Defending Initial-Based Code-Terminologies
Defending initial-based code-terminologies
A week of two ago Isaiah Washington continued not shutting up about his firing from Grey's Anatomy and revealed his version of the original confrontation that began the situation.
Co-worker Patrick Dempsey did not want to film a scene until Ellen Pompeo was on the set, even though she was not in the scene. Washington cast an aspersion on Dempsey's acting ability. Some physical contact ensued.
And Washington states he never used the "f-word" in reference to gay co-worker T.R.Knight. What he said, as he recalls it, was that he was addressing Dempsey and told him "You can't treat me like some (f-word), you can't treat me like a (c-word), you can't treat me like some (p-word)."
Which proves that sometimes it's hard to explain what you said and what you meant when the media insists on reporting what you said in code.
I don't regularly watch "Family Guy" but I catch it occasionally if I'm bored. Recently I saw an episode in which Stewie suffered a severe sunburn. Later, after he healed and peeled, Brian the dog pointed out a large dark mole Stewie hadn't had before.
"Maybe it's... the C-word," Brian suggested.
Stewie got a disgusted look on his face and asked
"What does (bleep) have to do with anythiing?"
"No, no" replied a shocked Brian, "I meant cancer."
The problem is, there are only 26 letters in the alphabet and several of the more offensive vulgar terms start with the same letter.
For the most part, everyone knows what the "F-word" is, and many know the urban legend that states it was derived from the acronym "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," which was an actual crime long before it was a Van Halen album title.
And yet everyone knows that Isaiah Washington did not tell Patrick Dempsey "You can't treat me like some f***."
When he referred to a "P-word" he was referring to a five letter slang term for genitalia, starting with P. Oddly, that is not enough information, since there is a five letter word starting with P which means a kitty cat which refers to the female privates and a five letter word starting with P which means to poke with a pin or needle which refers to the male pro-creative apparatus. The technical or medical term for which is also a five letter word starting with P.
However, Washington explained that he was not using the words F-- and P---- literally, but to refer to a weak or submissive person who could be easily be pushed around or bullied.
There are parts of the culture that has overcome religious based prejudices over sexual lifestyle. They have adopted the Seinfeldism NTTAWWT (not that here's anything wrong with that).
Without wanting to resort to racial stereotypes, it is rumored that there are some ethnic groups who place a much higher value on asserting ones masculinity and defending it even from mild aspersions. One such group contributed the word "Macho" to the lexicon, and Washington is a member of the other. So it is possible that he would not regard being referred to or treated as a f**k or a p***k as an insult at all. So we can deduce that the P-word he would have objected to being treated like would be the missing prefix from the song lyric "What's new, _____cat?"
While everyone knows what the F-word is, in this context he was clearly referring to what's often called "the other f-word". There are two, actually. F*****, a six letter word meaning bundle of sticks and the shortened version, F**, which is British slang for cigarette. Both have the same slang connotation, a slur directed at homosexuals. Washington, a tall handsome black male who is, reportedly, married to a woman, is concerned over being treated like a homosexual.
And he does not want to be treated like a c-word.
We assume he does not want really to be treated like cancer and subjected to surgical removal and chemotherapy (although his character was more or less excised with surgical precision from the cast of his program), but that's not what he actually meant.
So we assume he meant the vulgar sexual connotation of the word.
A c***, of course, is a p****. And yet, oddly enough, a c*** is a p****.
Of course a c*** is a male chicken... but wait, that is also an insulting term a man would not want to be treated like. (It's slang usage means coward, which is also similar to C-word.)
But we assume he meant c***, a word with no other meaning than the female sexual orifice, pronounced like the first syllable of the word country.
So Washington does not want to be abused or taken advantage of the way, traditionally, men have treated women or male homosexuals. He does not want to be treated like a woman or her sexual apparatus, or like a gay male. In short, he does not want to be f***ed.
Being a long term knee jerk anti-censorship type, I'm tempted to think that things would be simpler if the media could just go ahead and report when someone says f***, f** or f*****, p**** or p**** or c***, c*** or cancer.
But being a left leaning moderate with a penchant for political correctness, I'm persuaded that at times the use of code words and signifying letters are preferable to bluntness. Although I am not African-American myself, I don't care about the race of the user or the context of the usage, I simply don't care to hear the "N-word". And I think we all know what that means. Rhymes with Bigger (which is another racial stereotype) and is presumably derived from a corruption of the word Negro. It is not entirely precise since there are other N-words: rap and hip-hop culture also often use variants such as N***a (same word with the "r" sound dropped, evoking stereotypical Negro dialect) and n***az (same as above made plural by the addition of a "z".)
When people see or hear a word being used in the media it inures them to its shock value and allows them to consider the word as acceptable and in common usage.
It is ridiculous to try to suppress the F-word because it is, in fact, in extremely common usage in music, literature, the arts, much print media, pretty much everywhere but the public radio waves and broadcast television, where it is still treated as the most taboo of words.
Or perhaps the second most taboo, or tied for first. The N-word is also ubiquitous in some genres of music, in literature, film, adult news media, and is also strongly discouraged from being used casually on broadcast TV or the radio.
But there is a significant difference. The f-word had perhaps a hundred different meanings and usages as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, modifier and exclamation. Even taking it in its most traditional and literal meaning, the comedian/philosopher Lenny Bruce said that it was the nicest think two people can do, "so if you're mad at someone you shouldn't say 'f*** you' to them, you should say 'don't f*** you'."
Spokespersons for the hip-hop community claim the N-word also has multiple uses and meanings, depending on the context and the user. "Yo, (stranger)". "He's my (friend)". "(Brother), please!"
Originally the N-word was a derogatory term for Black person. The Black community has tried to reclaim the word as their own. This is a tactic that has worked for gay groups to diffuse the term "queer" and to a lesser extent for feminist groups who see strength and value in bitchiness.
Unfortunately Blacks still have minority status and the "it's okay when we say it" approach ultimately fails to diffuse it, it just guarantees that when a white person says it... well, they mean it.
Still, if the Black community wants to try to reclaim and diffuse the term, I suppose it's racist and oppressive for a white person to try to tell them not to.
It still rings to these ears as a bitter, hateful word - the worst in the English language. If you think you can change that, I can only reply "Brother, please!"
So as foolish and pointless and sometimes confusing as it is to obfuscate speech with nonsensical initial derived code-terms like F-word and c-word and "other f-word", I think it's worth the bother if it keeps children from growing up thinking it's okay to use the N-word.
Because some words are dirty, and other words are just plain nasty.
= Napoleon Park =
A week of two ago Isaiah Washington continued not shutting up about his firing from Grey's Anatomy and revealed his version of the original confrontation that began the situation.
Co-worker Patrick Dempsey did not want to film a scene until Ellen Pompeo was on the set, even though she was not in the scene. Washington cast an aspersion on Dempsey's acting ability. Some physical contact ensued.
And Washington states he never used the "f-word" in reference to gay co-worker T.R.Knight. What he said, as he recalls it, was that he was addressing Dempsey and told him "You can't treat me like some (f-word), you can't treat me like a (c-word), you can't treat me like some (p-word)."
Which proves that sometimes it's hard to explain what you said and what you meant when the media insists on reporting what you said in code.
I don't regularly watch "Family Guy" but I catch it occasionally if I'm bored. Recently I saw an episode in which Stewie suffered a severe sunburn. Later, after he healed and peeled, Brian the dog pointed out a large dark mole Stewie hadn't had before.
"Maybe it's... the C-word," Brian suggested.
Stewie got a disgusted look on his face and asked
"What does (bleep) have to do with anythiing?"
"No, no" replied a shocked Brian, "I meant cancer."
The problem is, there are only 26 letters in the alphabet and several of the more offensive vulgar terms start with the same letter.
For the most part, everyone knows what the "F-word" is, and many know the urban legend that states it was derived from the acronym "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," which was an actual crime long before it was a Van Halen album title.
And yet everyone knows that Isaiah Washington did not tell Patrick Dempsey "You can't treat me like some f***."
When he referred to a "P-word" he was referring to a five letter slang term for genitalia, starting with P. Oddly, that is not enough information, since there is a five letter word starting with P which means a kitty cat which refers to the female privates and a five letter word starting with P which means to poke with a pin or needle which refers to the male pro-creative apparatus. The technical or medical term for which is also a five letter word starting with P.
However, Washington explained that he was not using the words F-- and P---- literally, but to refer to a weak or submissive person who could be easily be pushed around or bullied.
There are parts of the culture that has overcome religious based prejudices over sexual lifestyle. They have adopted the Seinfeldism NTTAWWT (not that here's anything wrong with that).
Without wanting to resort to racial stereotypes, it is rumored that there are some ethnic groups who place a much higher value on asserting ones masculinity and defending it even from mild aspersions. One such group contributed the word "Macho" to the lexicon, and Washington is a member of the other. So it is possible that he would not regard being referred to or treated as a f**k or a p***k as an insult at all. So we can deduce that the P-word he would have objected to being treated like would be the missing prefix from the song lyric "What's new, _____cat?"
While everyone knows what the F-word is, in this context he was clearly referring to what's often called "the other f-word". There are two, actually. F*****, a six letter word meaning bundle of sticks and the shortened version, F**, which is British slang for cigarette. Both have the same slang connotation, a slur directed at homosexuals. Washington, a tall handsome black male who is, reportedly, married to a woman, is concerned over being treated like a homosexual.
And he does not want to be treated like a c-word.
We assume he does not want really to be treated like cancer and subjected to surgical removal and chemotherapy (although his character was more or less excised with surgical precision from the cast of his program), but that's not what he actually meant.
So we assume he meant the vulgar sexual connotation of the word.
A c***, of course, is a p****. And yet, oddly enough, a c*** is a p****.
Of course a c*** is a male chicken... but wait, that is also an insulting term a man would not want to be treated like. (It's slang usage means coward, which is also similar to C-word.)
But we assume he meant c***, a word with no other meaning than the female sexual orifice, pronounced like the first syllable of the word country.
So Washington does not want to be abused or taken advantage of the way, traditionally, men have treated women or male homosexuals. He does not want to be treated like a woman or her sexual apparatus, or like a gay male. In short, he does not want to be f***ed.
Being a long term knee jerk anti-censorship type, I'm tempted to think that things would be simpler if the media could just go ahead and report when someone says f***, f** or f*****, p**** or p**** or c***, c*** or cancer.
But being a left leaning moderate with a penchant for political correctness, I'm persuaded that at times the use of code words and signifying letters are preferable to bluntness. Although I am not African-American myself, I don't care about the race of the user or the context of the usage, I simply don't care to hear the "N-word". And I think we all know what that means. Rhymes with Bigger (which is another racial stereotype) and is presumably derived from a corruption of the word Negro. It is not entirely precise since there are other N-words: rap and hip-hop culture also often use variants such as N***a (same word with the "r" sound dropped, evoking stereotypical Negro dialect) and n***az (same as above made plural by the addition of a "z".)
When people see or hear a word being used in the media it inures them to its shock value and allows them to consider the word as acceptable and in common usage.
It is ridiculous to try to suppress the F-word because it is, in fact, in extremely common usage in music, literature, the arts, much print media, pretty much everywhere but the public radio waves and broadcast television, where it is still treated as the most taboo of words.
Or perhaps the second most taboo, or tied for first. The N-word is also ubiquitous in some genres of music, in literature, film, adult news media, and is also strongly discouraged from being used casually on broadcast TV or the radio.
But there is a significant difference. The f-word had perhaps a hundred different meanings and usages as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, modifier and exclamation. Even taking it in its most traditional and literal meaning, the comedian/philosopher Lenny Bruce said that it was the nicest think two people can do, "so if you're mad at someone you shouldn't say 'f*** you' to them, you should say 'don't f*** you'."
Spokespersons for the hip-hop community claim the N-word also has multiple uses and meanings, depending on the context and the user. "Yo, (stranger)". "He's my (friend)". "(Brother), please!"
Originally the N-word was a derogatory term for Black person. The Black community has tried to reclaim the word as their own. This is a tactic that has worked for gay groups to diffuse the term "queer" and to a lesser extent for feminist groups who see strength and value in bitchiness.
Unfortunately Blacks still have minority status and the "it's okay when we say it" approach ultimately fails to diffuse it, it just guarantees that when a white person says it... well, they mean it.
Still, if the Black community wants to try to reclaim and diffuse the term, I suppose it's racist and oppressive for a white person to try to tell them not to.
It still rings to these ears as a bitter, hateful word - the worst in the English language. If you think you can change that, I can only reply "Brother, please!"
So as foolish and pointless and sometimes confusing as it is to obfuscate speech with nonsensical initial derived code-terms like F-word and c-word and "other f-word", I think it's worth the bother if it keeps children from growing up thinking it's okay to use the N-word.
Because some words are dirty, and other words are just plain nasty.
= Napoleon Park =
posted by Napoleon Park at 4:37 PM
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