Words

There's been a lot said about words this weekend.

Should some words be bleeped out in audio?  Should some words be repeated by commentators?There was no consistency - neither within nor between the outlets.

How private are your words?  Is wearing a microphone enough evidence ?

How about giggling at those words?  I heard no embarrassed twittering; I heard coarse laughter.

And there was much discussion of the meta-issue, the framing of the dialogue.  And this is where it got interesting.

Predatory (those tic tacs) Sexual (that word we're not saying) Assault (without waiting).  Not bad language.  Sexual Assault.... that which boys all over America, Freshman Orientations heavy on respect for boundaries still ringing in their ears, have now heard the Republican Candidate for President announce that he'd disregard it all, and it's okay, because he's a star.

This is about all our children - boys and girls.

CNN's John King's defense of men in locker rooms was the first time anyone on tv repeated what TBG has been shouting at the screen since late Friday night.  That was when locker room banter became synonymous with you can say whatever kind of shit you want.  Like my husband, his outrage was palpable.

Both of them have spent lots of time in lots of locker rooms.  Neither of them had ever heard anything like that.  But they don't stop there.  To be sure, they insist, if either of them had heard it, the speaker would have been shoved up against the wall and told in no uncertain terms that the locker room was filled with sons and brothers and cousins and uncles, men who have no use for that kind of behavior.

They are offended on behalf of their gender.  Just as TBG was offended on behalf of all middle aged men managing younger women when Bill Clinton didn't have sex in the Oval Office, so Mr. Trump's assumption that his words are acceptable in a naked, single gender environment offends the athlete in him.

But mostly, I go back to the words.

Princess Myrtle posted the best(?) catcall in a while - Lady, I'd vote for you for President this week, so we know that words are still being flung at those not yet invisible women who dare to use the streets.  I can't begin to fathom being a survivor of sexual assault who listened to those words, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Words matter.  No matter where or when you say them.