
glide625, sorry you are so angry, but if you sit on the side lines you never get to change the way things work.
Fuel crisis: Yep, but in the end it might just work for us. See as the cost of fuel goes up, it also cost more to ship stuff. This means that it might become to expensive to ship materials from Asia to the US, which might just mean that we could re-open some of those factories.
Imigrants: When did your people first come to this country? What hyphanated-American group do you claim?
World wide food crisis: I seem to remember there being a lot of imagrents coming into the US for other reasons long before this ‘food crisis’. And most of the ones worried about the lack of food don’t have a chance of getting here.
Borders: How many toops do you want to patrol the Canadian border? People walk across it all the time. Or is a fence a better choice?