Political leanings aside, the US presidential elections are becoming a royal shit show; especially after one candidate’s comments about the method he advocated to engage in a sexual and romantic relationship with a woman was to ‘grab them by the pussy – you can do anything’ came into light. This candidate then tried to defend his statement that ‘it was just locker room talk.’
And this is someone who is trying to convince the country that he will guide the American nation with the best interests of its people in mind.
Um, yeah.
American peeps, I feel for you. Don’t know how you’re gonna make it through this one.
I’m sure by now you’ve seen and heard the discussions that the word ‘pussy’ (here referring to female genital) is, in most contexts, considered offensive, but the real issue is this man’s self imposed feeling that he can grab anyone’s genitals without their consent, which is legally defined as sexual assault.
(Social media was ablaze with statements that it’s not the word ‘pussy’ that’s the problem, it’s the word ‘grabs’ and sense of entitlement coming with it.)
This candidate’s own party distanced themselves from these comments, and issued the statement that no woman should ever be described in these terms.
Let’s take a look at the language. Pussy.
The word pussy is also used to describe somebody being weak or fearful, or effeminate (“Don’t be a pussy.”) In effect, unmanly. Think about that – the very piece of female biology that defines male and female (apart from DNA testing) is used to put down men, and admonish their masculinity. In effect, feminizing them. Some how ‘don’t be a dick’ (meaning don’t be a jerk) or ‘don’t be a cunt’ (meaning idiot/jerk) are words that still retain a sense of presence.
You can be a prick or a dick or a cunt and still effect change on the world. Somehow, being a pussy is devoid in this. A pussy cannot act with its own agency, other than to flee.
Hence the ‘don’t be a pussy’.
So the comment to be taken either literally about physically grabbing someone’s genitals or referring to the woman themselves as a sexual being described in exclusion of all other parts (i.e. hook them sexually, and they’re yours) is offensive and dehumanizing to women.
And here around Twisted Sister, we’re not pussies.
Although in our ramblings the word might slip in, used in context, in fiction, the world of noire, crime, sexual and dark fantasy, we remain more than the sum of our parts, and do some serious ass kicking along the way.
We remain agents of action, and change. In short, we’re not pussies.
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Check back over at the Editor’s Page for discussion of rape culture and stats on the rates of sexual assault (1/5 women will become victims of sexual assault in their lifetime.)
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