When names themselves pose a challenge...

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Sun Apr 6, 2014, 01:49 PM - Edit history (3)

I don't watch Good Morning America, but I admit to some curiosity over how they handled having members of Pussy Riot as guests.

(Kitteh Riot somehow doesn't get it done.)

Reminds me of when Straight Outta Compton came out, way back when... I thought it was a remarkable track, but was not comfortable saying the name of the group, as they stated their name in the first line of the song. (Whatever they called themselves in the lyric, the name on the packaging was the acronym N.W.A., which was a wise commercial concession.) The discomfort was not just because I'm white, but because it was more than 20 years ago. Any variation on the N-word was unthinkable in any context from any speaker of any race, at least in ethnically mixed company... which broad culture is in a diverse society. And, much like Pussy Riot, the group's name was intentionally incendiary and controversial.

That said, I must admit that I'm in no position to know how out-there "Pussy Riot" is the context of Russian culture and language, nor did I know how conventional or out-there NWA lyrics were in 1990s Compton.

(An aside: It's funny how initials and bowlderizations are sanctified. Why is Sarah Palin allowed to make "WTF" jokes that would be senseless if the audience wasn't filling in the whole "What the Fuck?" I get Louis C.K.'s complaint that people on TV who say "the N word" are just forcing you, the audience, to say it yourself rather than taking responsibility for their own speech. And God does know what "gosh darn" means... you're not fooling him.)

Anyway, I doubt that a few years back Hillary Clinton ever envisioned that, while preparing a likely presidential run, she would be tweeting about anything called "Pussy Riot."

But, of course, she didn't imagine she would be tweeting anything.

Words are changeable symbols. If a word comes to mean something different then it isn't actually the same word. And words mean what they mean in a culture. But it's hard on the old folks! Always has been, always will be. It is a process, not just flipping a switch. And an evolution of meaning will always feature a stage where the same word has very different connotations to different people.

Great to meet the strong & brave young women from #PussyRiot, who refuse to let their voices be silenced in #Russia. pic.twitter.com/7JVkZ9TYx3

[Dr Hobbitstein]

1. We as a culture didn't call them NWA...

NWA called themselves NWA. They made no secret what it stood for, but their official name was ALWAYS NWA, not "Niggaz Wit Attitudes". Hell, their first album was called NWA And The Posse.

However, I'm LOVING hearing all the talking heads and politicians say "Pussy Riot".

[cthulu2016]

2. That's fair, but.."Straight outta Compton crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube, from a gang called..."

"____???______"

It's their "Hey, hey we're the Monkees."

But I agree... you are right that when the album Straight Outa Compton came out the group name on the album was "N.W.A." so the concession was unilateral. I will edit the OP on that point.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

5. Lol!

I just pictured NWA doing a Monkees style TV show...

Why isn't this a thing?

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Keeping up appearances.

[REP]

4. Pussy has two meanings; the N-word doesn't

No matter who is using n*****, there's no harmless meaning. It's always ugly. Pussy can be used insultingly, but even in the vulgar usage, it's not a demeaning insult per se.

[VScott]

6. It's 2014

and I'm still amazed that "Pussy Galore" passed the censors stamp back in 1964

[pipi_k]

7. Not even that old...

Words are changeable symbols. If a word comes to mean something different then it isn't actually the same word. And words mean what they mean in a culture. But it's hard on the old folks! Always has been, always will be. It is a process, not just flipping a switch. And an evolution of meaning will always feature a stage where the same word has very different connotations to different people.

But I find the bolded sentence to be so true!

Nobody could ever convince my late MIL, born in the South in 1911, that the "N" word was not appropriate.

She used it freely till the day she died. Well, until she couldn't talk anymore, anyway.


And as for myself, it's getting to the point where I don't even want to open my mouth for fear of saying something that will offend someone, albeit unintentionally...

For example, gays used to be just gay. Now there's LGBTQ-whatever else we have to remember. I can't even remember my own dogs' names sometimes.

When I worked in Human Services back in the 80s, there was a Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. Our clients were referred to as being mentally retarded. Now they're developmentally disabled. If those of us who worked with that population years ago forget, we're labelled with some pretty nasty names.

It's getting so people don't know whom they're going to piss off anymore.