"She looks like a right tramp"

[Moranne]

On our local FB group (I know!) somebody has shared a video of a couple dealing drugs outside his front garden. She appears to be weighing out a quantity.
There's been a lot of discussion about logging it with the police, how they're a well-known problem around the area etc. And then somebody has just said, ""She looks like a right tramp".

I'm so frustrated with this comment, the subtext and the message it sends. I want to respond calmly, I don't want to let it go unaddressed, but I can't find the words.

How do you think I should respond?

Nice vocabulary for a C21st man! Tell him the 1920s called and wants it's old pejorative slurs for women back. He probably wouldn't get it, though. 🤷🏼‍♀️

"No insult is out of line " ?!

Wow. Scratch the surface a bit and there it is, staring at you, I guess.

They use skank on our local FB page when the ‘well known’ couple are spotted up to their usual tricks.

I don't see 'tramp' as a sexual term to be fair. Maybe they shouldn't be commenting on someone else's dress at all but to me tramp is equal to scruffy. Tramp in a sexual way is Americanised

Is this in the US?

I'm equally puzzled at why in relation to the criminal and antisocial behaviour of this woman the OP thinks this is more important than considering how best to deal with the criminal and antisocial behaviour.*
*
What disingenuous response. The OP has been pretty clear that she regards the drug dealing as a serious issue in its own right. It has nothing to do with the sexual appeal of the perpetrator, or how many people she has or hasn't slept with.

As ever, the right regards women as private property, and the left as public property. Calling her a "tramp" is an example of the former - if she sells drugs, she must also by extension not have an owner.

You are clearly happy with that, the OP is not. Framing this as excusing the actual crime is self-aggrandising claptrap.

I can't understand why some posters have a problem with the OP posting this. Yes it's an aside to the drug dealing, but it's perfect on-topic for FWR to discuss the tangent of sexist language.

Scratch the surface and see how many men disrespect females at some level for having sex, especially with more than one man. So if she's doing one morally dodgy activity (drug dealing) he's very ready to accuse her of another (shagging about, the slut).

Round here she looks like a tramp is more likely to mean sexually. I'm not in USA.

I agree with OP. Man responds to post about drug dealing by saying woman looks like a slag, essentially. WTF.

'Tramp' has no sexual connotations whatsoever where I live, quite the opposite. It means 'scruffy'/'homeless'- pejorative language, but not sexist. This is why I'm confused.

What disingenuous response. The OP has been pretty clear that she regards the drug dealing as a serious issue in its own right

What an equally disingenuous response

Where has she said this? Certainly not in her opening post. She makes no comment at all beyond the woman was weighing out drugs.

You are clearly happy with that, the OP is not. Framing this as excusing the actual crime is self-aggrandising claptrap

Ooh I do love a straw man. It's the one of the favourite FWR put downs. I do enjoy getting to use it

I did not "frame this as excusing the crime"
I queried why the OP had no interest in the actual crime so stop making things up

'Tramp' has no sexual connotations whatsoever where I live, quite the opposite. It means 'scruffy'/'homeless'- pejorative language, but not sexist. This is why I'm confused.

Where I live, where the post was made, it is equivalent to slut or slag. It would not be used in the old fashioned way about a man.

the OP thinks this is more important than considering how best to deal with the criminal and antisocial behaviour.

You have no idea what I think about criminal and antisocial behaviour, but you still feel qualified to comment.

Thank you to posters for your guidance, insight and helping my thinking.

I still think my interpretation of the word, the way it is commonly used in the UK, fits more with the context of the post being about drug dealers.

[quote Notredamn ]I still think my interpretation of the word, the way it is commonly used in the UK, fits more with the context of the post being about drug dealers. [/quote]
The person who said it, when asked to clarify, said he meant she looked like a slut. So the OP's interpretation was obviously more correct than yours.

The man made myth about women getting lighter sentences than men do in criminal cases is fully operational in the drug dealers world. That is why you so often see a woman holding the drugs while the man holds the money.

Missed that, queen- sorry! How utterly bizarre, then.

It's interesting the posters trying to find the least offensive interpretation when normally FWR is all over class analysis.

If it quacks and waddles, it's a duck. This man clearly reserves his misogyny for those that 'deserve' it.

I wasn't 'trying' to find a less offensive meaning. I'm not one to launch into mental gymnastics to excuse misogyny. I call it where I see it. Every. Single. Time.
In this case I was genuinely confused as I've never, being British, ever heard the word 'tramp' to mean anything other than lowlife/vagrant/homeless/scruffy (all horrible!)
And anyway, most misogynists would just go straight in with slag/slut/insert other less ambiguous term to say what they really mean, rather than a passé not-quite-as-cutting American term.

It isn't a sexist comment, its observation.

To be fair, this is how I took it. It's no doubt a term mainly used for women, but it's more about them being unkempt and scruffy than about her attractiveness. To me it's like saying "He looks like a right Kev." Or a 'Barry'.

@FrogspawnSmoothie

It isn't a sexist comment, its observation.

To be fair, this is how I took it. It's no doubt a term mainly used for women, but it's more about them being unkempt and scruffy than about her attractiveness. To me it's like saying "He looks like a right Kev." Or a 'Barry'.

But the comment was only about the woman. That's sort of the point isn't it, how often women's participation in anything (good and bad) is liable to garner comments (good or bad) about her appearance in a way that happens far less with men.

This seems somewhat relevant

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3TfnKKJtx6j9CLWHnPtBt0Q/women-and-words-why-language-matters

I agree with pp who said that some people are looking for an excuse to be fucking horrible to women. The "tramp" woman has a story which brought her to that moment and I bet it's not a nice one; she will most likely not have had advantages that most of us take for granted. She is a human.

And why can't OP focus on that if she wants to?

Christ, talk about policing people on here..

I saw a thread on here yesterday where people were calling a 9 year old girl a cow, a rat, a beast and so on. Some people have zero compassion when it comes to women and girls.

Tangential but related.

I've seen a number of #antimlm videos on YouTube and wholeheartedly support the #antimlm drive as they prey upon the vulnerable and lay waste to the relationships of far too many people. I'm also apprehensive that they make genuine interactions difficult as you need to be apprehensive about being 'groomed' by an MLMer just for being polite.

Many of the examples, scams, and behaviours that are criticised are completely wretched.

However, I've more than an uneasy feeling that women are being held to standards of behaviour by other women in a way that leaves me unsettled.

Sorry, but MLM?