Althouse: Not a design flaw.

June 10, 2017

Not a design flaw.

3 of 14 tweets by J.K. Rowling, apparently provoked by somebody who called Theresa May a whore.

64 comments:

JackWayne said...: Maybe what really set her off is all the tweets calling May a cunt.; 6/10/17, 8:50 PM
Mary Beth said...: That's what I was guessing from the "synonym for her vulva" tweet.; 6/10/17, 8:52 PM
Bobber Fleck said...: "femaleness"?

I get so confused. Is femaleness that stuff where we wake up in the morning and self-identify as female? Or is it that stuff where we have different plumbing? Or is it that stuff where we are all equal and identical, albeit in importantly different ways? Or is it just what guys claim to get into the girls shower?; 6/10/17, 8:55 PM
Alex said...: That's funny because leftists have no trouble calling right-of-center women the most hateful, misogynistic expletives. I guess in this case for Rowling it's just a knee-jerk reaction to the word 'whore'. Don't worry by tomorrow Rowling will be on the 'May is a cunt' bandwagon.; 6/10/17, 8:57 PM
rhhardin said...: Cunt has a whole performance, multiple meanings at once equated in ways that depend on context.

It's not just calling her a cunt. There's what her relations to the guy or guys are, whether it's reciprocal in some way, and so forth.

The bible in performance is Barthelme's _Snow White_

hardly name-calling.; 6/10/17, 8:59 PM
Dude1394 said...: Hmmm...wonder if the tweeter is a democrat?; 6/10/17, 9:02 PM
bagoh20 said...: Should have called her a "dick".; 6/10/17, 9:02 PM
Virgil Hilts said...: Of course, I agree 100%. But as a man I still think its OK to call men one doesn't like dicks, a-holes and douche bags.; 6/10/17, 9:03 PM
The Godfather said...: Plenty of male politicians have been called whores. In fact, what's surprising is to find a politician who hasn't been called a whore. I've also heard plenty of male politicians called pussies and even c*nts, although there the insult is, at least in part, that the man has female characteristics. What did they call Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister?; 6/10/17, 9:04 PM
Big Mike said...: Theresa May may not be a whore, but she's not much of a Prime Minister, is she?; 6/10/17, 9:05 PM
rhhardin said...: Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore

Who not whom.; 6/10/17, 9:06 PM
The Godfather said...: virgil hits said: "I still think its OK to call men one doesn't like dicks".

I knew an old Irish pol who referred one day to someone he didn't like as a dick, and then he corrected himself. "No, I lie. A dick is a part of a man, and he's no part of a man."; 6/10/17, 9:08 PM
rhhardin said...: If you can’t disagree with a woman without reaching for all those filthy old insults, screw you and your politics.

Screw is an epithet rather than a verb here.

It's not as good as cunt, which has some variety.; 6/10/17, 9:09 PM
Kathryn51 said...: Yeah, I bet her ladyship was equally appalled when Bill Maher called Sarah Palin the C word and "dumb tw**".; 6/10/17, 9:11 PM
rhhardin said...: I’m sick of ‘liberal’ men whose mask slips every time a woman displeases them, who reach immediately for crude and humiliating words

I'd have gone with moron. May is asexual, so whore is about money in any case.; 6/10/17, 9:12 PM
rhhardin said...: associated with femaleness, act like old-school misogynists and then preen themselves as though they’ve been brave

It's not misogyny to be undeferential to PC.; 6/10/17, 9:14 PM
Michael K said...: "Who not whom."

I thought who ?

Sorry to be a grammar nazi but you did it first.; 6/10/17, 9:19 PM
rhhardin said...: When you do this, Mr Liberal Cool Guy, you ally yourself, wittingly or not, with the men who send women violent pornographic images

Roses are red
Violence are blue

It's a courtship thing.; 6/10/17, 9:20 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: But we're Leftists. And we mean well. So we are allowed to call right-wing women "Whores," if they upset us.

Don't you understand that?; 6/10/17, 9:23 PM
rhhardin said...: and rape threats, who try by every means possible to intimidate women out of politics and public spaces, both real and digital

You have to be nice to women because we scare ourselves about our slippery slopes.; 6/10/17, 9:27 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Brits are a vulgar race indeed. They just bragged that their Parliament is a "well Hung Parliament." And then they yell at each other all the time on CSPAN about who has the the longest scepter.

That is sexist,and is probably a deliberate insult to Muslim men and their snipped off women.; 6/10/17, 9:28 PM
rhhardin said...: ‘Cunt’, ‘whore’ and, naturally, rape. We’re too ugly to rape, or we need raping, or we need raping and killing.

Ugly is a problem. Work on personality.; 6/10/17, 9:30 PM
rhhardin said...: Every woman I know who has dared express an opinion publically has endured this kind of abuse at least once,

Peace, Kenneth Burke somewhere remarked, will resemble argument.; 6/10/17, 9:32 PM
rhhardin said...: rooted in an apparent determination to humiliate or intimidate her on the basis that she is female.

It almost always matters whether you're male or female, socially speaking. The insult goes with the gender, like personal pronouns.

If you're female, female is a basis for insult. Nobody will say you have a small dick probably.; 6/10/17, 9:35 PM
rhhardin said...: If you want to know how much fouler it gets if you also happen to be black or gay, ask Diane Abbot or Ruth Davidson.

On the other hand, an insult gains you a move, if you're not such a moron as to not realize it. The other guy threw away his turn.; 6/10/17, 9:41 PM
rhhardin said...: I don’t care whether we’re talking about Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon or Kate Hooey or Yvette Cooper or Hillary Clinton:

4 for 4 women: what are the odds?; 6/10/17, 9:42 PM
rhhardin said...: femaleness is not a design flaw. If your immediate response to a woman who displeases you

It's a flaw in argument, sometimes. Women don't argue like men, say in terms that are effective to men, who don't value the same things as women.

Children and feelings are not big sellers to men.; 6/10/17, 9:45 PM
rhhardin said...: is to call her a synonym for her vulva, or compare her to a prostitute, then drop the pretence and own it: you’re not a liberal.

I'd say it goes the other way. Liberals tend to be young and the young don't have anything much but insult at hand.

The conservatives have zingers at hand.; 6/10/17, 9:47 PM
rhhardin said...: You’re a few short steps away from some guy hiding behind a cartoon frog.

You can't turn a frog into a prince if the frog has never been a prince.

I don't know if that helps.; 6/10/17, 9:49 PM
Rob said...: Celebrate Theresa May's femaleness; she's the Queen of Femininity.

There she is, Miss America.
There she is, your ideal.
The dream of a million girls who are more than pretty
Can come true in Atlantic City
For she may turn out to be
The Queen of Femininity.

And since you-know-who owns the Miss America Pageant, that brings us willy-nilly back to Donald Trump.; 6/10/17, 9:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Identity politics has made insulting people much less fun.; 6/10/17, 10:03 PM
Anonymous said...: >>rhhardin said...

>>Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore

>>Who not whom.

She has flunkies to clean up the grammar in the Harry Potter books.; 6/10/17, 10:06 PM
n.n said...: La cabrona... no repercussions.; 6/10/17, 10:15 PM
Ken B said...: 1 good for her. The left is consumed with bile; good to see a leftist cry "enough"
2 not a liberal but surely a leftist; 6/10/17, 10:20 PM
Ambrose said...: I feel really good about not caring what JK Rowling has to say about anything. Good, bad stupid, smart - I just don't care.; 6/10/17, 10:22 PM
Karen of Texas said...: "Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore"

"I thought who ?

Sorry to be a grammar nazi but you did it first."

----------------------------------------

I believe the "who" acts as the subject of "was smart".; 6/10/17, 10:42 PM
D 2 said...: I agree with Ambrose. However - if one takes her 14 tweet (aka a "Trumpering") thematically....

She is calling for decent (verbal) behaviour on the part of people with whom she sees as political allies, in their (verbal) attacks on those whom she sees as (domestic) political adversaries. I might or might not agree with Rowling's perspectives on governance, but if she wants to make the "discourse" less abusive, and more about Policy X or Tax Y, that cant be all bad. If thats her intent, mind you.

You cant convince a commie his worldview is in error if you keep calling him a stupid prick, even if he is a stupid prick. You got to make the prick realize only a stupid prick would believe such wrong headed crap. Or, to put it another way, you cant be elected President if you think half the country you think you should be Leader of, is deplorable.

I'm sure with the internets it would take 0.000001 second to find an example of hypocrisy, i.e. Rowling's past use of a abusive term based on a gender/sex. Im sure she's thrown a few verbal stones at Cameron or others. Maybe 14 tweets comes across as sanctimonious.

But if she wants to see May treated (by those on the Left) with less venom, it's a step. Tomorrow - who knows? - maybe it will sink in and she will suddenly realize that sooner or later, you always DO run out of other peoples money.; 6/10/17, 11:08 PM
David said...: "Femaleness is not a design flaw."

The entire human race is a design flaw. Why females should be excepted is beyond explanation and purely a matter of faith.; 6/10/17, 11:30 PM
David said...: "I'm sure with the internets it would take 0.000001 second to find an example of hypocrisy, i.e. Rowling's past use of a abusive term based on a gender/sex. Im sure she's thrown a few verbal stones at Cameron or others. Maybe 14 tweets comes across as sanctimonious."

If it's so easy, find it.

She hasn't had any bad press that I know of for several decades, and she really has no reason to act like a dick. She seems wise enough to keep her imperfections to herself.; 6/10/17, 11:34 PM
David said...: I believe the "who" acts as the subject of "was smart".

But also the object of "thought."

Confusing, eh?; 6/10/17, 11:40 PM
George Grady said...: I believe the "who" acts as the subject of "was smart".

But also the object of "thought."

The object of "thought" is the entire clause "who[m] was smart and funny", not just the one word "who[m]".; 6/10/17, 11:50 PM
n.n said...: Why females should be excepted is beyond explanation...

Think of the babies. Most women, and men, for that matter, take their responsibility for our Posterity seriously. Most women, and men, take life, dignity, and so on and so forth, seriously. Yeah, it's an article of faith. All of it is a logical construct, which may change, or not, in an instant or sooner.; 6/10/17, 11:53 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I hate to break this to Ms. Rowling, but men in politics are frequently called whores, too, and the term often is appropriate.; 6/11/17, 12:16 AM
Yancey Ward said...: If I had to wager a guess, if the insult had been directed at, let's say Ivanka Trump by the same person, Ms. Rowling likely writes nothing at all and maybe even supports that. I think Ms. May gets a bit of defense from the left because she is still a female who has risen to the top of the power structure and is about to get defenestrated only a year after taking office.; 6/11/17, 12:20 AM
JPS said...: Good for her for objecting to insults from her side toward someone on the other side. That kind of objection is getting all
Too rare these days.

But that "not a liberal" is a great example of the No True Scotsman fallacy by which the left insists that racism, sexism and other bigotry are by definition right-wing.; 6/11/17, 2:44 AM
Saint Croix said...: Poor, poor Theresa May!

She's being bullied. Cyber bullies! We must shut down those cyber bullies and protect our leader who has a vulva.; 6/11/17, 5:02 AM
Saint Croix said...: J.K. Rowling's net worth: $1 billion dollars.

Spends her days de-friending mean boys on Facebook.

Which would be okay if you were 12 years old, J.K. Rowling.; 6/11/17, 5:07 AM
Saint Croix said...: I just can't get on the vulva train.

Vagina from here on out.

Science be damned!

Vulva just doesn't work for me.; 6/11/17, 5:12 AM
Kevin said...: J.K. Rowling's net worth: $1 billion dollars.

Spends her days de-friending mean boys on Facebook.

Which would be okay if you were 12 years old, J.K. Rowling.

Or Mark Zuckerberg.; 6/11/17, 6:21 AM
pdug said...: why is it that we don't associate calling a man a "dick" as a denial of the wholeness of the man, or an assault on masculinity itself? I;m sure Rowling has called men "dicks" that she thought were behaving like dicks, but she blanches when the c-word is used.

And most of us do to?

Is it just that woman is the "oppressed" gender in the world and insults to women are kicking them when they're down already?

if we're going to say its dehumanizing and anti-woman to call a woman the c-word, we have to I think be consistent and refuse dick as well.

And "F--- you" is rape culture.; 6/11/17, 6:37 AM
urbane legend said...: rhhardin said...
Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore

Who not whom.

Not complicated or confusing at all. Ask the question: Who thought I was funny? The man. Whom thought I was funny? Does that fall pleasantly on the ear? No. Who is correct.

Rewrite the sentence. I just unfollowed a man who thought I was funny.

Easy. And you don't have to know anything about the object of clauses. :-); 6/11/17, 7:01 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I appreciate her calling out her own side for their hypocritical behavior.

On the other hand, if you have to continue your thought over 14 tweets, you've kind of missed the point of twitter.

She should take twitter lessons from Trump. He tweets a similar volume, but each tweet is its own incomplete thought.; 6/11/17, 7:05 AM
urbane legend said...: Or the cause of objects. Or the correct name of female plumbing parts, and how to use those names in an adult conversation if you are not a medical professional. Medical amateurs still say, "that thing right there."; 6/11/17, 7:06 AM
tim maguire said...: Now we have to use gender neutral insults? Oh nos! Our insults are offensive! Derp.; 6/11/17, 7:08 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: urbane legend said...

Not complicated or confusing at all

If it is not complicated or confusing, why did your rewrite completely reverse who was doing the thinking?; 6/11/17, 7:09 AM
Fernandinande said...: No wonder I never read or saw any Harriet's Pottery stuff.; 6/11/17, 8:22 AM
urbane legend said...: Ignorance is Bliss said...
If it is not complicated or confusing, why did your rewrite completely reverse who was doing the thinking?

I did, didn't I? I apologize for adding nothing to the discussion.; 6/11/17, 8:41 AM
Bill Peschel said...: I don't mind if she said nothing while Sarah Palin was in the barrel. I don't expect a Scottish writer to be up on American politics.

I wonder what she said when Thatcher died.

And 14 tweets for one thought? Explains why her books got so bloated.; 6/11/17, 9:58 AM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Can I use a synonym for a vulva to describe a woman's hat? Or would that be over the line?; 6/11/17, 10:41 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: Just unfollowed a man whom ....

I'm thinking "whom" is the object of the verb "unfollowed" and thus the proper case. Alternatively, maybe the object of "thought" in "I thought whom was smart and funny."

Diagraming sentences is a lost art - certainly among Associated Press writers.; 6/11/17, 1:26 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: For whom the bell tolls... maybe it's insurance in case Bruce Jenner comes back ;); 6/11/17, 2:52 PM
tim maguire said...: urbane legend said...
Ignorance is Bliss said...
If it is not complicated or confusing, why did your rewrite completely reverse who was doing the thinking?

I did, didn't I? I apologize for adding nothing to the discussion.

Thanks for clearing that up. I considered the possibilty that your point was that it didn't matter, that it was the same either way, but it was making my brain hurt trying to figure out if you were right.; 6/11/17, 3:10 PM
rhhardin said...: The rule is that the relative pronoun takes the case of its role in its clause.

The modern rule is that you can always use "who," whether "whom" is called for or not.

The glaring is using "whom" where "who" is called for, called a hypercorrection; it's a pretense of being high class.

The single exception to the modern rule is with a fronted preposition - for who the bell tolls. This isn't a case error but a register error. The fronted preposition is formal register and who-for-whom is informal register, and they don't mix. Who the bell tolls for is fine.

The modern rule comes from descriptive grammar, which is the study of the hidden rules behind what sounds wrong.; 6/11/17, 3:35 PM
William said...: I don't know that much about May, but, in the few appearances I watched, she looked kind of ditzy. Is that more of an insult to a feminist? I ordinarily don't call women cunts or whores. Theresa May doesn't look like a cunt or whore, but she doesn't look centered or poised either......Angela Merkel looks like she has a low center of gravity. I'm not necessarily a fan, but she doesn't look ditzy......Some women know how to project strength. Merkel, Thatcher, a few others. Some are just combative, which feminists mistake for strength.; 6/11/17, 7:51 PM