On ‘Civility’ (With Apologies to Lenny Bruce)

by matttbastard

Civility is a public discourse between [white] men, allowable because they have the time and personal resources to engage in it.

– Q Grrl

Obviously it’s not my place to critique the comment policies put in place by other self-identified progressive bloggers with more delicate sensibilities (and–inexplicably–larger conservative fanbases) than yours truly.

Your house, your rules.

But come on, dude–if you take away the right to say ‘fuck’ then you take away the right to say ‘fuck straight white male privilege!’

Rest assured, dear readers, this progressive venue will continue to be both troll-free and heavily pro-profanity, all part of our nefarious plot to both further deteriorate blogospheric discourse and, in light of these troubled economic times, help spur sales of pearls and fainting couches (who says all Marxist redistributionists have contempt for the marketplace?) This is not a ‘family blog’ (whatever the fuck that means); this is a zone where we try to limit the privileged fetishization of ‘civility’ (aka classist/sexist/ableist/racist/heteronormative silencing practices) and fully intend to keep it that way. So, if you too are *ahem* uncivilized and lack common sense, please feel free to pull up a chair, crack open a cold beverage, and let the unseemly invective fly.

You goddamn fucking right.

(A quick caveat: my tongue-in-cheek observations are not meant to denigrate nor cast aspersions upon the good character and progressive bona fides of Dawg, someone whom I genuinely respect–even if I think he really needs to lighten up about the naughty language.)

Update: More from Renee on gender and the policing of “vulgar” language:

When a woman says fuck you, she is asserting a sense of power that we have socially tried to deny. She is stepping out of the submissive role and assuming an active body which patriarchy finds threatening. The mehnz immediately go into panic mode and try to remind us our place. No No little one, aggression is reserved for those with testicles.

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