Questions over “Ascent of the A-hole” 1) How old is it as a derogatory term for a person? Who first started using it that way? 2) What’s the difference between profanities and obscenities? 3) What does Nunberg mean when he says that some of the obscenities stopped being used for what is considered obscene? 4) How does ‘f—‘ differ from ‘a-hole’ in terms of the type of meaning it conveys? 5) What does it mean to say that the word ‘a-hole’ is sui generis? How does it differ from, say, ‘phony’? 6) How do Tom Cruise’s movie characters come into this? 7) Why do we not call kids ‘a-holes’? 8) What is the ‘moral logic of assholism’? 9) Women aren’t called ‘a-holes’ as regularly as men are. Why? 10) Would we be as concerned/obsessed with the concept behind the qualities of being an ‘a-hole’ if we didn’t have the word for it? Questions over the the ‘f-word’ 1. How did ‘faggot,’ which earlier meant a bundle of sticks most likely come to be used to refer to homosexuals in a derogatory way? 2. What is metonymy? Give an example. Try to think of one other than they give. 3. When was ‘faggot’ first recorded as a term for a gay man? 4. Today a use of “faggot” or “gay” has taken on a more general meaning as an insult, one that is not about sexuality. What does Zwicky say about the acceptability of that use? Questions over “The B-Word? You Betcha” by Andi Zeisler 1. What does she say the general public intends to convey by the use of the term ‘bitch’? 2. Why did they choose the term for the name of the publication? 3. Describe the McCain episode that Zeisler discusses. How do you think McCain (a presidential nominee at the time) should have responded? 4. Do you think the word ‘bitch’ can be used for other men in a way that doesn’t make some comment on women and their proper role? Grammar of expletives Some expletives (words used to express strong emotions) are much more flexible grammatically than others; that is, some terms can fit different can work as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs in certain sentence frames. Sometimes they can do so with derivational endings and sometimes without. Sometimes, they don't take such endings. Let’s look at these words: d--n, p--s, bas---d, f--k, h--l, a-hole, s-t, c--t. Which of the following frames can they fit it? 1 Personal Direct Address You + _______. Direct address 2 Personal Reference The _______. or What the __________? Said about someone or something that may or may not be present. 3 Destination _________ off! Telling someone to take themselves somewhere else 4 Cursing _________ you! Direct 5 General expletive of anger, annoyance and frustration _________! 6 Explicit expletive of anger, annoyance and frustration __________ it! 7 Can be used as phrasal verb. __________ around, up 8 Adjectival extension (possibly with –ing ending or –y ending) ___________ driver For this discussion you will view the film Almost Famous and discuss the main character William’s difficulti ...

1. Questions over “Ascent of the A-hole”
1) How old is it as a derogatory term for a person? Who first
started using it that way?
2) What’s the difference between profanities and obscenities?
3) What does Nunberg mean when he says that some of the
obscenities stopped being used for what is considered obscene?
4) How does ‘f—‘ differ from ‘a-hole’ in terms of the type of
meaning it conveys?
5) What does it mean to say that the word ‘a-hole’ is sui
generis? How does it differ from, say, ‘phony’?
6) How do Tom Cruise’s movie characters come into this?
7) Why do we not call kids ‘a-holes’?
8) What is the ‘moral logic of assholism’?
9) Women aren’t called ‘a-holes’ as regularly as men are. Why?
10) Would we be as concerned/obsessed with the concept behind
the qualities of being an ‘a-hole’ if we didn’t have the word for
it?
Questions over the the ‘f-word’
1. How did ‘faggot,’ which earlier meant a bundle of sticks
most likely come to be used to refer to homosexuals in a
derogatory way?
2. What is metonymy? Give an example. Try to think of one
other than they give.
3. When was ‘faggot’ first recorded as a term for a gay man?
4. Today a use of “faggot” or “gay” has taken on a more
general meaning as an insult, one that is not about sexuality.
What does Zwicky say about the acceptability of that use?
Questions over “The B-Word? You Betcha” by Andi Zeisler
1. What does she say the general public intends to convey by
the use of the term ‘bitch’?
2. Why did they choose the term for the name of the

2. publication?
3. Describe the McCain episode that Zeisler discusses. How do
you think McCain (a presidential nominee at the time) should
have responded?
4. Do you think the word ‘bitch’ can be used for other men in
a way that doesn’t make some comment on women and their
proper role?
Grammar of expletives
Some expletives (words used to express strong emotions) are
much more flexible grammatically than others; that is, some
terms can fit different can work as nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs in certain sentence frames. Sometimes they can do so
with derivational endings and sometimes without. Sometimes,
they don't take such endings. Let’s look at these words:
d--n, p--s, bas---d, f--k, h--l, a-hole, s-t, c--t. Which of the
following frames can they fit it?
1 Personal Direct Address You + _______. Direct address
2 Personal Reference The _______. or What the __________?
Said about someone or something that may or may not be
present.
3 Destination _________ off! Telling someone to take
themselves somewhere else
4 Cursing _________ you! Direct
5 General expletive of anger, annoyance and frustration
_________!
6 Explicit expletive of anger, annoyance and frustration
__________ it!
7 Can be used as phrasal verb. __________ around, up
8 Adjectival extension (possibly with –ing ending or –y ending)
___________ driver
For this discussion you will view the film Almost Famous and
discuss the main character William’s difficulties with identity

3. development/parent and peer relationships and the final
outcomes. Discuss the influence of William’s peers and the
influence of his mother as well as his Penny and/or his sister.
How did he exhibit identity development? What about
separation-individuation?
Commentary: Almost Famous is a 2000 comedy-drama film
written and directed by Cameron Crowe, telling the coming-of-
age story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone
magazine while covering a fictitious rock band named
Stillwater. The film is semi-autobiographical, as Crowe himself
had been a teenage writer for Rolling Stone.(Wikipedia.com)
“The B-Word? You Betcha.”
By Andi Zeisler
The Washington Post Sunday, November 18, 2007
When you work for a magazine called Bitch, the phone tends to
ring a lot when the word pops up in the news.
When the New York City Council announced a symbolic ban on
the word several months back, the phone rang. When New York
Knicks coach Isiah Thomas defended his use of the term toward
Anucha Browne Sanders, a former Knicks marketing executive
who won a sexual harassment suit last month, it rang some
more. And since one of Sen. John McCain's supporters used the
B-word to refer to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a question
last week, it has been ringing like crazy.
People want to know whether it is still a bad word. They want
to know whether I support its use in public discourse. Or they
already think it's a bad word and want to discuss whether its use
has implications for free speech or sexual harassment or

4. political campaigns.
The other thing about working for a magazine called Bitch is
that you really can't cop to being totally sick of having this
conversation. But I am. Still, I'll continue to say the same
things I always say, partly because talking about the word is an
occupational responsibility/hazard and partly because, despite
the fatigue, I believe them.
So here goes: Bitch is a word we use culturally to describe any
woman who is strong, angry, uncompromising and, often,
uninterested in pleasing men. We use the term for a woman on
the street who doesn't respond to men's catcalls or smile when
they say, "Cheer up, baby, it can't be that bad." We use it for
the woman who has a better job than a man and doesn't
apologize for it. We use it for the woman who doesn't back
down from a confrontation.
So let's not be disingenuous. Is it a bad word? Of course it is.
As a culture, we've done everything possible to make sure of
that, starting with a constantly perpetuated mindset that deems
powerful women to be scary, angry and, of course, unfeminine -
- and sees uncompromising speech by women as anathema to a
tidy, well-run world.
It's for just these reasons that when Lisa Jervis and I started the
magazine in 1996, no other title was even up for consideration.
As young women who had been bombarded with the word for,
say, daring to walk down the street in tank tops, we knew what
kinds of insults would be hurled when we started publishing
articles on sexism in consumer and popular culture.
When Lisa and I were on tour with a 10th-year anniversary
anthology, men wandered up to us after several readings to ask,
nervously, whether we hated men -- or whether men were
"allowed" to read the magazine. We always told them the same

5. thing: If you actually read the magazine -- which includes
everything from essays on racism in the modeling industry to
columns on the marketing of the HPV drug Gardasil -- you'll
find that it's not about hating men but about elevating women.
But too many people don't see the difference. And, at least in
part, that's why the B-word is still such a problematic term.
In fact, we hoped that we could reclaim it for mouthy, smart
women in much the way that "queer" had been repurposed by
gay radicals. As Lisa wrote in the magazine's mission statement,
"If being an outspoken woman means being a bitch, we'll take
that as a compliment, thanks."
I'm guessing that Hillary Clinton, though probably not a reader
of our magazine, has a somewhat similar stance on the word.
After all, people who don't like Clinton have been throwing the
slur at her since at least 1991. So everybody else in the room
laughed knowingly when a woman at a campaign event in South
Carolina last Monday asked McCain, "How do we beat the
bitch?"
In fact, the most surprising thing about the whole dust-up
(available on YouTube for the world to see) is that something
like it didn't happen sooner. Sure, it was disrespectful of
McCain to laugh off the insult. (Rather than admonishing the
questioner, he called it an "excellent question," then added, "I
respect Senator Clinton.") And sure, the woman who asked the
question was transparently courting sound-bite fame.
(Congratulations, faceless woman! Stay classy!) But for
Clinton, this episode has to be pretty much a case of another
day, another insult.
These days, the people hurling the term at Clinton are her direct
opponents: Republicans, social conservatives, assorted Schlafly-
ites and Coulter-ites, and that sludgy, amorphous pool of
across-the-board woman-haters.

6. Their hatred for Clinton has nothing to do with whether she fits
the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition: "a malicious,
spiteful, or domineering woman -- sometimes used as a
generalized term of abuse." It certainly has nothing to do with
her stance on particular issues. When these people call Clinton
(or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or Sen. Dianne Feinstein or
former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro) a bitch, or
even the cutesier "rhymes-with-witch," it's an expression of
pure sexism -- a hope that they can shut up not only one woman
but every woman who dares to be assertive. Simply put: If you
don't like Clinton's stance on, say, health care or Iraq, there are
plenty of ways to say so without invoking her gender.
Plenty of people are lukewarm on Clinton, for a variety of
reasons: her support for the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act,
her ham-fisted attempts to put forth a clear position on Iraq, the
fear that she would be just as beholden to corporate interests as
her predecessor. Then there are the women who chafe at the
idea that they're expected to vote their sex rather than their
specific politics. But very few of these people seem to worry
that Clinton isn't warm enough, or that she's too dowdy or
mannish or whatever can't-win descriptor is lobbed her way
daily.
So the word remains as incendiary as ever. (Sorry, Sen.
McCain.) Back in 1996, a time when the word was just barely
squeaking past the censors on network TV, I would never have
thought it could get any more loaded. (Same for the word
"feminism," but that's a whole other story.) But the rise of the
first serious female front-runner for the presidency has proved
me wrong.
On the street, in music and in the boardroom, it's the word that
won't go away. Isiah Thomas's somewhat bumbling claim during
his sexual harassment trial that casual, off-the-cuff usage makes

7. the term less problematic when done within the black
community didn't fly with the judge, and it doesn't fly with
plenty of other folks.
A few years ago, the New York Times reported on the
phenomenon of men using the term to describe other men, a use
that has roots in the social dynamics of prison populations but
has since spread to the realms of sports, rap music and junior
high schools everywhere. The article reasoned that the term was
becoming, if not respectable, then increasingly no big deal. I
disagree -- it's simply another way to denigrate women.
I'm all for a lively discussion of how the word is used in daily
life: by men, by women, in jest, in earnest. But I don't foresee
that dialogue taking place in a political arena that considers
mere femaleness a deficiency. Talking about the use of the word
-- against Clinton, Browne Sanders or everyday women
everywhere -- just isn't helpful if we don't also address the
many unsaid words that follow in its wake.
My own definition of the term being what it is, I can
confidently say that I want my next president to be a bitch, and
that goes for men and women. Outspoken? Check.
Commanding? Indeed. Unworried about pleasing everybody?
Sure. Won't bow to pressure to be "nice"? You bet.
And guess what? I'm not even sure that person is Hillary
Clinton.
[email protected]
Andi Zeisler is a founder and editorial director of the magazine
Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture.