Fine column by Gail Collins in the NYT, serving up a tasty dollop of context to Lilly Ledbetter's huge victory today. In it, she pays homage to the women who have battled to strike down laws upholding sex discrimination, thereby embettering other people's lives without thought for their own personal gain. (As is their wont.)
And then she has to go and drop an F-bomb in the penultimate paragraph. Why, Gail, why? I swear to God, if a vag-bearing person single-handedly saved the White House from an attack of killer warthogs dripping with SARS, armed only with her God-given courage and a ballpoint pen, they'd call her "feisty." If Chesley B. Sullenberger III had been a woman, the headline would have read "Sassy Pilot Just Doing Her Job," and the reporter would have made a note of her footwear.
I beg. No more. No more "feisty," no more "sassy," no more "you go, girl." I believe it is time to begin compiling the Banned Words List. Submissions, anyone?
(Excuse me. The thought of Chesley B. Sullenberger III being female is making me a little weak in the knees. I must go lie down now.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I like your spunk, Harris.
ReplyDeleteI just realized something, Anon--all the zesty little adjectives that routinely get slapped on women apply equally to short, drunken Irishmen. Why do you suppose that is?
ReplyDelete