Reply #77: Does the term "Africanized honey bee" set you off, too?

[Chulanowa]

Or how about in languages like German that use the masculine "der" for some objects and the feminine "die" for others - "der Bleistift" for a pencil, "die Handtasche" for a purse.

Fact is, some things and approaches are considered "feminine" others "masculine". Yes, a lot of this is based on conceptions of gender roles and contains a fair bit of sexism - both ways. He could just as easy talk about the masculinization of America with regard to our obsession with violence, big cars, and sound bytes.

It's a trait of our language, embedded in the culture we have. And I'm pretty sure that, by now, most viewers have learned that Bil Maher doesn't have the best control over his own vocabulary. He's an asshole, or, to use our language's gender-based terms - a dick.