One of the ways I've been trying to do my part to stave off sexism and gender-based oppression (among other things) is to use non-oppressive language. I don't use gendered insults, I don't use slurs. If I say something that someone else finds offensive or hurtful, then I never say that word again. It's a tiny thing that everyone can do to make others comfortable in a world that just continuously shits on so many oppressed groups.
I guess maybe I'm sheltered, maybe I'm spoiled, and certainly I'm a very lucky person to live and be friends with so many folks with similar goals and ideals. I don't have to hear hateful speech on a daily basis, and on the off chance someone says something questionable, they are usually very receptive to being confronted on it.
So imagine my reaction when I was at the Good Food Emporium earlier today, and I picked up a copy of the Halifax Media Co-op's The Tide, an independently produced single-page publication of local news, and read the following paragraph:
Nature Will Tend To Win
The East Coast was bitch-slapped by nature, with four major wind, rain, and snow storms in as many weeks. A researcher with New Brunswick's Environment Department said the storms may be examples of climate change, and that we might want to pay more attention to how we develop because "nature will tend to win."
BITCH-SLAPPED! THE EAST COAST WAS BITCH-SLAPPED! What the fuck? What the FUCK?
Since I really don't feel like going over why this makes me so angry, here's a copy of the e-mail I sent to Media co-op editor Hillary Lindsay (and then forwarded to the entire Feminist League for Agitation Propaganda).
Dear Hillary,
Today I picked up a copy of the January 2011 edition of The Tide. While I started off curious and intrigued to read what's local and newsworthy, I have to say that I was completely shocked and disgusted when I came to the "News in Brief" section.
The fact that there is a publication that is understood to be left and radical, but will comfortably print the term BITCH-SLAPPED, is absolutely repulsive. Being independent does not give you the authority to be blatantly sexist and so shockingly offensive.
The word "bitch" is, on it's own, incredibly problematic and terribly hurtful towards women. When used towards women, it often implies that any sort of self-determination, strength, or assertiveness is a despicable quality. When used towards men, it's identifying weakness, submissiveness, and other "lowly" qualities as being inherently female. It hurts women by making them feel it's bad to be strong, and it hurts men by making them feel like they have to live up to some absurd standard of masculinity. Let us not forget that the term itself originally refers to a female dog, thus comparing women to animals.
When used in conjunction with "slap", a whole whack of negative imagery is conjured up. Whether one is referring to slapping a "bitch", or being slapped by a "bitch" doesn't matter. What matters is that someone actually used hateful, sexist speech when describing bad fucking weather! Aligning winter storms with abusing women is absolutely unacceptable.
What really throws me off is that this offence is printed directly beside a blurb on calling out Q104 for using homophobic speech. A little integrity, please?
I really expected more from you and the Media Co-op, and I sincerely hope that things of this nature aren't so clearly overlooked in the future.
Rosie McDonald
Now I'm going to go play scrabble and try to forget about how pissed off I am.
1 comment:
word.
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