General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: On the evolution of language and the "W" word [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and then read one of the responses from Sabrina about how DU is known about just one issue when it comes to women... naughty words.
I had to smile... and as Sabrina pointed out in one of those responses... and she is right...
If I want to discuss the ERA, I never think of DU as a place to post it. If I want to discuss about diapers and child care, a critical issue for women of working and even middle class background, this is the last place that will be posted.
If I decide it would be best to talk about women and their role in civil rights and how in many cases women were otherised even by their own movements and relegated to secondary roles. DU is the last place to have that discussion.
This OP is just about a change in the language the political press is using as well as many of those I happen to interview regularly... where a term, let me spell it for you, careful there not to be too shocked... political whore, is getting normalized.
Now here is the irony of the whole thing. This place applauded Governor Brown calling Carly Fiorina a Political Whore. This place has used that term, whore and nothing more, with Anne Coulter, Rice, as well as Palin, and those are the ones I remember... so spare me your outrage.
When it is used against political enemies, sooner or later it will be used against your own. Do I like the term used against women? No, not really. Do I get the difference between calling somebody a whore and somebody a media, corporate and political whore, yes. The difference is extremely large. Suffice it to say that semantic shift means that it has none to do with sex
You might want to understand that, because that use is going to increase, and it will be posted HERE on the DU, at the very least in quotes from gasp... papers.