Is The Use Of The Word "Cackle" Sexist?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

cackle
n 1: the sound made by a hen after laying an egg
2: noisy talk
3: a loud laugh suggestive of a hen's cackle
v 1: talk or utter in a cackling manner; "Hello!," the women
cackled when they saw the movie star step out of the
limousine.
2: squawk shrilly and loudly, characteristic of hens
3: emit a loud, unpleasant kind of laughing

http://dict.die.net/cackle/

[Colobo]

1. Not if your laughter is truly unpleasant to hear.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. Yes if you would never call a truly unpleasant Male laugh a cackle

That is hardly ever done. Women are also frequently called "shrill" in politics for expressing strong opinions, far more often than is the case with men. To pretend that there is not a sexist dimension to that type use of language in my opinion is, minimally, naive.

[ClassWarrior]

6. I'd call a truly unpleasant male laugh a cackle if it was a cackle.

:shrug:

But don't let me stand in the way of any imagined demons.

NGU.

[Colobo]

20. Well, the word "cackle" is new for me- English is my second language.

But now that I know it, yeah, I'm willing to use it for a male laugh if it's loud and obnoxious.

[burythehatchet]

2. Verb number 3 seems pretty accurate

[ClassWarrior]

3. Maybe sexist toward hens...

...since its first definition is the sound made by a female chicken when laying. But its generalized usage is pretty neutral.

NGU.

[donsu]

5. yes, the neo cons used 'cackle' against Hillary because

witches 'cackle'

crazy women 'cackle'

we witchy women will cackle the neo cons to death!

bunch of misogynist neo con punks.

[ClassWarrior]

7. Mad scientists cackle. The host in this Nathaniel Hawthorne quote...

...cackles: "Then would he cackle forth a feeble laugh, and express a doubt whether his wits -- for by that phrase it pleased our ancient friend to signify his mental powers -- were not getting a little the worse for wear." http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/144

Maybe they're just calling her crazy.

:shrug:

NGU.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. There you go. "Cackle", when it is associated with a male...

...is almost always linked with a very negatively stereotyped person - way beyond the pale. So far I've seen the examples of "mad scientists", "aging rail bums" and "looney loner hermit types". You may well be an exception to the rule in your own use of "cackle", there always are exceptions to the rule after all, but "cackle" in my experience is rarely if ever used to describe the laugh of any normal sane male, even if that laugh is unpleasant. But "cackle" gets tagged to a woman's laugh, even if that person is a U.S. Senator, as if it is just another harmless descriptive adjective. And it is no coincidene that it is almost always done so by a person who has strong negative feelings about the woman being tagged in that way. Shrill harpies and cackling witches; the association of "shrill" or "cackling" to a woman in politics has traditionally been used to reenforce negative steortypes about women wielding power, not always consciously it is true, but sexism is not always conscious.

[incapsulated]

21. What Tom said. n/t

[ClassWarrior]

24. It's "rarely if ever used to decribe the laugh of any normal, sane" anybody.

:shrug:

But then, that makes it sexist. :eyes:

I never claimed it's "just another harmless descriptive adjective." Look downthread. I said, it's connotaton is insanity, not sexism.

NGU.

[DrFunkenstein]

8. Old Men Cackle

Especially when they're panning for gold or riding the rails with the fingers of their gloves cut out.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. Aha! Old men... not virile men.

"Cackle" is clearly feminine, though it is also used for non-virile men, like decrepit prospectors and mad scientists.

No one in the media would describe a Fred Thompson laugh as a cackle... ever, even if it was loud and unpleasant.

[ClassWarrior]

10. I doubt the sound Grampa Fred makes could be accurately described as a "cackle."

So that's one good reason no one in the media would describe it that way. Duh.

And you're reaching with the virility thing. If "cackling" has any implication, it's about sanity, not gender.

NGU.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

18. And why would no one call Thompson's laugh a cackle?

Because he has a very deep voice. He couldn't cackle if he tried. Duh.

Cackles are brittle and high-pitched, rather than resonant and deep.

So almost all women can cackle, but only men with high voices or brittle (aged) vocal cords can cackle.

But being high pitched doesn't connote femininity... of course not.

[Igel]

26. What he said.

"Big-hipped", "big bosomed", "menstruous", "titter", and a number of other words tend to be applied to women for a reason: The words' meanings and the referent overlap.

"Booming", "burly", "barrel-chested", "bald", and a number of other words tend to be applied to men for a reason: The words' meanings and the referent overlap.

"But being high pitched doesn't connote femininity... of course not." Actually, it doesn't. I just can't think of Ross Perot as feminine, sorry.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

27. I'm Confused

Some men have high pitched voices but to tell a man he has certainly isn't a compliment...

For instance, Mike Tyson has a high pitched voice, but I suspect if somebody went up to him and informed of that he would drop them...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. I Guess Old Men Crackle Because They Ran Out Of Juice Or Tetosterone

DSB

[LibDemAlways]

11. When I think "cackle," I think

Wicked Witch of the West. Definitely a female thing, and an unflattering one at that.

[jenmito]

14. No. And it doesn't matter anyway since Hillary's "natural laugh" immediately stopped

after it was shown to not test well.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. Just Shows How Smart She Is

And the word is sexist...It reminds me of when Mike Tyson told Lennox Lewis he "was going to make him his girlfriend"... The word girlfriend certainly isn't sexist but it was when Tyson used that appellation on another man...

Any who, Lennox kicked his ass...

[jenmito]

19. Yup, smart and very calculating. Disingenuous, too, to be "testing out" a laugh

It's not sexist. If women have higher pitched voices than men, men can't have a "cackle" unless they have a higher-pitched voice. It's just factual. AND irrelevant since as I said, she stopped doing it.

[emilyg]

22. Smart woman.

[jenmito]

23. Disingenuous, calculating woman.

But if that's what your into... :shrug:

[TwilightZone]

15. I think intent is the key.

In reference to Hillary, I think the intent is often pretty clear.

[CRH]

17. Anybody remember Walter Brennon? ...

But seriously, in this politically correct world we live in, I would think the over sensitive should rather notify the Animal Rights police for this slanderous use of the connotation of cackle.

[ChiciB1]

25. If The Shoe Fits... I Guess Not! n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

28. I'm Always Trying To Learn...

So if I don't like someone it's acceptable to use racist , sexist, or bigoted terms to describe them or their attributes...

As long as I don't like him or her...

Right...

[jenmito]

29. So it's ok for Hillary to use her gender against "all the men giving her attention"?

Be consistent...unlike Hillary.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

30. I Agree With You And The Other Poster

Racist, sexist ,homophobic, and bigoted language is only inappropriate if we like the person or the person is generally liked ...However I recommend a person try it in real life and not from the anonymity of a monitor...

As to you other point if you want to totally eliminate every double entendre, innuendo, and slightly playful sexual remark from our discourse that is your right...

[jenmito]

34. What do you mean that you recommend a person try it in real life?

You think someone saying someone's laugh sounds like a cackle is sexist. I don't and I'd GLADLY tell someone to their face if I thought that of their laugh. You're lumping in a description of someone's laugh with racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry. Sometimes a cackle is just a cackle.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

35. And Some Folks

And some unpleasant folks would say sometimes a fill in the blank is a fill in the blank... I prefer to avoid those minefields but I don't presume to suggest what is right for me should be right for everybody...If I can avoid using hurtful words to people who HAVEN'T harmed me I won't use them...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

36. And

If you read this thread and its brother or sister thread in General Discussion a lot of folks find it offensive so I won't use it but I am the last person to CENSOR anybody...

[jenmito]

37. A cackle is something someone DOES-not something someone IS.

Big difference between saying someone cackles and saying someone IS something.

[Honeycombe8]

39. True...that's a good test. If "cackle" is acceptable, try using it in the office...

to describe your boss's laugh. If it passes, then it's an acceptable term. If it doesn't pass muster...or if you don't use it because you think it's inappropriate or might be taken that way...then that's the answer on whether it is derogatory or not.

[Honeycombe8]

31. Probably, because it's almost always used to describe something unpleasant about women...

but it can, and has, been used about men.

But even though it's sexist, it's not a biggie, like calling grown women "girls" and such. Actually, I haven't heard "cackled" used much at all in my lifetime.

[Honeycombe8]

32. The song from The Music Man, by group of older women..with chickens cackling...

in the background. The song is sung like chickens would sing it, and the camera shot is sometimes from above, showing the all the women's hats with feathers in them, so they even resemble a group of hens.

I'm not offended, though. It was done ages ago, it's a great song, done with humor, and who cares if someone thinks I cackle, anyway?

Pick a little talk a little, Pick a little talk a little
Pick pick pick
Talk a lot, pick a little more
Pick a little talk a little, Pick a little talk a little
Pick pick pick
Talk a lot, pick a little more
......:nopity:

[Gormy Cuss]

38. Cackle is the new favorite way to describe Clinton's laugh.

I think the sexist implications are about context. When someone uses it to describe an individual's laugh, it's not as clearly sexist and men in fact are sometimes, though far less frequently, described as cackling.

When "cackle" is used to describe normal speech it seems to be reserved for women. The RW blowhards have been describing Pelosi and Clinton as cackling on the issues, for example. As with calling grown women "girls" it may not be the biggest insult when made one time but the cumulative effect of repeated characterizations like that is significant IMHO.

[bigwillq]

33. I don't think it is (nt)

[question everything]

40. Your defintion refers mostly to hen

hence, it is sexist.

Similary the term catty.