As we have discussed before “man” is a perfectly fine, gender neutral term, has been for most of its life and should continue to be used as such. Insisting that there’s something wrong or suspect about Marsha Blackburn wanting to be called Congressman is stupid. It’s practically anti-feminist. It’s as misanthropic as “womyn” which should be laughed at every time it’s seen.
Yes, some folks (Those dang wermen with their patriarchy and their penises… I kid. I love you. Please don’t stop fucking me.) have waged a pretty successful PR campaign to claim the word that means all of humanity to mean them. But it doesn’t. And we don’t have to accept their attempts to co-opt that word for themselves.
And, I’m sorry, but just as it is patronizing and stupid to call a grown ass woman an actress or a poetess or an aviatrix or whatever, it’s stupid to call a Congress critter with tits “Congresswoman.” Normally, I’m not going to rally against it, because whatever. It’s not that big a deal.
But using whether or not someone calls herself “Congresswoman” as a sign of whether or not she’s in proper solidarity with other women?
I call bullshit.
There’s enough vile and stupid things about Marsha Blackburn to talk about all day (and enough evidence of a real sort to indicate that she doesn’t have the best interests of women at heart).
This, though, is not one of those things.
Calling herself “Congressman Blackburn” is–dare I say it?–almost feminist of her.
Good for her.
Filed under: Fun with Feminism
On Star Trek, all the female officers are referred to as “sir.” Fun fiction facts two days before Fun Fiction Fact Friday — and at no extra charge!
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Why are the female members of Metro Council referred to as “Council-lady”? It drives me right up the wall.
Well, because clearly they want me to come over there and punch them. But I’ll refrain. It wouldn’t be lady-like.
Ha.
1. I doubt she’s doing it to be feminist and suspect that if she thought others thought that, she’d switch – if she could think.
2. Are they critters or flea-bitten varmints?
My Council-Lady is both, but we couldn’t get enough votes to replace her. Next time ….
Insisting that there’s something wrong or suspect about Marsha Blackburn wanting to be called Congressman is stupid.
but we can still call her “congresscritter”, to fit in with how we traditionally address all her colleagues, right?
If a man doesn’t want to be called a woman, why would a woman want to be called a man? Have you thought of that?
I think it’s courteous to call people what they want to be called. If she wants to be called Congressman, then big f’in deal. Would it kill Tennesseans to concentrate on something substantial, like how she votes?
[...] is based on its being grammatically correct. Indeed, a prominent Tennessee feminist voice actually defends Blackburn’s use of the term asserting: If Blackburn wants to call herself Congressman, it’s stupid to not [...]