alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

April 7, 2008

A Brief Note On Castration

by AltHippo @ 6:34 pm. Filed under 2008 Elections

Or: “Everything I Needed to Know About Political Speech Came From Watching the Sopranos.”

Shakesville writes regarding the TPM headline Full Firing? Or Just Gelded?:

I find it difficult to believe that a man of your intelligence doesn’t know that “to geld” means to castrate, and I find it similarly difficult to believe that a man of your experience doesn’t know that powerful women are routinely cast as castrating bitches, and I further yet find it difficult to believe, in light of your constant reminders that you’ve spent a good part of your adult life defending the Clintons, that you are totally unaware of the existence of “hilarious” novelty items like the Hillary Clinton nutcracker. So where exactly is the disconnect, Josh, that allows you to use such disgusting language in reference to a sitting senator and presidential candidate? Or any woman, for that matter.

As a regular reader of TPM I also saw the headline, but saw it as more the kind of talk that I often heard among competitive types in business. I’m pretty sure that its origin is as a polite version of language you’d see in a Hollywood mob movie. It’s use in the vernacular would go something like this:

A: I hear Joe’s making a play for the Friedman account.
B: He tries to go around me, I’ll personally rip his dick off and stuff it down his throat.

There’s a lot of variations on this theme, but you get the idea. I’m certainly not going to argue that this is a nice thing to say. I heard things along these lines mostly in the Northeast Corridor, and, I do think it’s likely the language of mob movies used in highly charged areas of business.

I wouldn’t say that there’s an implication that the character in the dialog above is castrating. It’s more the law of the jungle in the place of business that’s at issue.

I’ll add that I don’t hear expressions like that outside of NYC, New Jersey and Boston.

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8 Responses to “A Brief Note On Castration”

  1. eRobin Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    I didn’t get worked up over it but I think that Shakes can add this example of sexism to her list without worry. The sort of language you cite is more common and so less meaningful than “gelded,” which specifically means “castrated.” Maybe Josh thought he was being polite - of course then the question becomes why not use the term “marginalized” or “demoted”? And would he accuse Obama of gelding anyone? I can’t see that happening but if it did, I’d love to watch the fall out.

  2. AltHippo Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    Indeed, I have never heard the word “gelded” used in a political context. The language certainly calls attention to itself, doesn’t it? I for one would like to hear Josh explain the usage.

    Perhaps this is a situation where it would make sense to ask the blogger in question (Josh) what he meant? I still see this as a politer version of the macho posturing language that’s common in business, or in any area involving money and power. This isn’t Jonah Goldberg we’re talking about, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. It just seems cleaner to ask him what the intent was.

  3. KCinDC Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    The online media don’t have quite the constraints of print, but I think they still worry about headline length. That’s probably one reason to prefer “geld” over some alternatives, though it does seem like a strange term.

  4. Thomas Nephew Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 11:20 am

    Hm. I thought of that headline the way AltHippo did, which illustrates my own blind spot when it comes to sexist language in this context, or at least that my sexism-detection antennae are not tuned as well as Shakes’s. “Gelded” has been used this way by writers before in male-male interactions of the sort; should it not be allowed for Clinton-Penn on suspicion of sexism?

    I think JM was going both for brevity and color, which “marginalized” or “demoted” doesn’t do. “Spanked”? Probably no good either, I suppose. “Slapped on the wrist”? A bit long. Are there phrases that are both short, colorful, and noncontroversial that can be used to describe how a powerful woman and feminist icon punishes-yet-arguably-doesn’t-maximally-punish a male subordinate? Tough to do, I think.

  5. Thomas Nephew Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    As a point of information, here’s the Webster’s online definition. Yes “geld” primarily means “castrate”, but it also has an accepted secondary meaning to “deprive of a natural or essential part “. On the other hand, just from a writing standpoint, I’d still give Josh’s word choice a “C” in that he clearly meant something less than that happened to Mr. Penn.

  6. Thomas Nephew Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Hm. There’s a prior comment of mine still hung up in moderation that I wish had come before the last one. Maybe it eventually will.

  7. AltHippo Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    Sorry Thomas about the moderation delay. I’ve got a bunch of filters happening because of the massive determination of spammers to sell me, umh, “enhancement” products.

    Anyway, I was just thinking of our conversation from last night. I’ll try to post something along those lines soon.

  8. Thomas Nephew Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    No problem, of course. I had just figured they’d *both* get delayed. Look forward to your post, if you have time to put something together.

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