How do you feel about calling someone a "scumbag" or "scuzzbucket", connoting a used condom (http://www.slate.com/id/2139453/)?
I think that if the sexist hygiene industry had emerged with a widely-marketed product intended to wash and perfume men's sexual organs, its name would also find use as an epithet (don't be such a dongspritz! that's so wanglavy!), due to its necessary proximity to a taboo subject over the course of use. If such a product existed and its name was used as I speculate, would "douchebag" be any less offensive? Maybe not, but perhaps less sexist.
Clearly to avoid accusations of sexism in our offensive language, we ought to seek gender neutrality in the source of our insults. If we must call someone some kind of bag, why not a colostomy bag? Maybe an enema syringe! (Of course, these are hurtful to those whose digestive processes have become medicalized -- which is, one might say, lame.)
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timeasmymeasure
the term "douche" or "douchebag" has always irritated me.
Date: 2009-02-24 06:00 pm (UTC)I think that if the sexist hygiene industry had emerged with a widely-marketed product intended to wash and perfume men's sexual organs, its name would also find use as an epithet (don't be such a dongspritz! that's so wanglavy!), due to its necessary proximity to a taboo subject over the course of use. If such a product existed and its name was used as I speculate, would "douchebag" be any less offensive? Maybe not, but perhaps less sexist.
Clearly to avoid accusations of sexism in our offensive language, we ought to seek gender neutrality in the source of our insults. If we must call someone some kind of bag, why not a colostomy bag? Maybe an enema syringe! (Of course, these are hurtful to those whose digestive processes have become medicalized -- which is, one might say, lame.)