The S-word, male vs. female authors

[LoveHistory]

[quote=""fljustice""]Reminds me of when my (then) 6-year old daughter tried to flip me the bird using her index finger. I burst out laughing and she almost burst into tears. I corrected her technique, taught her several cultural variations, and warned her she should never use any of them with an adult. I don't think she's used it since (at least not with me!)[/quote]

There are cultural variations? Apparently my education is incomplete.

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

In Europe, the variation is the victory sign turned backwards. My Pakistani friends put the thumb and forefinger together and demonstrate the action with the forefinger of the opposite hand. But not around me, of course.

[DianeL]

I've certainly heard heifer used as an insult for women, so can see how a kid hearing it would class it with b*tch or the like. But that IS kind of adorable.

Faith, am I horribly jaded? My first thought was "Oh yes she has" ... It is too cool you gave her the full education along with the prohibition, though. I just remember my response to knowledge (especially anything which seemed "forbidden" even if not truly catastrophic): share it early, share it often, holler for credit when the other kids on the playground share it too ...


MLE, I'm laughing pretty happily here at the association with The S Word - it does make logical sense. boswellbaxter, maybe this thread just got dirtier!

[Madeleine]

Yep I'd say heifer was up there with the b word as being derogatory to women under some circumstances. Rather sweet in the context used here though.

[fljustice]

[quote=""MLE""]In Europe, the variation is the victory sign turned backwards. My Pakistani friends put the thumb and forefinger together and demonstrate the action with the forefinger of the opposite hand. But not around me, of course. [/quote]

There's also biting your thumb and the more vigorous clenched fist raised in front of the body and crossed at the elbow with the other arm. And DL...I'm sure she's used it...left out the sarcastic emoticon!

[TiciaRoma]

Often when I start a new book I will turn to a random page well along in the story to get a taste of how things develop. I started a new book last night which came very close to becoming a non-starter. The first three sentences on page 208.

"once we started we did not stop.Martha and I f****d on Sundays, we f-d in the lodging and behind a barrel. in daylight in the woods, in the dark in the woods, we were the beast with two backs in the fields, and flat on top of each other in the bakery. . ."

The author is male. The book is Odo's Hanging, about the Bayeux tapestry. It was highly recommended and I am very interested in anything on that topic. So I started at the beginning. It is better, and more interesting than my sampling would indicate.

But there IS a difference.

I remember first realizing that difference in HS reading Faulkner's Light in August--some passage, after a midnight outdoor tryst, where the MC's thoughts were something along the lines of he was going to leave because he realized there was nothing between his body and the cold damp grass but a thin slip of a girl . . .

[EC2]

[quote=""Alisha Marie Klapheke""]You all are cracking me up. I used to teach 3rd grade and one day two girls asked to speak to me privately. They said someone called another girl the worst thing ever. Blushing like little tomatoes, they FINALLY told me this terrible, earth-shattering swear word. Heifer. Ha! I gave them a hug and almost burst trying not to laugh at the sweeties.[/quote]

Hmm... I remember a friend telling me about a teacher friend who went with some inner city kids to look around a farm. When later she was asking the children what they'd most enjoyed one child said that they'd liked the 'little fuckers' the best. The teacher questioned this and the child replied 'The farmer called them little 'heifers' but we knew what he meant! So perhaps the 'heifer' actually meant 'effer'