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If I didn’t know better…

piny

…I’d get the sense that Robert didn’t really need to be told. But it’d be unfair not to “extend intentionalism” to him, so I’ll just take his comment at face value.

From a comment on earlbecke’s post on a blowup that I was actually planning to post on:

Translation: you’ll extend the courtesy of accepting intentionalism to people you like.

Nope! It means that in a different context, the words will be read in a different way. It’s the difference between Janice Raymond titling her anti-transsexual screed, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male, and Sandy Stone titling her rebuttal essay, “The Empire Strikes Back.”

See? Straightfaced, sarcastic. Hateful language, reclamation of hateful language. Sandy Stone’s intention is clearly different; there isn’t ambiguity that requires the benefit of the doubt. Now, if she’d used “empire” in some other sense, such that she seemed to seriously imply the existence of a tranny cabal, then it would not be reclamatory and it’d make as much sense to challenge her as Raymond. And if Raymond used the term in an ironic sense, her likely intent would be factored into the interpretation as well.

“Bitch” works the same way. Bitch magazine? Bitch/lab? Bitch ‘n’ Animal? A challenge to the common meaning of the word. “That stupid bitch!” uttered by a member of either sex? Probably straight-up misogynistic.

Some other examples:

“Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist”

“That Colored Fella’s Weblog”

“Dykes to Watch Out For”

“That’s Mr. Faggot to You”

“Knife-Wielding Feminists”

…etc.

Now, some people argue that there is no way to reclaim this language, but that’s a different discussion.

7 thoughts on If I didn’t know better…

  1. Good post. I think intention drastically affects how we hear words. Important to consider when we get tied up in language games. I call them games because while I feel that it’s important to critique what we say, it’s more important to evaluate what we do. How many of us knew that person that had all the feminist, radical, cool things to say but when it came down to it – they couldn’t follow it up with action. This extra attention on language can also be alienating for people that want to get involved but simply don’t know the “right” language. But this is another comment. Good post.

  2. I hate to feel like I’m asking an obvious question here, but I’m not sure I understand why it’s misogynistic for a woman to refer to another person as a “stupid bitch.” Is it really likely that said woman hates herself and all members of her gender; or is it more likely that she simply hates the person she’s talking about, however unkindly? What if she’s talking about a man? I understand the importance of a approaching language with a feminist eye, but i’m not sure I understand how it works in this case.

  5. Or, “Don’t you have a sense of humor?”

    To which I am likely to respond, “Let’s test that… say something funny.”

  6. I’m not sure I understand why it’s misogynistic for a woman to refer to another person as a “stupid bitch.” Is it really likely that said woman hates herself and all members of her gender; or is it more likely that she simply hates the person she’s talking about, however unkindly?

    “Bitch” is a misogynistic word that doesn’t get any less so when it’s a woman using it. It just means she’s been so thoroughly steeped in misogynistic language from various cultural influences that it’s the first word she reaches for when she wants to express her distaste.

    “Bitching and carping” is a slightly different case, and I think it’s drifted far enough from its origins to be considered safe. But that doesn’t change the fact that if someone does find it offensive, the polite thing to do is say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  7. another example of someone using an epithet as a badge is a Middle Eastern guy whose pseudonym is ‘Sandmonkey’ (that is also the name of his blog). A lot of irony impaired people think he’s a self-hating Arab.

    Re women calling each other bitch, it certainly would be better to use another term but it is hard to get out of speech patterns that are engrained over many years. You have to be very self-aware. I have had partial success in trying to stop using the term “bitch” (based on dialogues over at Echidne, I decided “asshole” and ‘jerk’ would serve the purpose better and could also serve the purpose for people of that description of both genders) but have had less success with the term “bitching and moaning”.

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