Context and Intent

Oh dear.  I was really hoping I’d be able to get through this election cycle without feeling the need to come here and start kicking butts.  However, now people have pushed me past my limits and ironically enough, that’s why I’m so pissed off.  Today’s blog is about limits and people who do or do not respect them.

Donald Trump, self proclaimed billionaire (not that we’ll ever know since he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to release his tax returns) is the Republican nominee for President of the United States.  He got this nomination despite the fact that he’s a misogynist, a narcissist, a racist, a sexist, and a blow-hard who has no respect for anyone but himself… and Vladimir Putin… and possibly his tax advisors.   He’s mocked women, the disabled, and the LGBTQ community with abandon and yet, there he is still running for president.

Ah, but wait, maybe he won’t be for long.  Maybe his comments about grabbing women’s pussies and kissing beautiful women without giving them a say in the matter will finally sink him.  Dare we hope?  No, it appears that his fan club is still rooting for him.  Sunday in my Facebook feed I saw one meme posted and reposted by a number of people.  According to this meme, they don’t seem to understand why people are offended by Trump’s words and yet made Fifty Shades of Grey a best seller.  Seriously?  You can’t figure this out?  Okay I’m about to explain it to you so read carefully,

It’s all about context and intent.  

As George Carlin reminded us a few decades ago words on their own are useful tools but not inherently offensive.  It’s how they’re used that becomes problematic.  'Snatch', 'Box', and 'Pussy' are slang terms for female genitalia.  But you could be taking about a cat that needs to go to the vets office when you say, "Snatch that pussy and put her in a box."  

to use them to say that you can and do sexually assault women is beyond the pale of anyone, let alone a person running for elected.  Equating this to extremely badly written mommy porn is ludicrous.  I am aware that there are scenes in Fifty Shades where the heroine’s limits are violated.  Many people have written about that and taken the author to task over it.  However, the vast majority of people who read the book weren’t aware that would be happening when they bought it.  

Then there's the excuse that what he said was just locker room talk.  Plenty of athletes, both professional and recreational have put that fallacy to rest.  But even if it had been just the same kinds of things that guys talk about in the locker room, it's still not right.  As my mother would say, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't make it right.  

And so dear readers, that’s what it’s all about.  Context.  Intent.  On the one hand we have people who read a work of fiction that describes sexual scenes between consenting (most of the time) adults.  On the other hand, we have a very high profile businessman who is now running for the office of president, describing how he can and does get away with a crime.  

‘Snatch', 'Box', 'Pussy’, ‘Twat’,‘Cunt’ ; the words are not the issue.  It would be no different if he said he grabs women’s genitals or their vulvas.  It’s not the words.  It’s the intent.  It’s the context.  Donald Trump used a slang expression to describe how he commits sexual battery against women.  And that makes all the difference in the world.