(Untitled)

[jessindenver]

• Update: I decided to leave the fate of the bottoms of my feet to chance. This morning, I lotioned only around the outside edges and have, thus far, remined upright.
  
  
• Of course, I'm also wearing a dress that, given any opportunity, will gap open in the front and show my goods (And make no mistake, they are good)to all and sundry.
  
  
• Just so you don't

Comments

[ginsu]

and Claire adding, "Totally, dude!"

I remember being at the vanguard of the dude movement in seventh grade. As a nation we were migrating away from man, which had served its purpose well but was over. I would have expected dude to be over by now, but instead it's just moved into both the new generation and the female half of the population, just as man did, even though it has a putatively male definition (just like man).

It's interesting how this default term always goes from men --> women, just like clothes. It will be a peculiar America if I wake up one day and we're all addressing each other as girlfriend or chick.

[jessindenver]

Well, there's bitch, which seems to have successfully made the move from fully female to a more unisex context.

[ginsu]

Good point. Also, ho and slut can now be applied to men.

It seems that blatant insults go from women to men, whereas characterizations of humdrum mediocrity go from men to women.

[jessindenver]

It is interesting, too, that bitch seems to have different meanings for men and women. For men it tends to connote a subservient role (I'll make him my bitch,) or excessive whininess (I'll make him my whiny little bitch). For women, it usually describes someone who is cruel and/or ruthless.

I think ho and slut are equal opportunity insults and translate roughly the same across genders.

[ginsu]

a subservient role

I believe this traces to the nineties phrase prison bitch, i.e., man who is forced into homosexual conduct in prison (catcher, not pitcher). Frequently used by Phil Hartman on Newsradio in this context.