fag out

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Apr 8, 2007, at 9:04 AM, Alice Faber wrote:

> Within the discourse world of macho sports posturing, there's a common
> locution of "X out" where X is the verbification of a noun connoting
> weakness, femininity, or effeminacy. I think that most of these
> locutions (wimp out, wuss out, pussy out, etc.) have already been
> cited
> in this thread. While it might be interesting to speculate about
> etymological concerns (after all, it's what *we* do!), CBS' appeal to
> the etymology, independent of contemporary American usage, is post hoc
> apologetics, pure and simple.

well put.  i'll probably quote you.

> It's exactly comparable as disingenuous
> with NBC's attempts to excuse Don Imus' characterization of the
> Rutgers
> basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" as non-racist humor; the only
> difference is that Imus doesn't have an OED to stand on.

this stuff comes in faster than i can deal with it (though i'm hoping
to say something on the Language Log).  the imus case illustrates the
Comedy Defense ("it was just a joke") in a particularly lame form.
what astonishes me about this case (and others, going back many
years) is how flagrant the slur was.  what on *earth* could imus (and
his predecessors in slur-tossing) have been thinking of?

arnold

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