Joke on Liverpudlian speechways

[Charles Doyle]

On the other hand, in America it isn't especially uncommon to hear a speaker (male or female) exhort a woman, "Don't be a dick!"  I think the prevalence of that usage means that Americans are either less or more sexist than Britishers.

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 05:38:42 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: Joke on Liverpudlian speechways
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>Chris, the motivation behind my somewhat facetious question about sexism and the C-word is that here in the States feminists sometimes object to gender-unspecific use
>of the G-word ("guy") as intolerably sexist.
>
>  I believe this position was more frequently expressed in the '80s. My own opinion is that most or all such claims for the culturally revelatory power of linguistic usages are essentialist and logically unsupportable.  They seem to assume a kind of neurotic though transcendental Superspeaker (cf. Emerson's "Oversoul") whose habits both reveal and program predictable attitudes and behavior in ultimately robotic speakers. Reduced to absurdity, this view would claim that generic "he" is as significant an index to women's experience of society as are factual sociological data.
>
>  It is interesting, however, that the use of "cunt" to mean "stupid or offensive man" remains quite uncommon here.
>
>  JL
>
>
>Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> Yeah, flapping ! And "Worral" is a surname in the Liverpool area ! I'm still laughing !
>>
>> BTW, are the Brits more (or less) sexist than we are because they so often apply the word "c*** " to pests and fools of either sex ?
>>

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