Tapsearch Com EditorAndrew Sullivan says something logical
March 7th 2007 02:14
...news flash!
From his post about Ann Coulter's calling John Edwards a "f----t":
"Her defense, however, is that she was making a joke, not speaking a slur. Her logic suggests that the two are mutually exclusive. They're not. And when you unpack Coulter's joke, you see she does both. Her joke was that the world is so absurd that someone like Isaiah Washington is forced to go into rehab for calling someone a 'f[----]t.' She's absolutely right that this is absurd and funny and an example of p.c. insanity. She could have made a joke about that - a better one, to be sure - but a joke. But she didn't just do that. She added to the joke a slur: 'John Edwards is a f[----]t.' That's why people gasped and then laughed and clapped so heartily...
"Coulter's defense of the slur is that it was directed at an obviously straight man and so could not be a real slur. The premise of this argument is that the word f[----]t is only used to describe gay men and is only effective and derogatory when used against a gay man. But it isn't. In fact, in the schoolyard she cites, the primary targets of the f-word are straight boys or teens or men. The word 'f[----]t' is used for two reasons: to identify and demonize a gay man; and to threaten a straight man with being reduced to the social pariah status of a gay man. Coulter chose the latter use of the slur, its most potent and common form. She knew why Edwards qualified. He's pretty, he has flowing locks, he's young-looking. He is exactly the kind of straight guy who is targeted as a 'f[----]t' by his straight peers."
He's right here, thought I'm not sure he means to say the slur is "most potent" when directed at heterosexuals. Also, this later part of the post borders on political correctness itself:
"And for the slur to work, it must logically accept the premise that gay men are weak, effeminate, wusses, sissies, and the rest...gay men are not all effeminate. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a leading NBA player and a Marine come out to tell their stories."
This is true as far as it goes, but as psychologist J. Michael Bailey has demonstrated, gay men are indeed more effeminate than straights on average. And Steve Sailer recently showed the NBA player Sullivan writes of is "exactly the kind of player you'd expect to be gay."
In other Coulter-says-the-other-F-word news, Opinion Journal has a great analysis of why the joke failed:
"*The pop culture reference is too obscure for most people to get. We knew about it only because Kathryn Lopez linked to an article about it: It seems Isaiah Washington, a TV actor, checked into a 'residential treatment facility' after a dispute with a fellow cast member in which Washington used the word 'f[----]t.'
"*Although Edwards has what people back in 2003 used to call a 'metrosexual' demeanor, as well as a history of gay-baiting, it is not clear why implying that he is gay would be funny.
"'*F[----]t' is an ugly word, redolent of hatred even if employed without hateful intent."
I planned to end the post by explaining that the word "f----t" comes from the kindling sticks earlier cultures used to burn gays, but that (like everything else I learned in the one college sociology class I took) is probably not true. From Wikipedia:
"It is often claimed that the derivation is associated directly with faggot meaning 'bundle of sticks for burning', since homosexuals were supposedly burnt at the stake in medieval England. This, however, was never an established punishment for homosexuality in England, although, according to one source, those accused of homosexual acts were sometimes doused in fuel and used in place of sticks for the burning of supposed witches. However, this practice ended centuries before the word f[----]t became associated with gay people.
"The word has also been used since the late sixteenth century to mean 'old or unpleasant woman', and this would appear the most likely derivation. Female terms, it should be noted, are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen). The application of the term to old women may be a shortening of the term 'faggot-gatherer', applied in the nineteenth century to people, especially older widows, who made a meagre living by gathering and selling firewood. It may also derive from the sense of 'something awkward to be carried', an etymology that is more plausible if one considers the use of 'baggage' as a pejorative term for old women."
On an almost unrelated note, why is every news outlet either using the word, or not using it? Why don't any use it, but blot out the middle like I've done? That seems to me the best solution -- I haven't poisoned my blog with a slur (though note I left it in when actually pertaining to wood), but I haven't left it to the imagination what Coulter said.
By Robert VerBruggen
From his post about Ann Coulter's calling John Edwards a "f----t":
"Her defense, however, is that she was making a joke, not speaking a slur. Her logic suggests that the two are mutually exclusive. They're not. And when you unpack Coulter's joke, you see she does both. Her joke was that the world is so absurd that someone like Isaiah Washington is forced to go into rehab for calling someone a 'f[----]t.' She's absolutely right that this is absurd and funny and an example of p.c. insanity. She could have made a joke about that - a better one, to be sure - but a joke. But she didn't just do that. She added to the joke a slur: 'John Edwards is a f[----]t.' That's why people gasped and then laughed and clapped so heartily...
"Coulter's defense of the slur is that it was directed at an obviously straight man and so could not be a real slur. The premise of this argument is that the word f[----]t is only used to describe gay men and is only effective and derogatory when used against a gay man. But it isn't. In fact, in the schoolyard she cites, the primary targets of the f-word are straight boys or teens or men. The word 'f[----]t' is used for two reasons: to identify and demonize a gay man; and to threaten a straight man with being reduced to the social pariah status of a gay man. Coulter chose the latter use of the slur, its most potent and common form. She knew why Edwards qualified. He's pretty, he has flowing locks, he's young-looking. He is exactly the kind of straight guy who is targeted as a 'f[----]t' by his straight peers."
He's right here, thought I'm not sure he means to say the slur is "most potent" when directed at heterosexuals. Also, this later part of the post borders on political correctness itself:
"And for the slur to work, it must logically accept the premise that gay men are weak, effeminate, wusses, sissies, and the rest...gay men are not all effeminate. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a leading NBA player and a Marine come out to tell their stories."
This is true as far as it goes, but as psychologist J. Michael Bailey has demonstrated, gay men are indeed more effeminate than straights on average. And Steve Sailer recently showed the NBA player Sullivan writes of is "exactly the kind of player you'd expect to be gay."
In other Coulter-says-the-other-F-word news, Opinion Journal has a great analysis of why the joke failed:
"*The pop culture reference is too obscure for most people to get. We knew about it only because Kathryn Lopez linked to an article about it: It seems Isaiah Washington, a TV actor, checked into a 'residential treatment facility' after a dispute with a fellow cast member in which Washington used the word 'f[----]t.'
"*Although Edwards has what people back in 2003 used to call a 'metrosexual' demeanor, as well as a history of gay-baiting, it is not clear why implying that he is gay would be funny.
"'*F[----]t' is an ugly word, redolent of hatred even if employed without hateful intent."
I planned to end the post by explaining that the word "f----t" comes from the kindling sticks earlier cultures used to burn gays, but that (like everything else I learned in the one college sociology class I took) is probably not true. From Wikipedia:
"It is often claimed that the derivation is associated directly with faggot meaning 'bundle of sticks for burning', since homosexuals were supposedly burnt at the stake in medieval England. This, however, was never an established punishment for homosexuality in England, although, according to one source, those accused of homosexual acts were sometimes doused in fuel and used in place of sticks for the burning of supposed witches. However, this practice ended centuries before the word f[----]t became associated with gay people.
"The word has also been used since the late sixteenth century to mean 'old or unpleasant woman', and this would appear the most likely derivation. Female terms, it should be noted, are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen). The application of the term to old women may be a shortening of the term 'faggot-gatherer', applied in the nineteenth century to people, especially older widows, who made a meagre living by gathering and selling firewood. It may also derive from the sense of 'something awkward to be carried', an etymology that is more plausible if one considers the use of 'baggage' as a pejorative term for old women."
On an almost unrelated note, why is every news outlet either using the word, or not using it? Why don't any use it, but blot out the middle like I've done? That seems to me the best solution -- I haven't poisoned my blog with a slur (though note I left it in when actually pertaining to wood), but I haven't left it to the imagination what Coulter said.
By Robert VerBruggen
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