Sexism in speech and others

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So, the discussion over the usage of 'pussy' in the 9/11 thread prompted me to create this thread.

Here's what I think: the fact that most derogatory words related to gender are feminine both means that we associate a bunch of negative concepts to feminity, and it helps those associations to stay there. It doesn't matter if you say 'be a pussy' or 'cry like a girl' (and homosexuality-related insults, for that matter) in a totally-non-sexist-way, because the association is still there and you are using it!

Before you come up with negative words associated to masculinity, let me tell you: those are bad too! They are associated to 'masculine' characteristics, opposed to the feminine ones and still lock genders in pre-defined roles.

Here's an interesting read related on this last idea:

www.alternet.org/story/156194/what_about_the_men_why_our_gender_system_sucks_for_men%2C_too?page=entire&paging=off

Another point is that I think that with racists words, for instance, this is different because they don't have the negative characteristics as clearly associated with them (they work with the idea that being of a certain race is bad by itself, whereas the gendered terms work with the idea that each gender has certain negative characteristics).
 
Yup. I agree with all this. I also really hate the saying that someone "had the balls" to do something. Having nuts doesn't make you inherently more courageous than a woman.
 
I agree whole-heartedly. Gender-roles are a key factor in childhood development, and having boys or girls believe that boys and girls can only act one way may end up messing them up later on. Our society is OBSESSED with gender roles today, especially in media. Exibit A.) Bug Bunny. When I was a kid I was made fun of for liking Bugs Bunny because they said Bugs was "gay" for wearing a dress. This sort of behavior and belief would also confuse kids on transgender people in general. With said images of masculinity it is hard for some people to be fully in tune with their identity as a gendered person.
 
Though, to be fair, it's probably not a real BW quote. She can pretty darn blue, but that's pretty far even for her.
 
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