Let's Talk Inclusive Language: U.S. Representatives and intolerant language

A friend asked:

“My timelines are filled with ‘bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body.’ Like, filled. Why do you think this is going so viral? Also, why is it ok for it to be talked about as a ’catfight’? It makes me angry.”

Let’s start at the beginning. During a US House Oversight Committee session in May, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said to Representative Jasmine Crockett,

“I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you are reading.”

Greene has a history of saying outrageous, insulting, and bullying things.

In response, a representative said, “That’s beneath even you, Ms. Greene.”

Another requested an official rebuke. In an official rebuke, Greene’s words would be removed from the record, and she would be barred from speaking for the rest of the session.

Greene refused to apologize, and the committee chair, Representative Comer, refused to rebuke her. There would be no penalty and Greene would be allowed to continue to speak.

A few minutes later, Greene asked Representative Ocasio-Cortez, “Why don’t you debate me?”

Ocasio-Cortez replied, “I think it’s self-evident.”

Greene responded, “Yeah, you don’t have enough intelligence.”

Not long after that, Crockett pushed back at the lack of consequences for Greene’s insulting remarks. She asked the chair, “I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling: If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”

So that’s basically what went down.

Why do people care about an argument during a committee hearing?

I think it’s because so many of us dislike hypocrisy and enjoy when it gets called out, especially in a clever way.

My number one principle of inclusive language is Reflect reality. The best language is accurate language. I’m always looking for terminological precision.

But distortions like softening language get in the way. Softening language protects people with power. It frames unacceptable and inappropriate behavior as reasonable and within bounds. It supports and protects hypocrisy.

“I can insult you, but you’d better not insult me. I can disrespect you, but you’d better not disrespect me.” I think we all know people who walk around with this kind of attitude.

My most popular article on softening language is from January 7, 2021. I called out the way journalists were writing about people engaged in the attempted coup. Using gentle words like “protestors” and “Trump supporters” rather than accurate terms like “domestic terrorists” and “people engaged in armed insurrection.”

Greene’s words were the lowest form of disagreement, which is name calling and ad hominem attacks. They were also racially coded insults.

Greene is white. Crockett is Black. Augmented eyelashes, big hair, big earrings, visible logos — these are disdained by some as “ghetto” or ways that women of color are tasteless and “low class.”

Ocasio-Cortez is Latina. Language that insults the intelligence of Latine people and presumes them incompetent is rampant in the US.

To sum up, instead of engaging in what is considered quality debate, Greene went low and insulted her political opponents’ appearance, competence, and race (the race part was implicit, but still there and easily decoded).

And the committee chair, also white and a member of Greene’s party, used his power to protect her and say that her words, which are clearly unacceptable according to the House rules, were ok.

When Crockett asked her supposedly hypothetical question testing what is and isn’t acceptable, she knew what she was doing. When responding to bad behavior, people use different techniques. One technique is the clap back.

This ties in with Karl Popper’s Paradox of tolerance. If you want to maintain a tolerant society, then, paradoxically, you must be intolerant of intolerance. Like in the African American saying, “Don’t start nothing, won’t be nothing.”

Crockett’s words, “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” were clearly disparaging of Marjorie Taylor Greene. But they didn’t call her out by name. They were alliterative, they were sharp, and they pointed out the hypocrisy taking place. They were a less violent version of the folding chair in the Alabama brawl (which also went viral).

African American culture, including games like the dozens, understood by linguists as verbal art, probably helped Crockett with her verbal dexterity. Creating something alliterative, cutting, and memorable off the cuff.

Note that body shaming and homophobia should not have been included in this clap back. Hair color done by choice? Sure. But criticizing someone's body size or shape for any reason, or suggesting that there's something negative about looking butch? Not ok.

Pushing back at hypocrisy, punching back at the bully who punched you first, is a common trope in American media. Finally defeating the bully and putting them in their place is the high point of many movies and television episodes. It can be deeply satisfying.

Finally, there are those tired characterizations of political discourse and aggression as a “catfight” or “spat” just because women are involved.

Women’s competencies, words, and actions are minimized in all kinds of ways. I have a whole keynote devoted to just a few of them.

One common way is referring to women as animals (catty, bitch, vixen).

Another is talking about women as if their only competencies and rightful place is in the domestic domain.

And a third is inappropriately sexualizing women and their behavior.

These common cultural patterns are what’s behind describing this public confrontation as a “spat” (domestic, small) or a “catfight” (female-coded, sexualized).

But let’s call it what it is: representatives of the public pushing back at linguistic distortions that protect outrageous behavior. Using the tools at hand to be intolerant of intolerance.

Because if you let the intolerance continue, it doesn’t end well for society as whole.

Industry-leading inclusive language expert Suzanne Wertheim facilitates in-person and virtual inclusive language trainings, as well as offering empowering and educational inclusive language keynotes.

Let's Talk Inclusive Language: Fake Lashes and Bleached Hair

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Let's Talk Inclusive Language: Fake Lashes and Bleached Hair

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