Comments on: The pussy patrol

By: Insult crimes « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Insult crimes « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:02:11 +0000

[...] story, but one of them has to do with the making of the film as a perceived insult crime. From my Pussy Riot posting: Pussy Riot’s offense was an “insult crime”, disrespecting some public figure, religion, or [...]

By: arnold zwicky

arnold zwicky — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:03:59 +0000

Yes, you've said that before, and you're not alone. But I did respond, in this posting.

By: caryatis

caryatis — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:08:04 +0000

I’ve noticed that, although Pussy Riot describes themselves as a “feminist punk band”, the newspapers by and large cut this to “punk band”. Sometimes they will say “all-female” or as in the NBC reference “punk girl band”, but the word “feminist” is clearly being avoided.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:31:00 +0000

I find I avoid the word “pussy” as much (if not more) for its derogatory connotation of “effeminate” as for the “genitalia” meaning. The homophobia and misogyny inherent in the insult is much more offensive than a crude anatomical reference.

But “Pussy Riot” doesn’t seem to carry that same baggage at all– more like the opposite.

By: “Pussy”, mot politique | La pensée du discours

“Pussy”, mot politique | La pensée du discours — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:18:27 +0000

[...] Quelques heures après la publication de ce billet, Arnold Zwicky publie “The pussy patrol“, un intéressant billet sur les usages du mot pussy en américain, sous l’angle du [...]

By: H. S. Gudnason

H. S. Gudnason — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 09:41:15 +0000

Two weeks ago the NPR quiz show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me…” asked a question about the Pussy Riot trial, which ended with them playing a montage of reporters saying the name more than a dozen times. At least certain segments of NPR clearly operate by standards other than those of print journalists.

In fact, NPR’s reporting of the verdict last Friday invariably included the band’s name inthe first sentence of the report.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 03:17:18 +0000

To me, “pussy” means “vulva,” not “vagina.”

By: Andre Mayer

Andre Mayer — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:03:36 +0000

So Codman called Edith Wharton “Pussy” … it’s interesting because Wharton, a dog-lover, hated cats, calling them “snakes with fur” I think.

By: arnold zwicky

arnold zwicky — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:53:53 +0000

On Facebook, Corry Wyngaarden points to Marxist Slavoj Žižek posting on the affair. Extracts:

Pussy Riot members accused of blasphemy and hatred of religion? The answer is easy: the true blasphemy is the state accusation itself, formulating as a crime of religious hatred something which was clearly a political act of protest against the ruling clique. ... Was the act of Pussy Riot cynical? There are two kinds of cynicism: the bitter cynicism of the oppressed which unmasks the hypocrisy of those in power, and the cynicism of the oppressors themselves who openly violate their own proclaimed principles. The cynicism of Pussy Riot is of the first kind, while the cynicism of those in power — why not call their authoritarian brutality a Prick Riot — is of the much more ominous second kind.

Prick Riot is nice.

By: JR

JR — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:57:18 +0000

This very interesting paragraph from the Guardian I guess would have a hard time reaching readers of major newspapers in the US. It’s about the judge, Syrova, reading the verdict and the defendants’ reaction:

Syrova repeated witness testimonies that the three women had offended Orthodox believers by wearing bright clothes inside a church, by “making sharp aggressive movements”, and by wearing their trademark balaclavas. She also read the words to the anti-Putin punk prayer they performed in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Inside their cage, the women laughed as she quoted the lyrics: “Shit, shit, holy shit!”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/17/pussy-riot-verdict-defiance?INTCMP=SRCH