Well, yet another thoughful comment from this class act of a congressman:
So, Grayson defenders: is this woman a whore, or just a K Street slut?
I consider most of the Republican congressmen and senators K Street whores, male or female. And more than a few of the Democrats, for that matter.
There were lobbyists writing legislation when the Republicans had the majority. That’s a good sign that K Street is your pimp.
Cue Congressman Lynn Westmoreland. I suppose he should have defended himself by saying that he didn’t mean to say that only Michelle and Barack Obama were “uppity,” since he considers all Democrats “uppity.” That would have taken the racism completely out of his comments!
Any legislator that sells their services to lobbyists can quite reasonably be called whores.
Another sound call by Grayson.
I’ll agree with “whore.” Sluts give it away.
Why is it that the Republicans are only concerned about sexism when it looks like a Democrat has committed it?
The Orlando-area GOP has been getting its ass handed to it lately, even though the state remains largely conservative, and Grayson is, in congressional terms, a badass. He plays by Republican rules, not Democratic ones, and nobody likes to run against a guy who exposes their dirty little secrets.
There are male prostitutes, even in the plain, basic meaning of the word. There aren’t a lot of occasions when adult white males have been called “uppity”.
No - this would be yet another feeble false-equivalence defence.
When the Republican Party stops being the home of lying, cheating, evil scum and returns to reasoned debate you get back to us.
Until then all this is is just bullies whining ‘no fair’ when their victims fight back.
That’s what it’s about. There’s finally a Democrat with a spine who’s not afraid to stand up and tell the truth without the typical liberal equivocating (which I have in the past been stricken with myself), and the Republicans and right-wing punditry are scared to death that the “disease” will spread, so they’re trying to toss as much manure on Grayson as they can in hopes it’ll smother him and get him to shut up and fade back into the background.
You know that was last year, right?
The convention of using the word “whore” to figuratively refer to persons of either genre selling or trading power, authority, services, legislation etc for pecuniary or other selfish compensation is well established and perfectly well understood. It isn’t sexist. The figurative use of the word is probably used more often against men than against women.
There was no similar established convention for the word “uppity” other than the coded one.
First of all, I hope you’re not insinuating that I’m a Republican. I’m a lifelong Democrat, and I consider myself a liberal, too. I just so happen to hold the bizarre opinion that people shouldn’t call women “whores” simply because they don’t like the woman. In any case, this view seems to be shared by the House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, said Grayson’s remarks are “inappropriate and unfair.” And Anthony Weiner, who will deserve a lot of the credit if Congress is able to pass a meaningful health reform bill, said of Grayson, “Is this news to you that this guy’s one fry short of a Happy Meal?” Yet another Democrat, Bill Pascrell, said “there’s no call for that language; no call for it.”
Furthermore, I had to consult my dictionary on the definition of whore. The only entries all referred to a whore as a woman who sells sexual favors. That’s the plain, basic meaning of the word. Try as you might, this kind of immature name calling isn’t justifiable.
The figurative use of the word is ubiquitous, well-established, non-gendered, and perfectly well understood in context, including THIS context.
It is sexism and you are excusing it.
It’s not sexist, and I think you know it.
No it isn’t.
Meh. I know that I reach for certain words when I want to insult women and other words when I want to insult men. I’ve never clearly known even in my own head if those sets of words are sexist or just handy.
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I think Grayson’s use of the term whore was inappropriate, but only for the same reasons as the “die quickly” comment- it lends itself to attacks by his opposition.
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The use of the term whore to refer to things outside the sexual arena is common- both in this case in the sense of a sellout, or attention whore, or whatever.
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It isn’t surprising that other Democrats are bitching about Grayson. He’s an old-school progressive, with none of the fiscal conservative trappings of the Clinton wing.
I’ve heard male politicians called “whores” a million times.
When I was a musician, it was commonly used to refer to (almost always male) hired gun musicians who were willing to play any gig or for any band just for money, without any particular concern for personal expression, musical “integrity,” etc. It wasn’t even a word they objected to themselves. I saw guys that were totally upfront about about. “I’m a whore, I don’t care what you play, what are you going to pay me” (there was actually kind of an upfront honesty, pragmatism and professionalism in that attitude that I apreciate more now than I did then).
The term “fame whore” is commonly used on line to refer to reality show wannabes, and marginal celebrities all the time, and for both genders.
The term “attention whore” is used all the time as well, sometimes on this board.
It’s used to refer to artists who are perceived as having sold out.
Even the use to refer to male sexual prostitutes is commonplace.
You can’t tell me that a figurative, unisex meaning of the word is not well-enough establsihed and understood that anybody really thought Grayson was literally calling this person a literal sexual prostitute.