That stupid post about “pussy” being short for “pusillanimous” pisses me off so fucking much and I’m going to tell you why. (PS: Masters degree in English linguistics talking here ya’ll.)
In short, no. “Don’t be a pussy” is not short for “don’t be a pusillanimous.” No. It isn’t. And people should stop saying it. You need some reasons to believe me?
1. It doesn’t make sense grammatically. Pusillanimous is an adjective — a describing word — not a noun. In the same way you can’t say “Don’t be a quiet” or “Don’t be a small” or “Don’t be a green” or “Don’t be a spicy”, you can’t say “Don’t be a pusillanimous.” You can’t tell people not to be a/an adjective.
2. It isn’t backed up by any scholarship whatsoever. Per Mirriam-Webster, the version of “pussy” that means “weak” or “timid” is short for “pussycat.” Not pusillanmous. Look up the word “pants” and you’ll see that it’s short for pantaloons, or the word “perks” and you’ll see it’s short for perquisites. Dictionaries do note origins like that. They don’t, however, state that pussy is short for pusillanimous, because it’s NOT.
3. There is plenty of documentation to connect the word “pussy” to the concept of women. It was for a while a term of endearment for women, especially for very old or very young women. (Read any Agatha Christie book starring Miss Marple and you will probably encounter someone who refers to Miss Marple as “a sweet old puss” or “a nice old pussycat.” In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Eva’s father calls her “pussy.”)
It also is well known as a slang for a woman’s genitals. Per etymology online, it is “Perhaps from Old Norse puss ‘pocket, pouch’ (cf. Low German puse ‘vulva’)” but might also be connected to cats, based on the “notion of ‘soft, warm, furry thing’; cf. French le chat, which also has a double meaning, feline and genital.’ “ It isn’t just a coincidence of words, morphemes or phonemes; there seems to be a cultural connection between the idea of a cat and the idea of a woman.
4. There is also plenty of documentation for it being used to degrade men for being seen as weak or feminine. Again per etymology online, from the 1580s it was used of effeminate men. For example, “To play pussy was World War II RAF slang for ‘to take advantage of cloud cover, jumping from cloud to cloud to shadow a potential victim or avoid recognition.’” At dictionary.com, the third meaning of the word “pussy” has four senses: 1) the vulva, 2) sex with a woman, 3) a woman viewed as a sex object and 4) a weak, timid, or effeminate man. Note that they didn’t separate these four senses into completely different definitions, either. The definition of pussy as “weak man” is seen as intrinsically related to pussy meaning “the sexual aspect of a woman.”
5. People hear what they hear, no matter what you think you’re saying. What if I decided to say that the word “dick” is short for “dictator”? And then whenever I called someone a dick I said, “but I don’t mean it as in penis, I mean it as in short for dictator!” Whether or not it was true, it wouldn’t matter. What people would hear is dick as in penis, and that would be what they would understand. Similarly, even if, buried in the far mists of time, pussy really were short for pusillanimous — which I again state definitively it is not — but even if it were, that isn’t how people understand it now.
6. Sometimes words are offensive just because of what they sound like. Consider, for example, the word “niggardly.” Did you sort of wince when you read that? Because I winced a little as I typed it. The thing about that word is it has nothing whatsoever to do, etymologically, with the n-word. The n-word derives from the Latin word for “black” (for example, the word ‘negro’ means ‘black’ in Spanish). Niggardly derives from a totally different source and means “miserly” or “ungenerous.” But we all know what it sounds like. So it has become a word that most people don’t want to use anymore. And you know what? That’s fine. I love language, and I’m sad to see a word die, but we have “miserly” and “ungenerous” right here to fill that particular void, and I am fine to wave goodbye to “niggardly” because it sounds like a very offensive word. So what I’m saying is, if a word seems offensive, then it is. That’s how language works. In a polite society, we don’t deliberately use offensive words when other words are available that aren’t offensive.
7. Using the word to draw a connection between women’s sexuality and weak, useless men indicates that feminine sexuality is weak and that men shouldn’t act like women unless they want to be ridiculed. And that’s fucking ignorant and sexist against both genders.
8. Because it is clearly offensive, just stop. STOP. And don’t fucking quote Stephen Fry’s “who cares if it’s offensive” quote at me. You’re probably taking it out of context anyway. Listen: offensiveness is important because this is a cooperative species and we should fucking work together to not be assholes. Simple enough.
TL;DR? Pussy is not short for pusillanimous. Going back through the research, the word is closely related to women, women’s genitalia, and weak, effeminate men. The use of the word to mean “coward” is offensive to both genders — somewhat more to women than to men — and if you have an ounce of maturity you will stop using it that way.
Edit: If you’re angry that this post isn’t “feminist enough” or something, please read this post, a reaction to some of the angry comments I’ve gotten from fellow feminists about this piece, and about the state of feminism on tumblr in general.
I’m making this post because while I have not played the game myself since it gave me bad vibes, I know my friends have and several have reported being depressed and extremely triggered by it to the point of feeling ill or having panic attacks even long periods of time after having played it and I am so fucking tired of seeing people spreading that game around without adding trigger warnings and I would have commented on the post if I could find it but I can’t seem to so whatever.
the game not only misgenders you, it praises you or insults you according to whether you obey or disobey and just basically simulates an abusive relationship and the endings are apparently the icing on the cake of abuse.
so if you know this game could be the slightest bit triggering for you, I suggest you avoid it at all costs
okay but that thingie everyone is obsessed with where you have the first words your soulmate says to you written on your body
i am fully enjoying how karkat having “hi karkat!” written on his body pisses him off to no end and makes him constantly worry about romance
karkat getting in a tizzy because he can’t find the other three first words. all his romance novels and romcoms are very clear that a troll should have the words from their soulmates in each quadrant somewhere on their body. karkat frantically searches every corner of his skin for the others, but to no avail. he throws himself into romance stories to the point of obsession to try to make up for it because he doesn’t have the luxury of knowing what phrase to look out for so he’ll just have to learn every nuance of troll romance instead.
john/karkat transcending the quadrants is what i live breathe and die for.
oh my god yes, yes to all of that, especially the quadrant thing.
One of the humans (rose) totally had lines on themselves and were very concerned because they didn’t think they were polyamorous and then they meet the aliens and are like holy shit one of these is my quadrant soulmate oh damn im gonna cuddle and talk about my mom with one of these people and sit on piles and pap faces oh shit.
Jake doesnt have anything written on him and never told anyone cause he’s worried something got messed up but it doesnt bother him at all he’s pretty happy and content
john has his line written on his lower abdomen and after he figures it out tells people that is where his punishment throbber gland is.
So if we have to show women what the baby looks like in their womb and tell them how the process works before allowing them to get an abortion, does that mean we should teach our soldiers about the culture of the lands we’re invading, and explain to them that the people we want them to kill have families and feel pain, just like Americans?
No, Harry!” Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper; Ron, however, spoke to Black. ”If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too!” he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke. Something flickered in Black’s shadowed eyes. ”Lie down,” he said quietly to Ron. “You will damage that leg even more.” ”Did you hear me?” Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. “You’ll have to kill all three of us!
I hate that the movies gave this to Hermione. I know she felt the same way, but Ron said it, and they took it from him because they only wanted Ron to be the comic relief.
Involves two people who have positive feelings of affection for each other. Often involves sexual or reproductive activity.
MatespicismFlushed/Ashen
A situation where two otherwise indifferent people begin to have flushed feelings for one another, under the encouragement or force of a third individual.
Storgiation Ashen/Flushed
Two people work together to resolve conflict and find themselves developing red feelings for one another. This relationship can fade easily, and can sometimes only be strengthened when put under a pressure comparable to the one that instigated it.
Auspisticism Ashen
A scenario where a mediator is required to keep a relationship between two people civil and avoid bloodshed.
Clovership Ashen/Caliginous
A delicate balance in which the four participating individuals harbour a strong hatred for the other three. Together, the relationship is made stable and civil. If a participant is removed from the Clovership, relationships can progress to Kismesissitude unless a mediator becomes involved or the Clovership is re-completed.
Infinism Caliginous/Ashen
A form of Kismesissitude, but the people involved can only have a successful black relationship if constant intervention is involved. Otherwise, their hate is so strong that they will take any opportunity to murder their Infinist.
Kismesissitude Caliginous
A mixture of of mutual sexual attraction and hate. Leads to reproduction.
KissmelegianceCaliginous/Pale
A troll in a Kissmelegiance is compelled by fate to make an enmity with the other participant. This can progress to Kismesissitude or Infinism.
Erosissitude Pale/Caliginous
The two trolls are compelled by fate to constantly and simultaneously vacilliate, but are both on opposite ends of the spectrum. When one troll feels extreme red feelings, the other will express loathing. They both usually vacilliate at the same moment, meaning that they will never be able to have a stable and reproductive relationship.
Moirallegiance Pale
A couple encouraged by fate to protect one another and ensure stability in the other troll/person’s life.
Stituency Pale/Flushed
A couple that is formed by defying fate. This can be done by destroying a Moirallegiance in order to form a new relationship or by turning A Kismelegiance into a Moirallegiance.
Philiasma Flushed/Pale
A Philiasma is when, due to outside intervention, a Kissmelegiance or Erosissitude is broken. When a Moiraillegiance is formed, it becomes unbreakable. The status of this love becomes unconditional and cannot do anything but grow stronger.
This is for letsalleatpasta, that asked for Bertholdt doing something adorable and hilarious. I hope this quick thing will be to your liking at least a bit. Dorky big brother Bertholdt sounded adorably hilarious enough to me. Good luck on founding your muse again!
what the actual fuck. are we shitting on this guy because he wanted to go and just talk to a girl. I mean yeah, this is a clear intentional overreaction for the sake of comedy. but are girls really like “ear buds are awesome for defending against asshole guys bugging me.” I didn’t realize someone walking up to you to say hi made them an asshole or meant they were trying to get into your pants, my apologies.
There’ve been a few of these comments, so I’ll just address this one real quick: nobody’s shitting on anyone (despite the rather graphic claims of the clearly intentionally overreacting dude who posted this). We - as in women - are sharing a profound truth about social interactions while being in public. Namely, that the overwhelming majority of times that men (not “someone,” men) walk up to us to say hi, they are trying to get into our pants. And this is based on experience. This is not based on us being full of ourselves. This is not based on one bad interaction amidst a plethora of good ones. This is us saying, “we’ve had numerous interactions in public with men we do not know, and we’ve decided that the number of times that we have a nice, pleasant conversation does not outweigh the number of times we have had a gross or unpleasant conversation. So we’ve decided to take steps to put up boundaries rather than risk the gross or unpleasant conversations.”
I mean, go and read through the reblogs of this - women talk about men who have literally ripped the earbuds out of these women’s ears in order to ask them their names, or to “just say hi.” Do you really think that men who do this are just being friendly? Then why don’t we hear about this happening to men from women invading their space and bothering them? Why don’t we hear men complaining about other men doing it, or women complaining about other women doing it? Doesn’t the fact that these experiences are all going one way - that they are all women talking about the times that men have done this to them - register with you at all?
And do you really think all the women who are, in your view, shitting on this guy are doing so out of some bizarre desire to be mean? Or is it possible that they are recognizing a type of man that they have had numerous run-ins with and have learned to defend themselves against, and they are happy to hear that their defense is working? Is it just barely possible that women are laughing at this man because they are glad to see a confirmation of what they’ve long suspected, which is that male strangers approach them, it’s rarely out of a genuine friendliness but rather a desire to fuck her?
Because heres’ the thing: you’re pretending that all this guy wanted to do was “just talk to a girl,” but that’s total bullshit based on what the poster actually said - he has a crush on her, he was planning a “cold approach,” he was angry enough at being prevented to write a very badly-written rant about it. He did, in fact, want into her pants. And a woman has every right to shut that down at whatever stage she damn well pleases.
Also, if this guy was going for comedy, he deserves to be made fun of for being such a shitty comedian.
This is so spot on. I had a dude approach me at a burger stand a couple of weeks ago, and actually pull the earbud from my left ear so he could tell me he loved a woman who loves a good burger. I asked him on what universe was that okay, and could he please leave me alone, and he replied, “Sure thing, lesbo.”
When I told my friends this later that night, one of their boyfriends said, “Well, he was probably drunk, cut him some slack.” No. It is not on me to cut anyone slack for that. I don’t owe them conversation or a compliment or gratitude for unwanted attention. Just like the woman this turbodouche was complaining about doesn’t owe him a date, earbuds or not. I don’t know about other people, but I thought earbuds sent a pretty clear signal that I was not interested in being approached by anyone for any reason other than to tell me I’m literally on fire.
Some dude’s desire for my attention does not trump my right to be left alone. Some dude wanting to talk to me does NOT obligate me to talk to him. No woman is required to give any man ANYTHING. The end.
DID YOU KNOW: WHEN U KNOCK ON SOMEONE’S BEDROOM DOOR UR NOT SUPPOSED TO OPEN THE DOOR RIGHT AFTER U KNOCK WHAT KIND OF WARNING IS THAT IF IM IN THE NUDE IM NOT GIONG TO BE ABLE TO PUT CLOTHES ON IN 0.2 SECONDS U PIECE OF SHIT WAIT UNTIL I SAY U CAN COME IN
