"We are a fat culture, obsessed with thinness. And I think if you use "fat", a health problem, as an insult, it says something- especially if you use it repeatedly, and target women."
Well yes, this is the traditional wisdom about it, or political correctness. I noticed something else, probably because I am a man.
In the 70's it became popular in the mainstream for women to cuss like merchant marines. I would go out with the women where I work at the end of the days on Friday. It was annoying to me to hear them call each other a Fxing Bxtch etc with practically every exchange. They, however, seemed to have become deaf to the traditional "bad words."
One Friday I made a list of "new" bad words before leaving work. I had a list of ten to slip into the conversations. The first was "neurotic housewify wench." I never got to number two on my list because the reaction by my group of friends was so overwhelming.
I learned a valuable lesson about women on that day and I think it helps me to understand why the term jla uses has such a powerful impact. It gets at one of the sensitive triggers for women, which of course is his goal.
From a strictly male perspective it doesn't mean much. We have used the term big fat liar (a historical root of FAL) since childhood. We used it for the skinny and obese alike without consideration for body style. It simply means that the extent of your lies are beyond the norm even for liars. Of, course when jla sees that it got under your skin (pun) he took it to another level. tsk, but not without your egg, tsk. |
