Bad girls speak

[Wilson Gray]

Back in the day, when "bitch" was still either a serious insult or a
grosserie used by poseur pswaydo-members of the thugging class trying
to act bad - Man, you ain't as bad as you smell! - the favored term
was "heifer." But "heifer" was, IME, never as neutral as "man." It was
more like "nigger," but also less like it. "Heifer" was *always*
slightly disparaging. You - male or female - could never put your arms
around a chick and say, as tears welled up in your eyes, "Baby, you my
heifer," without having it interpreted as, at best, heavy, insulting
sarcasm. OTOH, "heifer" could be used in friendly banter between the
sexes or among chicks - Damn, heifer, gimme some slack! - and as a
mild put-down of a chick who wasn't on the set- Aw, don't nobody  want
that heifer at the party!

But its use has always stricken me as somewhat déclassé.

-Wilson

On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Bad girls speak
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Watching the Season 4 opener, I realized that the new bunch of bad girls
> (just like the previous bunch) often employ "bitch" in more-or-less-neutral
> direct address, in parallel to (theoretically) male-gendered "man" and
> "dude," though God knows women have been using those among themselves for a
> long time.  Or so I am told.
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 12:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Bad girls speak
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The Oxygen cable network "for women" has been running a reality series
>> called "Bad Girls Club," which puts several "bold" middle- and
>> working-class
>> young ladies of 20 or 21 together in a mansion with a seemingly unlimited
>> entertainment budget. They generally refer to each other as "bitches" in
>> every nuance from opprobrious through laudatory.  When really mad, they
>> prefer "motherf****er." (Electronic deletion supposedly protects us from
>> the
>> foulest language.)
>>
>> Here are some other exx.of their talk, chosen for its sociolinguistic
>> interest.
>> "She keeps callin' about this punk-ass necklace."
>>
>> "Now she's just jugglin' guys up and down. Her pimp hand is strong."
>>
>> "With that dead-starfish look on your face."
>>
>> "It's still an up-and-down street for me 'cause I'm sorry about our fight."
>> (I.e., emotionally conflicted issue.)
>>
>> "Take lots of vibrating penis rings."
>>
>> "Somebody better apologize up the ass!" (I.e., profusely.)
>>
>> "She is the most ditziest, no-knowledge-havin' bitch!"
>>
>> "Well, suck my right boob!" (I.e., I hold you in contempt.)
>>
>> "I had one of the hottest bang-outs ever!" (I.e., act of fornication.)
>>
>> "Amber's got ass!" "She do got ass!"  (I.e., is extremely sexy.)
>>
>> "I kind of forgot it was a porn until the sex scenes came up." (I.e.,
>> pornographic film.)
>>
>> "We're all going to watch a porno."
>>
>> "The Ambers are sucking Kayla's d*ck the entire day because they want to
>> form a clique." (I.e., playing up to her.)
>>
>> "You are pimpin', girl!"   (I.e., looking quite attractive.)
>>
>> "She's really pimpin' now! Gettin' around!" (I.e., socializing intensely
>> with the oppeosite sex.)
>>
>> "Amber M. all of a sudden has a set of balls and gets loud." (I.e., the
>> power of assertiveness.)
>>
>> "There's plenty of penis in the house and plenty of vajiji." (/v@'JaiJai/)
>>
>> "He has a big penis. It was pierced." "Where was it pierced?" "Across."
>> "The
>> Jacob's ladder!"
>>
>> "Oh, tiff!" (I.e., phooey!)
>>
>> "He's a hot piece of ass!"
>>
>> Lots of the familiar s- and f-words too, if that even needs to be noted.
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
>> Platypus"
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> Platypus"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-Wilson
–––
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.
–Mark Twain

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