Any other DUers bothered by phrases like "pimp-slap," "bitch-slap," etc.?

[VOX]

I'm no politically correct prude, but I instinctively wince when I read/hear those phrases, especially here at DU, where we're among folks who consider themselves a bit more enlightened and certainly pro-peace.

I'm not trying to lecture or whine, but IMO, expressions like "pimp-slap," "bitch-slap," "bitch ass," "X is Y's bitch," etc. are appearing more frequently on DU, and they strike me as degrading and violent.

Recently, at my gym, I overheard a guy in the locker room (who was watching highlights on ESPN) shout back to the TV, "Bitch cunt!" My nature just immediately tells me that this simply so wrong in so many ways.

How did we get to the point where some folks think it's acceptable to be such public louts? Again, this is just my opinion. I'm reminded of George Carlin's admonition, "There are no bad words, only bad thoughts."

Cheers.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. I am only bothered if I am th e one

getting Pimp Slapped or Bitch Slapped

[bicentennial_baby]

2. Kinda

I just think they can be inflammatory and are usually unnecessary to get one's point across.

[Cocoa]

59. I think they actually prevent the point from getting across

that's the effect that kind of language has on me, anyway, I tend to stop listening.

[morningtheft]

3. A good replacement

"Donkey-punched"....since only a few Donkey's can actually read, it's all good

[Aaron]

17. Donkey Punch also is used to describe a sex act (n/t)

[Garage Queen]

4. Nope, not bothered at all.

<shrugs>

[TheBigGuy]

5. yeah..its sort of crude....tough guy macho talk.

Not sure im really that bugged by it but it does sound like we got a bunch of Joe Pesci wannabes online here.

[gottaB]

21. You think it's macho?

What do you mean it's macho?

What do you mean? The way people talk? What?

Macho how? I mean, what's macho about it?

You're a Big Guy. You know what you said. What did you say? Macho how? What?

You mean, let me understand this ... because I ... maybe its me, maybe I'm a little fucked up maybe. It's macho how, I mean, macho like a Cowboy? It pumps you up. It makes you strong? It's said to fucking pump you up? What do you mean macho? Macho how? How is it macho?

No, no I don't know. You said it. How do I know? You said it's macho. HOW THE FUCK IS IT MACHO? WHAT THE FUCK IS SO MACHO ABOUT IT? TELL ME. TELL ME WHAT'S MACHO.

*****

This scene from Goodfellas is like a classic cinematic example of language used to assert dominance. (Mamet I bet was jealous.)

You really think it's no big deal to say "bitch-slap" on DU? It bugs the fucking hell out of me.

[votein04]

6. I have no problem with it.

Each to their own. If the worse thing happening in the world was some profanity it would be a near perfect place.

I'm offended by the current American administration and I'd like to bitch-slap every last one of them!

[Blue_Chill]

7. hmm

Bitch I have no problem with as it stopped being a female exclusive word long ago. In fact when I call someone a bitch it has no gender attached to it. It typically describes someone that is impossible to deal with and is being is constantly an asshole for no reason.

I can see why 'Pimp Slap' can be offensive as pimps are the lowest form of male life on the planet that leach off vulnerable women. They should not be celebrated in anyway.

'Bitch slap' is another word that is losing it's gender association. It basically means a regular open hand slap to the face. I have a friend that if confronted by another man who wants to fight will always 'bitch slap' the guy to make him feel stupid.

Using 'bitch' as meaning lower then or belonging to 'x is y's bitch' is used mostly by trash talking men about other men. Commonly heard coming from those that are a empty between the ears.

As for the guy watching ESPN, his use of language in public is insulting. That idiot shouldn't be allowed to run free in society until he learns to behave.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

8. a lot of men who call women "bitches" call themselves "dogs"

But I have to admit, I wince a little when women are referred to as "bitches" and "hoes" - even when women do it, and they do it as often as men. I'm developing a thick skin about it. As a man, it doesn't bother me at all the be called a "dog".

[wndycty]

9. Boy I really pissed some people off. . .

. . .but of course I am one of those Clark supporters.

[sangh0]

10. It bothers me

Those words and phrases serve no purpose except as an emotional security blanket.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Yes

It is disrespectful. I cuss sometimes, but these terms are degrading. I judge people by the words they use and the context.

Carlin is right; but these expressions suggest an inability to convey thoughts and feelings in a constructive way.

[JustJoe]

12. Yes.

I've never heard "pimp-slap," but the term "bitch-slap" *to me*
conjures a picture of a man slapping a woman who he sees as
a bitch, as somebody less than him, somebody deserving of a
violent act in order to put her in her place.

[tedoll78]

13. I dunno.

I am offended by profanity in public where children may hear, but other than that, my opinion of such words is based on context. I use them myself when yelling at the TV screen during video game time, but more in a joking sense than anything else. When the tone is serious, then I object. Such language gets conflicts nowhere.

Of course, I'm a feminist to the point where I see terms "bitch" and "cunt" to be gender-neutral. A man can be a bitch, and a man can have a cunt. Maybe it's a gay thing?

[Octafish]

14. Those words are signs of a dehumanized mind.

People who use them consider others as "lesser" beings.

[greekspeak]

15. My barometer

Being a naturally boorish gay male, I try to take my cues on this issue from one of my closest freinds, a vocally feminist lesbian. What is offensive to her is calling someone a derogatory name for female genitalia. I quite agree. She also decries the use of "wife beater" for a strappy t-shirt. I have yet to see anyone lay into this one. However, she makes constant use of the terms "bitch" and "whore" and "slut" etc. to describe people. Thus it is harder for me to justify discluding them from my vocabulary.

[CO Liberal]

16. I'll Curtail Their Use From Now On

I've used "bitch-slap" on occasion. I won't any more.

[synthia]

37. thank you .....

it's always wonderful to see someone extend themselves in order to not cause harm to people they might not even know. bitch demeans women. it's also a precurser word for spousal abuse. at the shelter we see women who flinch at the sound of that word because, in their experience, it means they are about to be hit.

thank you

[oneighty]

18. When one runs out

of words, the cursing starts, the sewer explored, the character diminished. I think.

But, 180, who cares what you think?

180

[JI7]

19. not bothered at all

doesn't bother me. in fact it may actually help get the point across.

[Brian Sweat]

20. No!

And I would suggest that you are bording on being a politically correct prude as much as I hate the term "politically correct." The right uses the term to stiffle all debate, but it is over the top sensitivity like this that originally gave the word it's meaing.

[synthia]

38. wow....the loss of the word bitch would stiffle someones debate?

what a very very small vocabulary they must have.......

[Pompitous_Of_Love]

52. Oddly enough, though,...

Nearly all of the offending words are Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and have been transmitted down to us almost completely intact. There must be something about those words that made them worth preserving over more than a millenium. And don't bother trotting out the "but we're far too civilized now for language like that" argument. The Victorians believed it whole-heartedly, but these words survived that era intact.

[NashVegas]

22. Not in the Slightest

..

[synthia]

40. do you have a wife or sister or girl child?

would it bother you to hear bitch said to them?

by endorsing it's use on our enemies we authorize it's use on our children.

[LearnedHand]

42. "Bitch-slap" doesn't mean the same thing...

...as calling someone a "bitch." It's a slang term that simply means "an open-handed blow to the face."

And no, they aren't offensive to me; in fact, these terms that come to us by way of the younger folks are often pretty amusing. When I imagine someone bitch-slapping bush* and his coterie, the image is downright hilarious.

[bearfartinthewoods]

47. the meaning..."an open-handed blow to the face."

delivered by a man to his bitch...his bitch...his bitch..

there is no way to sneak this by.

[LearnedHand]

44. And why in the world...

would you come to DU and start in with the same tactics the Freepers use to control morality in this country?

[bearfartinthewoods]

48. why in the world would DUers use the same language freeps use

to control and demean women?

[Tracer]

23. Well .... yes.

There are so many posters here who can write clever, funny, pointed, intelligent replies. And who don't need to resort to vulgarities.

The rest of you ... and you know who you are ... should take a lesson from them.

[DarkPhenyx]

24. Not particuarly.

Then again it would depend on the person using them and how much bitching they've done about other language adn terms.

[ewagner]

25. Not at all

I have a soon-to-be 21 year-old son who has used the phrase for I don't know how long to describe, alternately:

Someone being put down in a humilitaing way

or

What he (or somebody else) would like to do to an anoying individual. The class suck-up comes to mind: e.g." the next time so-and-so reminds the teacher that he forgot the homework assignment, I'll probably bitch slap him."

[synthia]

41. you must be so proud.......

i thinik it's time for me to run a disK scan. my bookmarks have become corrupted. i thought i clicked on DU not FR.

[LearnedHand]

45. Oops!

Post this stuff on the FreeRepublic, willya? Don't bring that RW moralizing to DU and try to impose it on the creative, funny, thoughtful, smart, INDIVIDUAL thinkers here. They get enough of it every day of their lives OUTSIDE of here.

[bearfartinthewoods]

49. of they were truly creative, funny, thoughtful, smart

they wouldn't need to use freeper language to get their point across.

i will not defend individuality if it means demeaning the women in my life. i was taught to extend respect. i was taught that's a prime tenent of liberalism.

[Lars39]

26. Yes.

I have to re-translate in my mind. It's gutter language that turns me off/not used to dealing with it on a day to day basis.

[retread]

27. Yes! Especially here, because I'm naive enough to expect better!

*

[maxanne]

28. Me

Bitch slapped is a derogatory term relating to women, imo. It speaks to me of either a woman being slapped by a man for being a bitch, or it's making fun of women fighting with other women. Are these really the kind of descriptors we want to use? Do they enhance our credibility? Do they make us think? And pimp slapped - holy guacamole - why in the world are we glorifying pimps? Do we find men who sell women for sex worth glamorizing and glorifying?

We have a huge language, full of expressive and wonderful words. Yet we ignore them, and use thuggish, stupid epithets like the ones above. :eyes:

thanks for asking this, rezmutt

[AlabamaYankee]

29. I prefer the Magliozzi's term

Tom and Ray (Car Talk) regularly hand out "Dope Slaps" to deserving folk. It's appropriate, gender neutral, and only offensive to the recipient.

[wndycty]

30. I was the one who used the term "pimp slap" and I am enjoying this

First of all I apologize for offending. There have been many occassions when DUers have pushed the limits of good taste and I guess in the view of many I crossed the line. I am not going to defend my use of the phrase but I am not going to say I was wrong either, I'll just leave it alone and let everyone draw their own conclusions about me.

I did not realize that my use of one simple phrase would allow so many DU'ers to define me as needing an emotional security blanket, having a dehumanized mind and that I consider others as "lesser" beings.

Wow I knew so little about myself, and I assume many DUers who thought they knew me no realized they know so very little.

sangh0
(224 posts)

10. It bothers me

Those words and phrases serve no purpose except as an emotional security blanket.

Octafish
(1000+ posts)
14. Those words are signs of a dehumanized mind.

Tracer
(146 posts)

23. Well .... yes.

There are so many posters here who can write clever, funny, pointed, intelligent replies. And who don't need to resort to vulgarities.

The rest of you ... and you know who you are ... should take a lesson from them.

People who use them consider others as "lesser" beings.

ON EDIT: I mistakenly owned up to saying "bitch slap" which is incorrect because I used the term "pimp slap."

[felix19]

31. "Fish slapped" is an alternative I've used for years

gets the point across with a visual image that makes people cringe or guffaw.

And it doesn't have any of those "other" connotations.

It makes the children smile!

[Character Assassin]

32. What about 'pimp bitch'? How about 'bitch pimp'?

You know, something to unite us, not divide us.

[Booberdawg]

33. As a female they don't bother me

To begin with the obvious, profanity is never going to be forbidden on DU, nor does it need to be.

"bitch-slap" and "pimp-slap" seem the same to me as sucker punch. That doesn't feel particularly sexist to me.

You also mention "bitch cunt" and that is clearly innapropriate.

Maybe you're looking for good manners. In a place with this many members that's not realistic.:)

[bitchkitty]

34. No

.

[AWD]

54. I was wondering...

...if you'd offer up an opinion.

One of my first thoughts was "is bitchkitty going to have something to say here?"

[bitchkitty]

73. You know me too well -

seriously, though, I don't understand why bitch is a slur to a woman. When someone calls me a bitch it's usually because I've made a fool of them. It might be a slur if you were calling a big butch guy a bitch, but I've been called much worse, and it doesn't bother me at all!

[imhotep]

35. no.

words are just words.

[VOX]

64. But words can be used like fists, to hurt or humiliate...

If not for words, the pen would never be mightier than the sword.

Again, not meant to lecture or moralize, just food for thought...

[karlschneider]

36. No. And I'm not even going to read the thread. Heat/kitchen. n/t

[Coffee Coyote]

39. no nt

[NNN0LHI]

43. no

[diamond14]

46. yes, these word are very offensive and not necessary to use

in any context...certainly better descriptions can be chosen, rather than crass and crude referrals...those terms just lead to other degradation of women and encourage violence from marginal people who choose such words....and also suggests that the writer has little education or social skills...

we should certainly set higher standards here at DU...those crass terms sound like the garbage that spews out of the freerepublic thugs...

[CoffeePlease1947]

50. I can think of worse words.

But I can think of better ones too.

Mike

[mopaul]

51. too many snitches and hall monitors here

words do not offend me. they are little symbols i see on my screen and each one represents a thought or idea. how can i be offended by words? who gets to decide which words are unacceptable in modern day society? you? street language does not hurt me or you or anyone.
just because a person uses so called vulgar language, does not mean he is less than socially acceptable or somehow moronic because he can't express himself without profanity. i say bullshit.

[bearfartinthewoods]

53. it's strange.....

black people are accomadated in their sentiment that nigger is an offensive word because it harkins back to the days when they were considered lesser beings/ property.

yet women are not accomadated in their sentiment that bitch is an offensive word because it harkins back to the days when they were considered lesser beings/property. ....right on a scale with the man's breeder dog.

why do black people deserve accomadation and women don't? perhaps it's because caring, repectful liberal people, both black and white demanded things change, that we progress in ou thinking. perhaps someday, caring, repectful liberal people, both mwn and women will demand this change also.

or maybe people will just get a clue and think about why they use the word. consider, why it seems so important to them to continue to use the word when they know it offends people.

or maybe it will take hearing someone us it on their daughters.

maybe that's how the change will happen

[maxanne]

60. thanks, bearfartinthewoods

You're right - and you said it beautifully.

:thumbsup:


Mopaul - I don't think having a dialogue about what people find offensive is either "snitching" or "hall monitoring." It is a conversation. Frankly, I find attempts at limiting that sort of discussion more dangerous than anything else.

Perhaps the fact that these terms are derogatory to women make them easier to dismiss.

[theHandpuppet]

63. Well said...

...and thanks very much!

[sangh0]

58. Stop whining about "whiners"

Calling those who disagree with you "snitches" and "hall monitors" doesn't make them look childish.

[CBGLuthier]

61. vulgar language

I don;t think the vulgarness of the language is the point. It is the meeaning behind the term.

And yes, maybe just because someone uses the term "bitch slap" they are not less socially acceptable but I can tell you they aren't welcome in my house.

[VOX]

66. Street lingo can indeed be hurtful. It was designed to be that way.

Talking street comes from an angry place, it's meant to be in-your-face and to display attitude. In the appropriate context, I have no problem with it. It's not the use of profanity per se that's troublesome; it's the humiliation implied with some words/phrases.

I can cuss a blue streak with the best of them, and have probably too often let fly in my DU posts. But I'm talking more about words/phrases that derive their impact by a rather specific degrading of a segment of society -- "bitches," for example. This may seem acceptable to use, but there are still plenty of people who feel that this is a humiliating term, and use of same will probably bother a significant number of people.

There are some who would chafe against this, saying that it's too constraining to rein in their speech. As a deep-dish liberal, I have always been anti-censorship. But I feel that the relationships I have on DU are a bit more formal than, say, my own circle of friends. As such, I tend to interact with fellow-DUers in a manner that more closely resembles professional colleagues or extended family. And in those cases, talking street isn't the best way to go, for me, anyway.

[MaineDem]

55. Yes, they annoy me

Any of the bitch terms come across to me as degrading to women and reflect poorly on the user. I cringe at most of them. But people have the right to say what they want.

What bothers me more is the fact that these terms are being used in music and society and being accepted.

[Bridget Burke]

56. No, not particularly.

[leftofthedial]

57. No.

I'm bothered by George Dubya Shitforbrains and the cabal of thieves who have hijacked our country and want to hijack the planet.

[sendero]

67. it amazes me...

... that this is an issue at all. The world is full of thin-skinned people who think they can control the words people use.

You cannot change a reality by stifling the words used to describe it.

[VOX]

69. No one's trying to control anything. Just *think,* that's all...

If you want to cause some pain to someone with your words, then go ahead -- you're free to do so.

You have a mother, a sister, a girlfriend, a daughter? Then how would it sit with you if another guy talked about "bitch-slapping" them? Would it be funny? Would it be cute? Would it be enlightened? Would it feel okay with you?

We're talking about feelings here, and a kind of mutual respect. Respect for one another and humanity.

[Skittles]

62. I don't care for them

and I don't use them.

[SharonAnn]

65. Yes, they're derogatory to women. Find other terms to use.

eom

[sendero]

68. and...

... asshole, bastard, and any number of other epithets are aimed squarely at men. But the PC police don't seem to care about those words.

[VOX]

70. The examples you use are generic do not imply violence...

"Bitch-slapping" and the like do. We're talking about considering the use of a bit of basic consideration in an already way-too-violent society.

If you think the "PC Police" are going to put a major wedgie in your life here, you're wrong.

Don't get your hackles up. Go ahead and use whatever words you want to use.

[maxanne]

71. yeah

only men can be called assholes. :eyes:

[sangh0]

72. Stop your whining

It's ironic how those who want to continue using such derogatory terms assert that they have a right to use those words (a right that the "PC police" haven't denied them) but they whine when people who don't like those phrases use their own words to describe their objections.

Next thing you know, the Chauvinist's Pity Parade will start whining about how the "PC Police" are trying to "force" them to shut up, even though force will not, and can not, be used by DU posters.