Germane to our not-so-very-long-ago discussion of cunt as a useful, worthwhile word, it’s now appearing on t-shirts of Obama supporters near you.
The story starts in a Hillary Clinton forum, gets picked up by Jake Tapper at ABC (who calls them “vile”). Ben Smith answers his questions. Ace of Spades HQ posts a screenshot of Ms. Volpe’s presence on Obama’s website. Jim Treacher shows you focused pics and links to the photographer’s statement.
It’s at that point I want to stop and talk about the offensiveness. I’m not offended. Are you? This may be because I’m online a lot more than Jake Tapper or Ben Smith or whomever, and see the word all the time. I’ve seen it in connection with Sarah Palin since the day they announced her joining the ticket. I’ll admit I was amused at watching feminists work up to using “the c-word!” because there was just nothing else that could express their seething, nuclear hatred for her. I kind of rooted for some of them for a minute, mentally saying Come on, honey. You can do it. Let it out. There! Don’t you feel better? Then I felt guilty for being snarky.
But it seems like a lot of people are offended, and that that offense doesn’t fit neatly into what we think of as red vs blue political boundaries. Some people are offended because it’s misogynist. Some people are offended because Obama is a Can’t shirt are “racist.” Or because if one person shouts one foul thing at a Palin speech, then everyone half an inch right of center is automatically a hateful troglodyte who should be executed for crimes against humanity while the young Obama supporter selling these tshirts is a one-off anomoly, hardly representative of the idea of those left of center. It’s a polarizing word, and people seem to find themselves surrounded by compatriots they assumed would be at the other pole. Kind of a metaphor for Palin herself, if you carry it through.
So to continue our previous discussion, which I thought was worthwhile, I want to ask: are you offended? If so, how? Is a word a word a word? Is this word more important now, because it’s being used as political speech? What other words can or cannot people use in political speech?
Addendum to this discussion – my regular feminist blog just covered this story. They do not like Sarah Palin, but they do not feel that makes this okay (which is consistent with their general feelings towards the word).
As far as I am concerned they have the right to wear a shirt that makes them look like classless douchebags if they want. What I am more interested in is what the phrase actually means. “Sarah Palin is a Cunt”. What is that saying? If the shirt said “Sarah Palin is a Vagina” would the meaning still be the same and would it be equally offensive to the people that get offended at such things?
The other question I have is “Who is the target audience for this shirt”? Are you trying to convert someone over to the Obama/Biden ticket? If you are an undecided voter or even a left leaning conservative do you see “Sarah Palin is a Cunt” and think to yourself “I was thinking about voting Republican but now that I know Sarah Palin is a Cunt I guess I better vote for Obama!”? It serves no purpose other than making the wearer feel better about their marginal choice for the executive branch while serving as a fairly good indicator that the wearer has some socialization issues that should be addressed.
I think a much more effective shirt would read:
“Sarah Palin Could Be One Heart Attack Away From Becoming Commander-In-Chief”
Now that scares the shit out of me.
Well at least they didn’t use Obama’s cheer-leader-inchief’s preferred term:
vay jay jay
I dunno about you but I’d much rather come over as offensive than childish.
I’m not offended in a ‘won’t someone think of the CHILDREN?’ kind of way, but I do find the use of that word in this context offensive, on two counts. First and foremost, using ‘cunt’ in that kind of context is using it as a hate word, which is exactly what gives it unpleasant connotations in the first place. Secondly, I find it offensive to have political discourse reduced to namecalling – although that is mostly an intellectual kind of taking offence, as if I was wounded to the quick every time politics regressed to the playground I’d be in pretty bad shape by now.
As far as what people wear to rallies or choose to shout out once they’re there, that’s not the grounds on which I judge politicians – I’d rather assess their policies.
I haven’t seen any feminists call Palin a cunt – in fact the blogs I read have been pretty damn vigilant about calling people out on sexist references to Palin, even though politically they’re very at odds with her – but if I did I would be offended by that, because those people who habitually view it as a loaded word don’t get to use it when it suits them.
I’m not offended, though I’m not a huge fan of the word. I’m also not really charmed by the wit, either.
I’m not offended by the word itself. I’m offended because I’m accused of being a racist for mocking, criticizing, or merely asking unwanted questions about Obama’s record, while his supporters are completely losing their minds 24/7 and getting a pass on it. I’m offended that Palin-haters are actually proud of walking around in public wearing a t-shirt like that, but some dumbass brings a stuffed monkey to a McCain speech and suddenly it’s supposed to be Nuremberg all over again. I’m offended that the news isn’t even pretending to be news anymore. I’m offended by the double standard.
Other than that, no problem.