Reply #30: Some of us, not for lack of intelligence, don't see the OP

[GrpCaptMandrake]

as "enlightened." Dithering about perceived insults not even tendered directly to the OP is not "enlightened." It's willfully benighted.

I, for one, see her attempt to cleanse language of masculine reference as a far more insidious form of sexism.

As I noted, using the phrase in question in reference to a female is just plain dumb.

On the other hand, this is the epitome of a tempest in a teapot. Even the OP herself makes clear how inconsequential her complaint is via her reference to "like a subtle slap in the face." One wonders just how troubling something is if it's a "subtle" slap in the face. A subtle slap in the face isn't a slap in the face at all, now is it?

To refer to a male as lacking testicles is not insulting a female. It's insulting the male in question as lacking a fundamental element of male-ness. It's a direct reference to what happens to a male when he is deprived of the source of one of the hormones that defines male-ness, to-wit: the androgen testosterone. Males deprived of their testosterone become docile and soft. It's why most harem eunuchs were fat, for heaven's sake. It's also why eunuchs were employed as harem servants. They're "safe," unable to perform as fully functioning males. It has absolutely nothing to do with female-ness, absent a person deliberately attempting to force that definition upon the scenario. I don't know why this is so hard, er, sorry, I mean difficult for some people to comprehend.

It takes a leap of foolish hubris to assume every time someone describes a man as lacking testicles that somehow that person is engaging in rampant, patriarchal mysoginistic sexism. Sounds a heckuva lot more like plain, old-fashioned Freudian penis envy to me, not to mention the infantile egocentricity that's required for a person to be affected by an insult not tendered them (no offense, of course, to infants, God forbid).

Sorry. I just get so very, unutterably tired of this shameless, persistent matriarchal attempt to demean testicles. End the the oppression! Stop the madness!

Editted for clarity and spelling.