{"id":5308,"date":"2012-08-20T12:53:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T19:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/?p=5308"},"modified":"2012-08-20T13:16:07","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T20:16:07","slug":"pussy-riot-boy-squirm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/2012\/08\/20\/pussy-riot-boy-squirm\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh Pussy . . . Riot, How You Make This Boy Squirm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Photo by \u201clinksfraktion\u201d on Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

If you have spent any time on the interwebs over the past month, you have probably seen the words \u201cPussy Riot\u201d flash across your feed at some point. Oh be still my Puritan heart, I hope my cafe table-mates, can\u2019t see what I\u2019m reading and googling \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In a nutshell from CNN<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Three members of Russian female punk rock band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison Friday after they were found guilty of hooliganism for performing a song critical of President Vladimir Putin in a church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While I will admit that my first reaction was\u00a0\u201cAwesome, a new \u2018Vagina\u00a0Monologues\u2019 must be in production!\u201d I also found\u00a0myself\u00a0a tad bit\u00a0uncomfortable. I mean come on, this was not like the dust-up over the word\u00a0\u201cVagina\u201d being so\u00a0brazenly\u00a0uttered<\/a> on the floor of the Michigan State\u00a0Legislature, so what\u2019s up with\u00a0the \u201cP\u201d word being used so\u00a0liberally\u00a0all over the web. I mean seriously, instead of \u201cPussy Riot\u201d what would have been so wrong with a\u00a0name like, \u201cVagina Discernment,\u201d anatomically\u00a0correct and community based? This I could deal with \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

So in true \u201cI\u2019m a progressive trying not to act out of the privilege of his gender and class\u201d fashion, I began to ask myself why I was made so uncomfortable by simply seeing the word \u201cPussy.\u201d Sure, there is some shock value that challenges conventional understandings of\u00a0language\u00a0and, certainly, each person will be comfortable using\u00a0language\u00a0of all sorts . . . but there was something about the word \u201cpussy\u201d that seemed to really create discomfort for me.<\/p>\n

I will admit, in a vacuum, I do not like the word because of how it is used by most of society, as a symbol of weakness. Since I see part of the world through the eyes of my three daughters, I am acutely aware of how female-based words are used to put down men. Insults directed at males usually find their impact by inferring something female. Calling someone a \u201cpussy,\u201d\u00a0screaming, \u201cHit the ball, Nancy!\u201d or uttering the still ever popular \u201cYou [insert athletic skill] like a girl\u201d are all about using female\u00a0attributes\u00a0to demean a male. And don\u2019t get me started on put-downs that are driven by some form of male penetration, good gravy we boys can be so\u00a0predictable. I am one who\u00a0believes\u00a0that words do not\u00a0solely\u00a0define a person, but they do matter, so tacit approval of these kinds of put-downs\u00a0is simply not okay and worthy of a well-placed correction or a laser-like stink-eye.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know much about Pussy Riot other than what I have read. And while I may not agree with their tactics or the\u00a0repercussions\u00a0of those actions, it seems clear that the choice of their name was NOT about dehumanizing women, but about claiming power by\u00a0reclaiming\u00a0the word. This happens all the time by marginalized communities, racial epitaphs and slurs are claimed by the targeted groups as a way to both remove the power of the word and deal with the pain those words have\u00a0inflicted. So, just as aware as I am about how the word \u201cpussy\u201d is used to demean, the use of the word by the band and other women also challenges my own\u00a0preconceptions\u00a0about the word. Society uses male genitalia based slang all the time without batting an eye: \u201cI\u2019m so screwed,\u201d \u201cThat sucks!\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re a dick\u201d for starters, so why is the word \u201cpussy\u201d still so shocking? Probably because the use of the word in some instances by women is not about demeaning someone else, but about claiming power.<\/p>\n

Zing!<\/p>\n

So at the root of my discomfort just might be that no matter how much of a \u201cliberated\u201d male that I hope to be and become, somewhere in my\u00a0psyche there is a place that probably does not want women to claim power in ways that experience as\u00a0challenging my own.\u00a0Dangit, now I do have to keep reflecting on my own power and\u00a0privilege.<\/p>\n

Thanks a lot Pussy Riot, and I do hope you are freed<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have spent any time on the interwebs over the past month, you have probably seen the words \u201cPussy Riot\u201d flash across your feed at some point. Oh be still my Puritan heart, I hope my cafe table-mates, can\u2019t see what I\u2019m reading and googling \ud83d\ude42 In a nutshell from CNN: Three members of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":5309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244,814],"tags":[8603,16562,17235,364,17236,17234,16631,17053],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-politics","category-family-community","tag-daughters","tag-gender","tag-language","tag-parenting","tag-pussy","tag-pussy-riot","tag-sexism","tag-vagina"],"yoast_head":"\nOh Pussy . . . 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