Showing up here. Please continue to support your wife as she continues to fight for change. It's what gave me hope about Singapore (I'm Filipino, Flor Contemplacion was hanged on my 10th birthday, and I've experienced racism there first-hand).
Someone right at the beginning of this newsletter is quoted as saying "they're all cunts".
"Cunt" is "vulgar slang", according to the Oxford dictionary. Why quote someone who uses female genitalia to swear by? And why doesn't he use his own genitalia to swear by?
I think swearing essentially becomes something of a coping mechanism in high-stress environments. In the case of the person quoted this has meant watching as people were being gunned down on the streets of Myanmar or seeing people he knows having to flee for their lives, but it can also occur when one’s everyday life involves things like being targetted by/dealing with harassment/facing smear campaigns from authoritarian state agencies or actors. I’ve noticed a lot of people in those situations start using profanities waaaay more than they otherwise might do.
I understand it’s language that can be upsetting or offensive to some, but it’s also expressive of the anger and frustration felt by people who are dealing with stuff that’s extremely difficult, often incomprehensible, on a day-to-day basis; in those contexts the literal meaning of the words tends to fade, and is overridden by raw emotion.
Showing up here. Please continue to support your wife as she continues to fight for change. It's what gave me hope about Singapore (I'm Filipino, Flor Contemplacion was hanged on my 10th birthday, and I've experienced racism there first-hand).
Someone right at the beginning of this newsletter is quoted as saying "they're all cunts".
"Cunt" is "vulgar slang", according to the Oxford dictionary. Why quote someone who uses female genitalia to swear by? And why doesn't he use his own genitalia to swear by?
I think swearing essentially becomes something of a coping mechanism in high-stress environments. In the case of the person quoted this has meant watching as people were being gunned down on the streets of Myanmar or seeing people he knows having to flee for their lives, but it can also occur when one’s everyday life involves things like being targetted by/dealing with harassment/facing smear campaigns from authoritarian state agencies or actors. I’ve noticed a lot of people in those situations start using profanities waaaay more than they otherwise might do.
I understand it’s language that can be upsetting or offensive to some, but it’s also expressive of the anger and frustration felt by people who are dealing with stuff that’s extremely difficult, often incomprehensible, on a day-to-day basis; in those contexts the literal meaning of the words tends to fade, and is overridden by raw emotion.