Feminists

boston bean
28. When I see the word typed out on DU as a slur against women, this is the vision that pops into my mind.



I am against using the word as a slur against women and I am trying to make a point as to how some women feel about the derogatory, bigoted, sexist use of the word.

iverglas
58. and that point was eloquently and painfully made many years ago at DU

by a woman in the original multiple-hundred-post "bitch" thread. (Not one of the "hard-core feminist" crowd, just an ordinary kind of DUer whom I had never even read before, and for whom even adding to the thread was obviously a difficult choice.)

That was her personal experience of the word, and that was indeed the vision that came to her mind when she saw it, only she was looking from the inside out.

That was actually a new perspective to me at the time -- not within my personal experience. My objection was (and of course is) based on the power of language, by its effects on the listeners in terms of how it colours their and society's view, and treatment, of women. The effect of the word on someone against whom it had been used as a direct and integral part of the way she herself was abused -- not to make her angry as it does me, but to make her feel, all over again, the pain and shame and humiliation -- ... I just don't know. Why does someone want to do that?