Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Aug 8 13:27:07 UTC 2007


Not to mention reproductive functions. For those youngsters who are
confused by references to throwing water on publicly overly-amorous
couples, when the dog and the bitch "locked," the only way to get them
apart, it was said, was to throw a bucket of water on them or to hose
them down. However, I've never seen anyone try to uncouple a dog and a
bitch, though such locked doggie duos were once a common sight on city
- well, on Saint Louis - streets, so I can vouch for neither the
efficacy nor the truth of the water treatment.

-Wilson

On 8/8/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And let's face it, dogs display inappropriate interests and perform inappropriate bodily functions in public.
>
>   JL
>
> "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
> Subject: Re: Link to NY City Council "Bitch & Ho" Resolution
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > Just wondering: What is it about a female dog that has made the
> > word "bitch" so offensive? I sense a great injustice here. Dogs
> > (both male and female), albeit with some exceptions, are wonderful animals.
>
> I think it's originally offensive because it means "low" and not
> because it means "evil". To be likened to a dog or a bitch is
> basically to be disrespected ... I think.
>
> Cf. "work like a dog" (although dogs don't work hard usually), "they
> treat me like a dog" (doesn't mean they pet me and take me to the
> vet), "died like dogs", etc. The idea is that the dog is low-class or
> ignoble (compared to the humans) ... I think.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
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