An Immodest Proposal - Stop Using the Word "****" to Condemn People

[dutch508]

Star Member MineralMan (137,746 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215422030

An Immodest Proposal - Stop Using the Word "****" to Condemn People

It's a violent, rapey reference to sexual intercourse when used that way.

As such, it helps to perpetuate the violent attitudes toward sex that are far too prevalent in our culture.

I know. I know. I'm being prudish or something. I'm not, though. When someone writes "**** Liz Cheney," or even "**** Trump," there is a secondary meaning to that statement that has sexual connotations. I realize that people who write that are not actually suggesting that the person name be violently raped, but the underlying meaning of that word suggests exactly that. It is one word. It cannot be separated from its sexual meaning so easily by the brain. It truly cannot.

That usage helps to promote violent, non-consensual sex by normalizing it. There is too much of that going on in our culture. It implies that if we don't like something or someone, the appropriate response is a violent sexual assault. Whether that is what the person saying or writing it is irrelevant. The meaning remains, and cannot be removed.

Of course, I cannot insist that the word not be used that way. I am not attempting to do that. I am just making a suggestion. I hope my suggestion will convince some to stop using that word in that way.

Thanks for reading this.

 

Walleye (5,834 posts)

2. It's better than kill

 

Star Member hlthe2b (85,464 posts)

5. I agree totally. The term in this context has come to mean VIOLENT PUNISHMENT...

for a deed or deeds considered reprehensible BUT in which the perpetrator of those deeds becomes the "victim" of the violence. Rape culture, indeed.

 

VarryOn (1,422 posts)

8. I've successfully virtually eliminated it from my language...

After an intentional effort started about 20 years ago. Frankly, in the corporate world where I spend my time, the HR goons will eventually pay you a visit after you're reported by some anonymously offended coworker. I've seen it happen more than once.

I guess I've gotten so sensitive to it, my wife and I had to stop a new Netflix series we started because the f-word was gratuitous. I told her we were officially getting to be ol' foggies!

I wouldn't mind less coarness in rhetoric.

 

Star Member bigtree (79,168 posts)

10. this is just nonsense

...it's simply untrue that the only, or most prominent, definition of '****' is rape.

You've taken your own narrow prudence and misappropriated it to this nebulous phrase. You say you accept that it's not used in that context, but your sensitive sensibilities can't countenance other contexts of the word other than your own, so you want it disused althogether.

This disconnect is a function of what we called the 'generation gap,' a concept that was coined when I was a teen. You're simply out of your own lane and you want people behind you to follow along anyway.

 

Beastly Boy (3,078 posts)

11. I dunno. I would give DUers some credit for being able to tell the literate from the figurative.

For example, I am pretty sure that no one would take the phrase "Trump is a ****ing idiot" to mean "Trump is an idiot who is engaging in a sex act", or "I don't give a ****" to mean "I refuse to engage in sex".

 

[SVPete]

Beastly Boy (3,078 posts)

11. I dunno. I would give DUers some credit for being able to tell the literate from the figurative.

 

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I'm mildly surprised MM hasn't been told by some DUmmies to F off. Or maybe they did but those DU-posts didn't get rowed over.

[BadCat]

Go **** yourself, MineralMan.

[SVPete]

Go **** yourself, MineralMan.

Please! Say "Self-copulate yourself, MineralMan."

[Ralph Wiggum]

DUmmies just prefer not to use the F-word for reasons that remind them of sexual intercourse simply because they aren't getting any and never have.  Using the F-word only reminds them of their utter failures sexually.

[USA4ME]

Rockhead will soon reconfirm just how little influence he has. He might as well be asking liberals not to lie. Ain’t happening.

.

[YupItsMe]

Go **** yourself, MineralMan.

  Beat me to it.