Technically, I believe that nice lady was addressing her sign to Donald rather than Ivanka, and it mentioned nothing about fecklessness. Just checking, though-- are you offended?
Of course, I had to tackle this one, but it took me a couple of days to figure out how because... it took me a couple of days to figure out what I think of this one. As my very, very few readers know, I am a... well, "yuge" fan of George Carlin, whose most famous bit was the seven words bit. Here it is. I use it every chance I get. Just call me the Pacifica Foundation of blogspot.
Some of these words are words I use because, why not? "Shit" is merely the Germanic-rooted synonym for "feces." I'll spare you another lecture on the socio-economic and political history of Latin versus Germanic and the development of arbitrary taboos, but you may also notice that not all of these words are a part of my daily lexicon.
Carlin didn't include "the n-word" in his bit. Why not? He was doing a comedy bit. However, there are real reasons not to say "the n-word," and why I'm not even typing it. It isn't just a slur. It is an attack on an entire group of people, rooted in a history of violence, and inseparable from that history of violence. In the same way that the shit/feces distinction is rooted in the class history of Latin versus Germanic, the n-word is rooted in a history of violent oppression. That's why one restriction is a bullshit taboo, and the other is a don't-fuckin'-say-that-word kind of deal, unless you are doing it for a REAL reason. Comedians get cut a lot of slack, though, and as I've written before, in the context of something like Blazing Saddles, the word is necessary. Beyond that, though, I ain't typin' that word.
And Carlin didn't even really address it in the seven words bit. But, there are two words in that bit that I am very hesitant to use in any context. The word, "cocksucker," as an insult is homophobic. Don't do that. Do I have to elaborate?
Of course, the other will bring us to Samantha Bee. But before I get to her, I'll circle back to "the n-word." The principle by which I distinguish racial slurs from "fuck" and "shit" is the history of violence and oppression and fact that there is no way for a white person (hi!) to use such words without threat of violence and oppression given that history. So, what about African-Americans? Can African-Americans use "the n-word" with each other in certain circumstances? This is a question that gets brought up in the context of, for example, rap. By my first-principle, there may be some such contexts without threat, and hence without violation of my rule, making it permissible, right? Or, is the history always there? Can members of a group participate in their own oppression? If so, there is no way to use the word without the threat.
How the fuck should I know? I'm a white dude. All I know is that to me, that's the klan's word. I am aware that there is a debate within certain African-American communities about whether the word can be used among African-Americans, but I have no basis for understanding that debate. Whether or not African-Americans should be able to use "the n-word" with each other is a question that is irrelevant to me. And, since I have no desire to use "the n-word," even if someone reaches a judgment that African-Americans can, I'm not going to whine about some fundamental injustice. Any time you hear white people complain, "why can they say the n-word when I can't?!" Those people are willfully ignorant racists who just want an excuse to call African-Americans "the n-word" without consequence. Fuck them. Or rather, don't fuck them. Call it the John Waters rule for racists.
And now, in a roundabout way, I circle back to the sign at the start of this post. The c-word. I don't call women that word. Why not? Me: dude. History: oppression of women. C-word: used in a derogatory way towards women reducing them to their role in sex and reproduction with a diminishing tone. Same rule as with racial slurs. Is the word as historically-fraught? Objectively, no, but I'm not going to pretend that its history is identical to the other Germanic-rooted words around which taboos have developed.
Does the sign above violate my rule? The manner in which the sign is written attributes the qualities of "warmth" and "depth" to the word, which are treated as normatively positive in society, so I don't see how the use of the word within the sign above could violate my rule. The nice lady in the image above is saying that she denies Trump the praise of being "the c-word." And this is where we get into the real problem with saying that Word X cannot be used EVER because we have a general prohibition on its usage in all circumstances. Regarding the n-word, see: Saddles, Blazing. Comedy and satire will complicate any attempt to construct such rules.
Worse yet, such rules prevent us from thinking through the substance of what is being said. Linguistic taboos are not just binding. They are blinding.
Now, let's look at the full quote for Samantha Bee's joke. "Do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless cunt. He listens to you. Put on something tight, and low-cut and tell your father to fucking stop it." Bee has apologized, and both she and her partisans have argued that calling Ivanka the c-word distracted from the substance of Trump's immigration policies, which involve separating parents from children, even when seeking asylum.
What is happening here is weirder than that. Look at the rest of the joke. Bee wasn't just telling Ivanka to intervene. She was telling Ivanka to intervene by seducing her father.
One of the most disturbing things about Donald Trump that we have gotten so accustomed to seeing and hearing is the fact that he is sexually attracted to his own daughter, and that he expresses that sexual attraction openly. This is a man who sexually assaults women, brags about his ability to get away with it, and even bragged about walking in on teen beauty pageant contestants as they were... not fully dressed.
And he lusts after his own daughter.
Bee joked that Ivanka should manipulate him by seducing him, and nobody is paying attention to that part of the joke. Why not? Part of it is that we are mostly inured to Trump's sexual obsession with his daughter, and that, itself should creep us out. Amid everything else about him, including his history of sexual assault, Trump's ultra-creepy sexual fascination with his own daughter is such an old story that cracking a joke about it is just like making a Chris Christie fat joke. Yeah, Chris Christie is fat. What else is new?
That, itself, is a disturbing commentary. However, think about this from the Trump side. Honestly, which should offend you more: being called "the c-word," or having it suggested that there is an incestuous relationship between Donald and Ivanka?
By any defensible standard, the latter should be worse, but we aren't talking about that because the societal obsession with taboo words has overshadowed the far-more-extreme attack embedded in Bee's joke.
Creating a simple list of words, and declaring them off-limits creates a simple rule for simple-minded people. How bad is the c-word? Bad enough that I don't like it, and, um... have you read this blog? Bee, however, is a comedian, and comedians get cut a hell of a lot of slack from me, and just as I don't want to get in the middle of whether or not African-Americans can use "the n-word," I don't want to get into whether or not Bee can use "the c-word."
Instead, I will point out that there are people so obsessed with taboo words that they miss things that are far more important, like the fact that Trump is sexually attracted to his daughter. That part of Bee's joke was far more aggressive than "the c-word," and if you were blinded to that by a four-letter Germanic-rooted word, my advice is to pay more attention to substance and to think about why words are taboo.
And I didn't even get into immigration policy.