October 16, 2006

Update on "squaw"

Squelching the S-Word

2 comments:

Rob said...

Good point. I think we know what would happen if someone from the lower class called a middle-class white woman a "ho" or "bitch." That's analogous to the historic situation re "squaw."

Rob said...

I was just striving for an analogy to a white man calling an Indian woman a "squaw." I could've said a black man calling a white woman a "ho," but people of all races now use the pejorative "ho." These days, it's arguably more of an insult across class divisions than it is across racial divisions. It's the equivalent of calling a woman "slut" or "skank" or "trash," which is arguably a class-based designation.

We could get into the whole history of words used to diminish the worth and status of women. Suffice it to say that men have used such words widely: on their female peers as well as women of different races and classes. Okay?