peramene

Words by Sara Langston

Words are sacred - even the mean ones.

[Trigger Warning: Your social justice safety blankets are bullshit, your inability to control me is what really makes you uncomfortable, you are fighting for your enemies and you don’t even know it.]

I am the recent victim of continued emotional abuse on small account of my belief that words, among them:

nigger, bitch, slut, cunt, whore

are not inherently hateful. I am accused of a wide variety of offenses and because of that, these individuals feel perfectly justified in continuing to abuse me. I’ve been struggling with explaining myself to most people, but only my partner really gets it.

Words are sacred. Even these words. They mean specific things - ignorant dark-skinned male, submissive woman, sexually liberated woman, distasteful woman, sex worker. 

These words are famous for being offensive, and the controversy surrounding their use is already discussed in ridiculous length on tumblr. The above list is not exhaustive either, I’ve chosen the most famous and most widely agreed-upon single offensive word and those which apply only to females and - apart from the third - are words I use to describe myself.

I do this in part to remove the power from the words themselves - if I call myself a whore because I flirt with boys, obviously I am not a literal sex worker. It’s hyperbole. It’s fun - adventurous even.

Here is the crux of the matter - if you say to me, “please don’t call me a bitch”, I won’t. Not to your face, not behind your back, not in my own mind. I think you are stupid for giving the word power over you, but in your own field of influence I give you the power of your own choices. Like any nation living in an international community - I grant you your own sovereignty.

But to say, “don’t use that word ever”, and/or “not even about yourself”, that I cannot abide. Worse is that it is never a request, a least not to me, always a demand. Usually painted to look a request, with some amount of whining and or pleading - one individual goes so far as to insist that when the “request” does escalate into a demand, it only did so because I refused to honor the “request”. The demand is backed up with the same currency this particular brand of Censor always uses - pain. The word is not to be used because it is inherently hateful, wrong or immoral or any of the arguments that are worth having.

Only because it “makes [you] uncomfortable”. When in the same vein, the same sentence, these very same people go to great lengths to make me uncomfortable. Often they are the worst propagators of hate and mob mentality - at least in the small community where they chose to torture me so.

“Consider the future” as I so often do - if they succeed…these words will still exist, very much as they think they do now. From time to time they will be uttered, accidentally or maliciously, and they will have power. If I, and the other champions of real freedom of speech, win out…these words will still exist, much as they really do today. Harmless, second long remnants of the patriarchy or of slavery sure - but utilized for humor and mockery and not insult. 

Of course, that’s just my opinion, I could be a lone voice of opposition being repeatedly discredited and disrespected for the crime of speaking my mind.

  1. hatewizard said: I tried to have this discussion with someone today and it did not go well at all. He just said it was impossible to use those words and NOT be a bigot. I can’t really wrap my mind around it. I don’t have the words to explain it so: I AGREE
  2. koalaiskoala posted this