"uppity"
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Nov 26 01:53:26 UTC 2011
On Nov 25, 2011, at 8:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> The following went to Jim alone instead of to everyone. Why does this happen?:
>
>
>> From feminist writer Vicki Leon, via Amazon.com:
>>
>> _Uppity Women of Ancient Times_ (1995)
>>
>> _Uppity Women on Medieval Times_ (2007)
>>
>> _Uppity Women of the Renaissance_ (1999)
>>
>> _Uppity Women of the New World_ (2005)
>>
>> _Uppity Women of Shakespearean Times_ (2000)
>>
>> _Uppity Women of Ancient Greece_ (1989)
>>
>> There are similar titles by different writers.
>>
>> I assume that the women alluded to were feisty, not snobbish, and that
>> Leon is praising, not disparaging, them.
>>
>> JL
Ah, but qua *reclamation*. The reclamation of "fag", "dyke", "nigger" (or if you insist, "nigga"), "bitch", et al. (here, "Right, we don't know our place--wanna make something of it?") don't prevent these same items from continued disparaging use by those not in the in-group.
LH
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 7:59 PM, James A. Landau
>> <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster: "James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com>"
>>> <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
>>> Subject: "uppity"
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> On Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:21:58 zone minus 0500 Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> writes:
>>>
>>>> Unless I missed it, nobody has commented on the recent flap over Rush Limbaugh's use of "uppity" to >describe Michelle Obama. Glenn Beck has since defended Limbaugh on the grounds that "uppity" is just a
>>>> synonym for "snobbish".
>>>
>>> When I saw the headline on Netscape News, my first thought was "I should hope so. I'd hate to discover she's an Aunt Thomasina."
>>>
>>> One can claim "uppity" is a "racist" word, but I think not. What happens is that "uppity" has such a specific meaning that it rarely occurs outside a race-relations context, which means that the text surrounding the word can easily be racist, but not the word itself.
>>>
>>> "Uppity" can most easily be defined by naming its antonym: "Uncle Tom/Aunt Thomasina".
>>>
>>> A brief excursion into the socio-political realm. In the heyday of Segregation (note the capital "S"), Segregationists by-and-large were not so much black-haters as people desirious that "[blacks] know their place". An "uppity [black]" was a black who objected to being "kept in his place". Well, times change, and while racism unfortunately still exists, the old "stay in their place" paradigm no longer exists. As a spectacular example, the supporters of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court included a large number of white right-wing [1] bigots. But "keeping Thomas in his place"? Not hardly.
>>>
>>> [I would like to thank my friend Jackie Gomberg MD (not to be confused with my friend Jackie Goldberg MD) for suggests a useful shorthand phrase: "white-wingers".)
>>>
>>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>
>>> How did "Brie and chardonnay" morph into "Brie and chablis"? Very simple. The second one rhymes.
>>>
>>> - Jim Landau
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _____________________________________________________________
>>> Netscape. Just the Net You Need.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list