Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Douche Bags and Wife Beaters

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Douche Bags
Have you all noticed the prevalence of the usage of the
word douche
bag in the popular media.

If a douche bag is a feminine hygiene product, why is it used to describe
people in general and men specifically who are inconsiderate
and self centered?

What exactly is idiot like, inconsiderate, self centered or moron like
about a feminine hygiene product?

The passive acceptance of the usage of the term is indicative of our
acceptance of the public dislike of vagina's.
The loose usage of the
term reminds me of the passive acceptance of
the public hatred of femininity and women.

Wife Beaters

I don't call white tank tops wife beater
I call them white tanks.
If I am in a real snarky mood I call them wife killers
which
completly
throws people off.

Why wife killers?

The majority of women killed in this country are murdered by
an intimate partner.

I would imagine that the term is derived from the stereotype of the beer
drinking man in rural America that beats his wife.

I will concede that this steroetype may be based in fact. However,
describing a t-shirt as a wife beater when most women murdered
are killed by their intimate partners is careless and perpetuates the
notion that hitting women (and people) expected and for that matter
is accepted.

Do you think about the words that you use?

Do you think more a bout the words that you use after reading

this old snarky blog?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Feel you on the wife beater joint. I never understood why we glorified that joint.

Gonna have to challenge you on the other one though. You and I have had debates on this already. Although I am personally pro-woman, I feel sometimes feminists can take something that is not exclusively anti woman and make it so. I think you are doing this with the douche bag thing.

It has little to do with a hatred of vaginas or woman and more of issue with sex and things that relate to it. This society views sex as something dirty, dishonorable and disgusting, therefore anything relating to it is equally so. The majority of insults in this society revolve around both male and female sexual organs and paraphernalia.

Sorry if I get too vulgar but to prove a point look at some of the popular insults that involve masculine objects....

you Scum bag - male
you Dick head - male
you Dick - male
you Penis - male
he got shafted - male
etc...

That's not to say that misogyny doesn't run wild and rampant in these parts, but our choice of curse and insults words isn't a solid example of it.

Unknown said...

Good post!
No - i don't always think about the words i use, but this is interesting. I've never used the term wife beater but i just like the way douchebag sounds when spat out of my mouth with total derision.
I don't know if I'll change my mind, but you've given me something to think about.

Big Man said...

Good post, made me thing, particularly the douche bag one.

I have to blame hip-hop for wife beater. Particularly you northern folks. I had never heard the term before I came up north for college. Down South we used to just call them undershirts.

Nomad said...

We live in a male dominated society. The worst insults are based around female things. At one point in life the worst thing you could call a man was gay. Society has an addiction to naming negative things after women, Mother Fucker, Cunt, Bitch Ass Nigga, and Douche Bag. There is an intense hatred of the female deity. But we must remember who is in control of society and dictates to us. Hip Hop is to blame for the word wife beater. We are definitely at fault for that

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

i do remeber seeing the big red ones hanging up in the bathroom as a kid with tubes and stuff

have a great weekend folk

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

ps: just noticed im not on your blog rolll what gives

Unknown said...

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