Mind yer language!

[Cathy Lindsay 239-6679, 219]

Greetings from Katherine of Constantinople.
I had hoped Fubba Wubba would just die out someday, but in light of
the recent postings this seems an unreasonable wish.
What wrong with the term fubba wubba? It buys into the beauty
myth: that only females who are young and attractive and
agreeable are worthwhile. How is this? The term is almost
always applied to women beyond the first flower of youth who
are exercising authority. Then someone disagrees with something
or other the lady in question does (pick your gripe: bossy
autocratting, picking at inauthenticity, etc.). Then *ta da*
the lady turns into a fubba wubba: someone to be dismissed
--she's ugly and fat and has a bad attitude. This term gets
thrown around in jest and it's an easy way to disempower (there's
probably a better word, but...) someone who's older and
unattractive who holds opinions you don't like. Never mind that
the gentle in question may contribute a good deal.
There's gotta be a better way. Of course, the best way would be
for everyone to behave courteously and chivalrously, so there
wouldn't be a need for this term. Failing that utopian dream,
there's got to be a nondiscriminatory term for someone who's
doing something you don't like that doesn't insult a whole class
of people: older or less beautiful women.
Think of it this way: our consciousness has been raised (most of
us) to the level where if a black person did something we didn't
like we'd still never call him a "lazy nigger". Anyone who did
use that kind of language would be reviled. Our consciousness
has to be raised to where it is also unthinkable to disagree
with the actions of a particular gentle without resorting to
the pejorative fubba wubba. I've actually witnessed (at Pennsic)
someone call an older woman who admittedly wasn't pretty a
fubba wubba. He didn't know this person, had no gripe with her,
but she wasn't beautiful or smiling.
And no, this isn't defensiveness on a personal level. I'm not
old or overweight or considered unattractive. Bad attitude is
of course all in the perspective ;-).
But I'd really like to see fubba wubba die out for its sexist
and age-ist overtones.