Here’s a link to an old favorite on the net, an article I wrote for Salon nine years ago, the beginning of the movement to rehabilitate the word “Pussy.”
Tell me, have we made any progress?
Not much. If ever there was a word in need of rehab, it remains this feline expletive STILL reserved for wimps.
Here’s a brief, edited (I hope legal) excerpt:
You Pussy!
By Margot Magowan
“What a pussy!” shouted my friend Joe. He was complaining to me about a business partner who backed out of a deal at the last minute. Joe wanted sympathy, but I was snagged on the word “pussy.”
Suddenly it struck me as wrong that the word “pussy” is used to imply cowardice or ineffectiveness. Why must we equate weakness with the female sex organ? Why have we for so long?
I began to wonder how one — how we — might take the wussy out of pussy.
Is it possible to change the meaning of the word, to restore to “pussy” its deserved glory? Could we use pussy as a compliment? Could pussy denote someone or something as cool or heroic or impressive?
At the moment, “pussy” isn’t even used to slight women directly. It is reserved for men, used among them to make fun of one another. It’s “sissy” for male heteros. It’s the politically correct big boy’s way of calling somebody a fag. And, please, don’t get me started on “pussy-whipped.”
to read the full article. Let me know if you want a T: they are black with “Team Pussy” written in pink cursive and come in baby doll and regular sizes, one dollar from every sale goes to the Woodhull Institute.
Thanks pussies!
This is a very loaded word. When I didn’t turn out for football in 9th grade, the football coach, good’ol Skeeter Correa called me Tim Kelly Russ Jones and the rest of the 9th grade boys into the locker room the first day of school back in 1969. He then had the entire class line up against the wall and said, “ANYONE WHO IS NOT GOING OUT FOR FOOTBALL GO STAND OVER THERE.” Russ Tim and I walked over as we were not going out because we were not big enough to play and we chose to train for wrestling season. With his back to us and facing the rest of the “team” he then said, “YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT GUYS WHO DON’T TURN OUT FOR FOOTBALL?” I THINK THEY’RE PUSSIES. THEY CAN JOIN UP NOW OR LEAVE.”
Needless to say it stuck with me because I remember the words over 40 years later and don’t have the same feelings about sports as most people. Thanks Skeeter.
My transgendered friends use it as a term of endearment since we all either have one, want one or want to be close to one, and since most all of us arrived via this most wonderful and powerful thing(excluding caesarean births) I think the homophobic term for fag or sissy is like queer once was and still is as I wore one aforementioned Team Pussy T-shirt given to me by aforementioned transgendered friend in this year’s pride parade provoking all kinds of reactions because pussy is full of negative connotations and for a transgendered woman (looks male thinks female) I think I got all the good responses mostly but I had to shake my ass a lot to make the point. Proud of being on Team Pussy. I don’t think I need to explain my spirituality in a bar or locker room. Maybe your pussy is that way my pussy is not that way at all.
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Am I far too old in mental construction? Female genitalia is the SECOND thing that comes to mind when I hear the word pussy. Felines are the first. Although I must admit that aggressive men who have no innate capability to win the fight that they so often start run a very close third…
A subject that should be left 4 bar rooms& locker rooms,not in public!