Ya better send it again, porcupine. I didn’t receive it.
Great idea! Now, if only I could find me a glass hammer, my Christmas shopping would be done.
But on-topic, now I’m wondering if I should take all of my Winners Bitch photos of my office wall. But my komondor bitch won them fair and square…
Also, I referred to a male colleague as a skanky bastard just yesterday. And he is, too. Skanky rat bastard shithead creep. To be more specific.
Vebr
Well, Angel, it’s not strictly or even primarily an issue of avoiding being offensive.
It’s rather a larger argument than I have time or inclination to go into right now, except to say the following.
Our language informs our thinking. What we say, and the way we say it has everything in the world to do with the way we think about things.
When we use “he” to refer to both he or she, we subtly reinforce the idea that male = norm, female = not norm. The same complaint, which I share, is made about using the word “man” or “mankind” to refer to humanity.
Many people, (again, myself among them) also find fault with adding “ess” to nouns to feminize them. Actor = one who acts. Actress = * female * one who acts. God = omnipotent being, Goddess = female omnipotent being. It’s unnecessary, and is another subtle way of setting the female apart from the male as the mildly aberrant and possibly lesser form. (more and more female actors are referring to themselves simply as actors, Gynweth Paltrow being one that springs to mind).
I don’t know if you are male or female, but I tend to suspect you are male. Certainly not all women agree with working to change gender bias in the language, but it is usually much easier to appreciate why it might be an issue when one is a female. I can distinctly recall as a child (which is, after all, when our basic understanding of the world and our place in it is formed) feeling annoyed, put off, offended or confused by such things as the use of the word “man” to refer to all of humanity, and the use of “he” as the catchall pronoun. We have to train our children to accept it, because it is not naturally understood to make any sense. I am not a he. I am not a man. (Just as a scientific aside, if we are going to reduce the whole species to a single gender for convenience’ sake, it makes more sense to go with the female, since the default gender is female, and it is actually the male that is the “aberrant” form. 
)
I anticipate that you will object to all of this as silly. I won’t argue the point with you. I offer it not as a starting point for debate, but only as information, so that you might better understand exactly what it is you are objecting to. I don’t know what you are studying in school, but since you are currently studying something, perhaps now is the perfect time for you to study the impact of language on our culture and our society. It’s pretty fascinating, really.
stoid
hardcore feminist since 1964
PS: Speaking of God… it has always struck me as perfectly absurd and unquestionably sexist and patriarchal to refer to the Creator as “he”. Look around in nature…since when is the creator of anything a male? Bah!
Sounds like a potentially unpleasant process. I’ve heard of “when in Rome do as the Romans”, but this is ridiculous.
Aside from that…
what Stoid said.
Look, people, my OP was not about genderless language, which I think is just as stupid as all of you do.
When I agreed with the plea for genderless language, I assumed the poster (board’s moribund; can’t call up the thread to quote exactly) was responding to my OP (fancy that!) and specifically referring to the context in which I began this thread–SDMB insults, not ALL LANGUAGE–and so I agreed without redefining that context. So this whole trailing thread about neuter pronouns is utterly irrelevant to the OP.
And as far as Scylla’s (not unexpected :rolleyes: ) misread of my post as a plea for inoffensive insults–spare me. I never said that the only alternative to calling a woman a bitch is to call her for dinner. Call her an asshole, or a jerk–or call a guy a bitch and a skank.
It just seems to me, that when I’m mad at a woman, if I think to call her a bitch instead of an asshole, I’m tailoring the insult to her gender and including it as a target, when really it’s the assholery that I’m objecting to and not her genitalia. It’s tantamount, in my ears, to saying, “What’s wrong, that time of the month?”
Prick.
MUCH better, Skanque.
I thought you’d like it. “Prick” insults your maleness, and might by extension be construed to insult all males by extension (and even those who unlike yourself, don’t use extensions,) according to your OP.
Plus, there is the interesting case of male bitches. For example while playing doubles with a dear friend who was at the net on the opposing side, I drove a line drive past him, that caused him to yelp with terror.
Pleased with my ability to overpower him with impugnity, and a total disregard for his netkeeping abilities, I let him know that I had just made him my bitch.
Bitch has several unisex applications.
And don’t say “bitch,” drop the “T,” cuz “bich” is the Latin for generosity.
M’kay?
Sigh.
Priscylla, sweetie, are you OK? From your desperate little quivering yelps I can tell that I must have stepped on your little toesies. Are you peeing on the carpet? Please don’t pee on the carpet.
Donkey raping shit-eater.
I’m a bitch, I’m a lover
I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I’m your hell, I’m your dream
I’m nothing in between
You know you wouldn’t want it any other way
I’d be Scylla’s jailhouse bitch, although I’d have to choose Keller on “OZ” first.
This thread has taught me well.
The first person XX-chromosomily challenged human being I run into who looks at me wrong? I’m just look that human being right in the eyes and scream “SHUTUP YOU DYKE!”
Then they’ll know I’m sensitive and stuff.
It’s also fun to call people racial slurs that don’t match their race.
You’ve got a Komondor!? Cool beans! I would love to have one, but I haven’t the room or the time. 
Plus I’ve got a family that, shall we say, doesn’t comprehend the concept of dominance in pack animals - something that would truly be a problem with a Komondor from what I’ve heard. What’s she like?
ON-TOPIC: I like gender-neutral pronouns and would love to see them become more widely used. My preference is for the zie/zir set. I don’t use them here, generally, only because I get tired of the bitching. (I don’t mind the ?huh? comments; there’s a lot of folks that don’t know the GNPs.) I think there’s a fair chance of them becoming popular as electronic communications become more commonplace. I can hope, anyway.
As far as insults, they’re all gender-neutral to me. A bitch is a bitch, male or female. So is an asshole. Ditto bimbo, dick, et cetera - as far as I’ve noticed, I use names pretty indiscriminately with regards to gender. The behavior is different for each word, but gender is irrelevant. Much to the dismay of some people, who become truly upset at being referred to by the “wrong” word. Much more upset then they get over being insulted in the first place. Whatever.
FWIW, “cunt” is widely used for both males & females in Great Britain.
I came up with a rule of thumb on this a while ago, and it’s worked very well for me.
If one is insulting a woman for doing something traditionally associated with her gender (Emotional manipulation, for example), the person being insulted is a bitch.
If one is insulting a man for something normally associated with his gender (domineering boorishness/insensitivity, for example), the person being insulted is a bastard.
If the action which generated the insult is not traditionally gender specific (taking up two parking spaces, having a loud party, etc.) the person being insulted is an asshole.
Please note the above examples are only first things off the top of my head and their actual gender relevance may well vary from person to person. In other words, if you’re offended by the examples, you missed my point, you asshole.
ROFL
Am I missing something here?
I was so excited to see this thread title because I was thinking this exact thing recently. In my case, it has nothing to do with profanity or grammar issues.
I’m talking about the denigration of “soccer moms,” and people’s assumptions that middle-aged and elderly women couldn’t possibly contribute anything useful to society, so they shouldn’t be allowed to clutter up the freeways or supermarket aisles when important people are using them.
Nevermind me. I’m just some broad.
Nah, I’ll testify to that as well.
personally, I’ve always been fond of dumbass. Very versatile.
BTW, my Irish wife once walked into a gas station in Texas and asked for a ‘pack of fags.’ The clerk - with a straight face - told her “We ain’t got none of those around here, ma’am.”
I almost swallowed my tongue laughing.
[sub]…dumbass[/sub]
z
Um, Stoid, I think that the MAN=MALE confusion is the kernel of the debate. The word “man” refers to any member of the human species. (“I am a man. I count nothing human foreign to me.” -Terentius) A “woman” is a special class of man, possessing a womb. If we want gender-equality in language, we only need one new word, to indicate a man with male reproductive organs. I’m partial to tesman. That way, we can avoid abhorrent constructions like “chairperson”.
