Names and slurs

[Braggiography]

It's instructive to see how women are characterised when we raise concerns or make comment on sexism or child safeguarding.

'Pearl clutchers' seems to be the term du jour.

Note also that we never 'speak' or write, we always 'screech' or 'scream' or 'shriek' or 'spew'. We are 'hysterical' or we are 'prudes'. Our concerns are always less important than various other issues we ought to be paying attention to.

We're always wasting our time entirely, yet it's apparently worth someone else's time to chastise us for screaming hysterically into the void.

We're doing feminism all wrong, of course.

Pearl clutching has been in vogue as an MN dismissal of perspective since its earliest days, iirc.

The language very occasionally changes but the action and intention to shut down women's concerns is always the same.

Wasn’t it ‘go home and look after your kids’ the other day as well? Original.

We had 'snakes' the other day from a brief visitor. To add to the traditional 'vipers'.

And we were told to 'polish your broomsticks'. So, of course - 'witch' is a perennial favourite.

It is not just words it is actions too. We get chastised for spending our money on defending women's rights.

Oh and we are described as middle class. I wish I was financially comfortable. Surely that is something we all aspire too. To be able to afford a holiday, to have a house big enough to fit the family.

But, if I was MC, why would my opinions count for less?

Yes, 'white', 'middle aged' and 'middle class' are all used as slightly puzzling the most excoriating insults.

Women as witches and other intended slurs. 😁

Maggie Osbourne was burned alive in Ayr because “she spake unadvisedly with her lips”, while delirious with an “attack of brain fever”. Her illness did not warrant leniency because the Bible was clear — “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. Unhelpfully, the record does not detail which words are best avoided.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4508609-phenomenal-article-in-the-critic-needs-to-be-shared-far-and-wide

#WomenWontWheest

"Mumsnet has 30k ostentatious posts a day about nappies which draw the eye away from the small but seditious “sex and gender” board where mothers go to be radicalised. These places are where resources, templates, petitions and strategies are built by the anonymous to force Government to at least meet and hear concerns. So far, no good."

thecritic.co.uk/women-wont-wheesht/

Shonagh Dillon's PhD (available for free download) with a splendid title:

‘#TERF/Bigot/Transphobe’ – ‘We found the witch, burn her!’ A contextual constructionist account of the silencing of feminist discourse on the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and the policy capture of transgender ideology, focusing on the potential impacts and consequences for female-only spaces for victims of male violence.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4287881-Congratulations-Shonagh-Dillon-for-Defending-Your-PhD-TERF-Bigot-Transphobe-We-found-the-witch-burn-her

It’s not always necessary to centre male vocabulary and attitudes. Women are not called these things or characterised this way by people who’s attitudes and thoughts I care to prioritise. If you do so I think you are part of the problem.

Good reminder, Embarrassing.

When women are called names, when we get ad hom attacks, the only reason is because the person flinging insults has not got an argument and is not able to discuss rationally, with evidence and logic.

Name-calling is a badge of honour to wear, because when name-calling starts it means you are getting to a place where people really don't want you to go and are unable to explain why.

I find name-calling a really useful indicator that women are doing something right.

So add each name to your necklace of pearls the better to clutch it as a talisman the next time you venture bravely forth into the shadowy world of people who wish to tear women down in order to deflect, distract, and destroy the dangerous voices of us hags, witches, dinosaurs, bitches, prudes, sluts, dragons, shrieking hussies, viperes, prune-mouths, old bags, etc.

(In context of an internet forum, of course. In real life when someone starts flinging insults threats and abuse, be mindful of your safety and run the other way).

'Racist' & 'handmaids of the far right' have been coming up a lot lately.

I try very hard to remember to use male gendered words, if I want to curse in thought or deed at another person.

So wether they are male or female (but let’s face it, it’s mostly male), I use the words “dick, wanker, arse, git, prick (not so much)”

I absolutely refuse to use words like bitch and c**t on males. I think bitch power can be a force for good. Cunt is only the ultimate insult, because men hate that they are so desperate for what’s between our legs, while at the same time hating the rest of us.

They despise us for having such power over them, when in fact its not our power, it’s their weakness.

Yeah, I’m not keen on men much at the moment.