Reply #2: Whoa

[ismnotwasm]

I didn't know that about "gal" I was thinking it was a good gender specific term opposite "guy". But I STRONGLY feel that the biggest mistake of modern feminism was ignoring the concerns of women of color. Black women literally had to make their own feminism at times, as did other women of color. I like that LionessP is posting here sometimes, because she brings another element into feminism here besides the American born.

If bitch is generic, I can live with it. I don't like it--but I can live with it. The attempts to reclaim the word by feminists have met with some success as in BITCHphd.

However, The fact that it's used against both men and women is disingenuous, because it still means female dog, and it still is used by dog breeders in that sense. I don't like and don't tolerated it directed against women specifically. Interestingly, my daughter, HATES bitch, and if she uses a gender specific pejorative term, she'll use *unt or other genitalia based names. Her reasoning is that bitch is animializing, "They're calling you a dog" and references to genitalia at least to her, "At least it's a body part I have and am proud of" She obtained this attitude in the army where she was surrounded by what she calls "swinging dicks"

But I believe in the power of words, and the history behind them. Any word that historically subjegates and degrades women is on my list. The sad thing, is that it's such a long list. There isn't one in particular that stands out, it's the whole mind set. What the words say is women are stupid, they smell, their genitalia is dirty, bad and ugly, women can't control their own sexuallity, that women are more like animals than human beings, that women need to be controlled, that women are weak physically and mentally, that women want money in exchange for sex, that a woman's (apparently) ulitmate goal is to use men, castrate men, "demasculinize" men.

(I have to make a disclaimer though. I know and use all the words, I grew up motherfuckering this and that and did a lot of work to change my way of expressing myself. The best way was to get a great vocabulary, and I did/do but once in a while I dummy down and have at it.)