Recently the President of the United States used his usual level of tasteful eloquence to call NFL players who kneel during the National Anthem sons of bitches. Teresa Kaepernick, mother of Colin Kaepernick who famously began taking the knee during the National Anthem to protest racist police violence, had the perfect comeback: “Guess that makes me a proud bitch!”
Guess that makes me a proud bitch!
— Teresa Kaepernick (@B4IleaveU) September 23, 2017
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Many people who find a man objectionable choose to express that by calling him a “son of a bitch” or the shorter “SOB.” It’s strange, however, how the phrase son of a bitch is not so much an insult of the man (who is simply being called a “son”) but of his mother. Another popular insult “bastard” is similarly more about a man’s lineage than himself.
Meanwhile I have never heard a woman called a “daughter of a bitch.” Each girl child born instantly becomes a bitch on her own.
Of course, son of a bitch is not the only time that women are invoked when a man is insulting another man. I am referring to the use of the word “pussy” as an insult, which seems strange since for the type of guys who use that word as an insult the pussy seems to be the only part of a woman they find valuable.
And, yes, women get insulted with references to their anatomy as well, but longtime readers know how I feel about the word cunt.
The rhyme “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is an exaggeration. Words can hurt. They can hurt a lot. But if anyone ever chooses to insult my son when he is peacefully protesting injustice I will proudly wear the indirect moniker that his detractors may choose to bestow on me.
Here’s to all the NFL players who choose to take the knee or who support their teammates right to do so and to their mothers who clearly did something right.
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Kim Z. Dale 