"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?

I really hope someone comes in to the discussion and explains how, around their end, tramp means scruffy and has no sexual connotations at all.

Fingers crossed everyone.

Hahaha Moranne

We can but hope :)

CANCEL THE CHEQUE.

This has to have been one of the most frustrating threads I have ever read! GOOD GOD! I was compelled to get to the end to see if it ever got any better but - no.

If I heard someone call a woman (specifically a woman) a tramp I would not for one moment think they were calling her scruffy and homeless looking (not least because the female word for homeless person is not tramp it's bag lady).
No I am not American. Yes I am in the UK. No I am not old. Yes I am much younger than the person who claimed that 'tramp' to mean slut was only used by the much older crowd.

However even if you have never heard the sexed words for vagrants so have no understanding that 'tramp' is not the correct word for a homeless woman and even if you truly honestly believed that 'tramp' is never used to mean slut outside of the U.S - the man confirmed he meant slut and 'not a lady' so anyone still arguing the toss is simply being obtuse (and fine if you missed the update - but now it's been pointed out that should be the end of it. You were wrong the OP was right so no more need to discuss your personal interpretation. But not on this thread...) .
Fine you didn't understand at the beginning but now its been explained - and confirmed by the neighbour so let it go, accept your interpretation was in fact the wrong one and move on.

Jesus, Moranne I don't know how you haven't deleted the thread yet, I feel like pulling my own eyelids off after reading that. How many times do people need to be told 'yes but your understanding was in this case incorrect, this is what he actually meant and he confirmed it'?

This could have been an interesting discussion on buried misogyny and the policing of women's behaviour in comparison to men's. Stuff that the feminism board should actually be about.

Instead we get six pages of people refusing to understand that a word can have multiple meanings, that context changes depending on the sex of the person being described ('they look like tramps' or 'she looks like a bag lady' are very very different statements to 'she looks like a tramp') and that if a difference in use is regional then the person best placed to judge the neighbour's use of it would be the one poster posting in the same region as the neighbour

'Bag lady'

Well go ahead, then pretzels, feel free to provide some more examples of buried misogyny.

sorry - why is 'bag lady' more inappropriate a word than 'tramp' none of them are good words to call homeless people none of them are P.C but the terms are sexed.

Never heard of it outside America but you've claimed it's some recognised term for a female homeless person (it isn't.)

I've never heard and American say it - I'm not American. I actually don't know that it would be recognisable in America, it is specifically a word I have only ever heard in England.

Considering you have failed to understand in even accept when told it is so that 'tramp' is frequently used to mean 'slut' in the UK, I don't see why I should take your definitive word for it that 'bag lady' isn't used in England and ignore all my experience of where I have heard that word. You've already been wrong once ...

Run @Icantreachthepretzels ! Save yourself! Don't get sucked in to the madness! It's too late for me, but you can still escape.

Said with such authority on a rant about the thread not being to your liking but not adding anything to it yourself or an attempt to open up debate on, say representation of women offenders on social media, or whatever other academic topic you've love to get your teeth into. This just wasn't the thread 🤣it was OP asking what to reply on a since deleted comment.

'Bag lady' is commonly heard on American Tv shows.
What have I been wrong about?

Tramp means scruffy/smelly in the northwest.

@Moranne

I really hope someone comes in to the discussion and explains how, around their end, tramp means scruffy and has no sexual connotations at all.

Fingers crossed everyone.

Well, I'm holding out for somebody having a personal copy of the Historical Thesaurus of the English Language and being able to reproduce all of the history of the first identifications in literature of various usages in this thread.

www.oed.com/public/htoed/loginpage#:~:text=The%20Historical%20Thesaurus%20of%20the,English%20to%20the%20present%20day.

For bonus points, I'd take The Linguistic Atlas of England complete with historical isoglosses of regional variations.

www.amazon.co.uk/Linguistic-Atlas-England-Harold-Orton/dp/0856642940?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

You're right Moranne - just this last one

Notredamn - you have been wrong about the fact that 'Tramp' does not mean 'slut' in the UK, you have ignored the part where the neighbour explained he meant she looked like a slut and you have claimed that 'bag lady' is not used in the UK when I can tell you definitively it is. (I'm not going back to make sure you specifically made these claims, but this is the side you have been arguing on and still are - hence in this discussion, where tramp did mean slut - you are wrong )
Maybe they are all regional differences, but the fact is op is in the same region as her neighbour and better placed to understand his use of words than the rest of us. Once he had confirmed that, that should have been the absolute end of discussion on what the term meant because we had confirmation on this specific context. Sadly the discussion continued for a further five pages because people could not accept they had been wrong in this instance or couldn't be arsed to read the full thread.

Unfortunately there is not much point starting up what the thread was supposed to be about - six pages in, the derailers have absolutely destroyed it with their inability to understand that 'tramp' means 'slut' in some contexts even in the UK and specifically in this context where it was confirmed.

Well just out of curiosity I looked the definition up. Misogynistic tramp is no. 5 on the list after Vagrant, homeless person ect..

Then I looked on urban dictionary. Holy moly who ever wrote this gem really carries a dislike for women

URBAN DICTIONARY
TRAMP

Synonym for slut, but not the same. A slut is obvious. A tramp is a slut disguised as a lady. This makes her much more dangerous. A tramp is a woman who will seem to be everything you've dreamed of in a woman and will make you feel like the only guy in the world...

...just like the last guy, and just before - sometimes SHORTLY before - the next one.
"We spent nearly every day together for two months, then she goes and screws my COWORKER. Can you believe this fucking tramp?"
by Man-eated May 12, 2012

Maybe your guy went straight on to urban dictionary!

No, I'm afraid you're wrong @Icantreachthepretzels. We were talking about the fact that since the most commonly used meaning of 'tramp' is a pejorative term for homeless people, it was an odd choice for an out-and-out misogynist to use.
I acknowledged that the person allegedly intended for this meaning. More than once, I think.
You then claimed that 'bag lady' is the 'the female word for tramp' like it's officially accepted, when it clearly isn't. I'm sure some people say it- you clearly do- but that's about it.

Hmmm how odd that the guy on FB quoted the urban dictionary in his comment, Lizzie! So he was asked what he meant, but rather than know his own thoughts, he went to urban dictionary and copied and pasted the explanation

[quote Notredamn ]No, I'm afraid you're wrong @Icantreachthepretzels. We were talking about the fact that since the most commonly used meaning of 'tramp' is a pejorative term for homeless people, it was an odd choice for an out-and-out misogynist to use.
I acknowledged that the person allegedly intended for this meaning. More than once, I think.
You then claimed that 'bag lady' is the 'the female word for tramp' like it's officially accepted, when it clearly isn't. I'm sure some people say it- you clearly do- but that's about it.
[/quote]
I agree. It’s also odd the guy used word for word out of the urban dictionary.

But great first post OP!

Crossed post Notadamn

Yup!

Good find! So when challenged he had to google (and chose a definition that meant slut rather than homeless)?
I do wonder if it was deleted by admin or if he removed his comment after being challenged.

But great first post OP! I understand the accusation. I could be a troll who made this up. Or I could be a long time poster who minted a new username. You can derail my thread further or you can report me and MNHQ will confirm I’ve been around for a while.

Is this man Tony Bennett?

How long you've been around doesn't really matter.

I find it difficult to believe the man had to google the thought that was in his own head. Why would he post a slur if he didn't know what it meant? Not only that, but then his post was conveniently deleted. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.