Thursday, May 29, 2008

THWAP! (Ahhhhh.)

Short, vicious, and deeply gratifying: A beautiful exchange courtesy of Sadly, No. (HT to TF, of course.)
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6 comments:

MC said...

That was beyond a bitchslap... that was a pile driver on concrete.

May 30, 2008 at 10:28 AM
jovial_cynic said...

This cracks me up. The peripheral battles the candidates are facing are much more entertaining than the direct confrontation between them.

Also, thanks for using my banned-books mini-banner.

May 31, 2008 at 12:27 AM
AG said...

Hi jovial_cynic! Thank *you* for making those. Stylish, attractive and vital to propagate :-) . And hi too Matthew -- thought you'd appreciate the beautiful brevity. So, so happy.

May 31, 2008 at 7:55 PM
jovial_cynic said...

Now, I didn't really feel that the Obama camp was as misogynistic as it was accused of being by many Clinton supporters, but do you think that phrases like "bitchslap" on the part of Obama supporters lends to the feeling that maybe gender had as much to do with the race as race did? And that maybe women who supported Hillary were correct in their assertion that male Obama supporters did use gender as leverage?

June 4, 2008 at 6:08 PM
AG said...

Good question, though I admit I use bitchslap re men and women -- it's sort of a nongendered term to me, just as "dude" or "guys" would be. That may, however, be another one of those generation-gap things; I know that some women of an earlier generation than mine get what I would consider rather weird when referred to as "guys." (English: We need a plural form of "you," and badly.)

Which raises your question in another fashion -- how much of the perceived misogyny was deliberate, and how much was just insensitivity to a different sensibility, one perhaps grounded in age? (I was actually pondering this today when MSNBC kept running that "Jimmy Carter's second term" comment from McCain; aside from sounding kind of sad coming along so many days after Obama started with the "Bush's third term" thing, how many voters under, say, 40 can really remember much about Carter? I'm not celebrating youthful ignorance in either case, but I wonder if the generation gap has come snuck up behind some of our boomer-era leaders (yeah, let's include McCain as a boomer for now)...

June 11, 2008 at 1:00 AM
jovial_cynic said...

I figured that you're use of the term wasn't gender-targeted, as you're a female. But I think that there may be an argument that states that a lack of sensitivity indicates a lack of ability to meet the needs of those who are unintentionally offended.

For instance, phrases like "I got jipped!" was originally intended to slander gypties; it's similar to saying "I got jewed!", and in that case, Jews are the target. I hear people using those phrases all the time, and while they're not specifically directing their comments at gypsies or Jews, it creates a culture of acceptable racism.

In any event, I don't think Obama's specific actions (calling a woman "sweetie") are indications of sexism or insensitivity; I think it's odd to be offended at that word, as it can be used as a term of endearment. I think most of the criticism regarding sexism is targetted at the young-male obama support base, who have been known to troll feminist pro-hillary blogs.

As for generational differences... I'm not sure that McCain's statement will mean anything to people who are just now able to vote. But I think it'll catch on with conservative talk radio hosts, who will use it to push out catch-phrases that'll get passed down and repeated from now until November. Media is powerful.

June 11, 2008 at 2:14 PM

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