The Tender Branson Repository of Sexist/Racist Posts and Pejoratives

[HagridOfTheDeep]

the corporate whore.

Stay classy, Tender.

"Corporate whore" is not sexist. Most Republicans (like Mitt Romney) are also corporate whores.

Again. When you call woman a "whore", it has this nasty ring about this.

a "corporate whore" doesn't have a gender, or rather, the gender of the person being called it is irrelevant.  If I call a group of people a bunch of "corporate whores" and several of them are women is it wrong?

Well, "wrong" is subjective, but I've reached a point in my life where I'd judge pretty much anyone who uses that word negatively. There's no need for it and everyone knows where it comes from and what it connotes. And throwing it around to describe Hillary Clinton and then trying to argue that it's not an attack on her gender—this being someone who is blazing trails for women and who's been subjected to it all—rings pretty hollow. No one ever called Mitt Romney a "corporate whore" even though I suspect he'd fit the definition more than almost anyone... and I think it's pretty obvious why no one thought to give him that moniker.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I didn't realize it was actually a popular phrase. I guess I've just kept out of circles that think it's appropriate to call anyone any type of whore. To be honest though, the fact that it's become a common saying raises other red flags for me. Whether you think I've got delicate sensibilities or not, "whore" means what it means, and normalizing derogatory expressions so that they become uncritical parts of colloquial language is hugely problematic. It entrenches sexism in everyday life, subtly reinforces hierarchies around social value, and creates invisible barriers for women who should really have the right to be taken seriously in the public sphere.

Laughing and scoffing at people who take offense just shows a discomfort at the thought of having to critically rethink one's privilege or genuinely reflect on one's own place in society. What's so threatening about being asked, for good reasons, to stop calling people whores? Especially when the person at the other end of the insult is a feminist icon to loads of people, for better or for worse?