Well at least he didn’t say she should be spayed
The “industry” that like to gamble with other people’s money and make us pay for it when the gamble doesn’t go their way – that industry doesn’t like Elizabeth Warren because she thinks it should be sensibly regulated in order to avoid global financial meltdown like the one in 2008. Since this highly useful and public spirited industry doesn’t like Warren, Republicans also don’t like Warren.
A Republican congressman on the House Committee on Financial Services thinks Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the most vocal advocates for Wall Street reform, needs to be “neutered.”
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) made the comments during a panel discussion at an American Bankers Association conference Wednesday. According to Politico, Luetkemeyer said people needed to “find a way to neuter” Warren, whom he called the “Darth Vader of the financial services world.”
And the financial services world, of course, is pure Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, right? Pocketing huge profits while taxpayers pick up the pieces at the same time as they lose all their savings.
Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of UltraViolet, an advocacy group working to expand women’s rights, said the comments showed how GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s rhetoric had seeped into political discourse.
“Luetkemeyer should immediately apologize to Senator Warren for his offensive language,” she said. “There is plenty of room for disagreement in Washington, but resorting to sexist name-calling should have no place in our political discourse.”
Oh come on, where would we be without sexist name-calling? The sluts and bitches would run everything, am I right?
Sorry, I’m failing to understand how that instance of name-calling is sexist.
It is the misgendering, becuase “Darth Vader” was a man and the word “neutering” is predominantly used when referring to male animals?[0] Or is it because the colloquial meaning of “neuter” – to disempower – is perhaps not generally used[1] when referring to men who the speaker feels threatened by?
[0] Would it be better, given that we have not de-gendered the English language yet, if the speaker had used a more gender-appropriate form?
[1] Although, if this is the case, I had not noticed it in my observations of the usage of the word. I’m just guessing, because I can’t see anything else that would make this particular instance of name-calling sexist.
Neutering is language used for *animals* and thus dehumanziing. Men tend not to use dehumanizing language when speaking of their male opponents.
To be honest I’m not sure either, at least I don’t see it as a slam dunk. On the other hand it’s a very odd thing to say, and it seems unlikely the rep would have said it of a male colleague. If nothing else it sounds as if he is thinking of her like that bit in Inside Out where a boy’s brain sends out warning lights and announcements “GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!” and so that’s why “neuter” popped into his head. If you see what I mean. He sees her as not a normal, default colleague, but FEMALE FEMALE FEMALE, so he wants to make her neuter.
Maybe I do see it as a slam dunk after all.
Or, what Samantha said while I was typing.
It is possible that he was trying to say “neutralized”. I am not trying to defend him here, it’s just that I hear a lot of big words used strangely from the Republican side. I wish we shared a language.
Possible and even probable, since it makes far more sense. But I still think it’s probably his GIRL GIRL GIRL alarm that made him say “neuter” instead. I would say Freudian slip if I believed in such things.
“Find a way to nuke her”?
Seriously, though, it sounds to me as though the Rep. sees Warren more as an alpha male, and it is clear that he sees her as a threat. In the canine world, males are often neutered in an attempt to reduce aggression, to make them less likely to bite: to neutralise the threat.
I could almost accept the idea that he really meant neutralise, just as some Americans say burglarized instead of burgled, but the additional mention of Darth Vader I feel gives weight to the alpha male threat, and that he said exactly what he meant.
Is it really the Trump tail wagging the Republican dog? These patzers didn’t just fall off a passing truck. They’ve been like that for decades.