Ann Coulter Makes No Sense.
Mar 6th, 2007 at 2:04 pm by Brendan
Anne Coulter was on FOX Monday night saying that “faggot” is a “schoolyard taunt” that has nothing to do with sexuality, because it’s a common schoolyard insult (pardon the FOX link: if a Media Matters url shows up with the same info, I’ll replace).
COULTER: Not the way the mainstream media is just going to play this one thing over and over again, but the speech, I’ve just gone through a bunch of jokes on Gore, a bunch of jokes on Hillary, a bunch of jokes on Obama. Frankly, I didn’t think Edwards was really worth attacking, and I promise you, an audience of conservative news junkies not only know the Isaiah Washington story, they know John Edwards, with his two Americas and you know, his charlatan performances before illiterate juries. They know that that is wussy. That is lame. That is a sissy thing to do. Everybody knows what I was talking about, and I also know that John Edwards is not gay, and that I was using it in a schoolyard taunt way. In that way, it is a sophomoric word. It is not a bad word.
I remember Jason Peters chasing me down and beating me up every recess in 6th grade yelling “faggot, faggot.” Everybody knew it meant homosexuality, something we’d all looked up in the dictionary among other bad words like “shit” and “fuck”. And of course everyone knew that faggots were objects of ridicule: “Three’s Company” was already in reruns in 1982. For boys on the verge of puberty, at least when I was a kid, “faggot” was no casual insult. Gay people weren’t accepted the way they are now.
While Jason was kicking my ass up and down the schoolyard, he’d intersperse “faggot” with “Whatsa matter? I’m just calling you a bundle of sticks,” one of the other definitions in Websters (or as it used to be: the online 2007 edition spells that second definition with one g). When he tried that line on the principal when we got sent up for fighting, Jason got double the punishment for lying.
In any event, Coulter’s (and Jason’s) excuses are bogus for the simple reason that language and social mores aren’t static. While there continue to be arguments and struggles over the rights of sexual minorities in our country, there is generally no question that a word like “faggot”, used as an epithet, has no place in reasoned political discourse anymore than “nigger” does, another word that was once accepted in general use. For that matter, nor are “idiot” or “imbecile” in use anymore as medical terms. You’d think people would know these things by now.
Of course, considering who Coulter speaks for, perhaps that’s expecting too much.
Most people (politicians and the media) have been much too mild in their criticism of Coulter. My thoughts here, along with my comments on the all-too-common criticism of Coulter’s sexuality from the left.
That word is sophomoric, not a bad word? What planet does she live on?
Maybe the headline should read - Coulter Admits to being a Schoolyard Bully
Just like - in this type of discourse - the N-word always means the N-word and never means “buddy” no matter how many times you watch the Chappelle Show - the F-word meand the F-word and NOTHING ELSE, and further nore, that is why it was used. This is not one of her books - viewable only by the equivalent of her buds in the locker room - this was full-on public discourse.
If she meany “wussy”, or any pseudo-benign equivalent, she didn’t use it and it would have offended noone. Well, fewer.
She’s just pulling this because she’s not used to getting called out on misbehaving to quite the degree she’s FINALLY being called out on it, and is trying to get her sponsors back.
So sad she can’t have it both ways - be the “no holds barred” be-yatch and still be the recipient of all that yummy mainstream ad money. I think I’ll go cry some tears of pity for her.
Brendan:
What is your point? That a bully kicked your butt in school WHILE he called you names? Or that a bully called you names? This word for all my life (I am 54) has had at least two connotations. One is that you are weak and cowardly and the other that you are a homosexual.
I won’t defend Coulter in this instance but part of her joke was that in Hollywood you get sent to rehab for using the word. So she f-ed up a joke like your hero, John Kerry.
Do you libs ever find anything funny besides Jon Stewart?
“I won’t defend Coulter in this instance but part of her joke was that in Hollywood you get sent to rehab for using the word.”
That guy used that word against a gay man, not just as a casual insult. He knew the other actor was gay, and knew what the most offensive word to use was.
[...] Because every so often, this type of stuff drives me crazy. Inspired by Brendan, posted here. [...]
OK if its just a schoolyard taut then Coulter has no beef if a bunch of gays ‘take her to the Principals Office’ by paddling her Fanny