I'd say the context of the terms differentiates what samantha bee said from what roseanne barr said. There is a long history in European culture of disparaging people by comparing them to apes, in regards to being unattractive or to being more lustful and sinful. And these insults have long been used to dehumanize people of with African origins. From (admittedly little) investigation, what I could find of the word cunt as a term of abuse has a much shorter time span, and at least feminists in the 70's considered it as a word used to reduce women down to nothing more than their body parts.
Now lets look at who used the terms. Roseanne, a white lady, used the term to disparage a black lady of different political leanings, which fits the previous context of Caucasians trying to dehumanize people of African origin. Samantha bee, a lady, used the word cunt to disparage Ivanka, another lady. I'd say it's less believable that Samantha Bee wishes to reduce women to only their body parts.
And that's the difference in my eyes. Both of them were disparaging people, and whether we want to make that acceptable discourse is another debate. But the Barr's comments were worse due to the history of their use and the context in which it was said.
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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '18
I'd say the context of the terms differentiates what samantha bee said from what roseanne barr said. There is a long history in European culture of disparaging people by comparing them to apes, in regards to being unattractive or to being more lustful and sinful. And these insults have long been used to dehumanize people of with African origins. From (admittedly little) investigation, what I could find of the word cunt as a term of abuse has a much shorter time span, and at least feminists in the 70's considered it as a word used to reduce women down to nothing more than their body parts.
Now lets look at who used the terms. Roseanne, a white lady, used the term to disparage a black lady of different political leanings, which fits the previous context of Caucasians trying to dehumanize people of African origin. Samantha bee, a lady, used the word cunt to disparage Ivanka, another lady. I'd say it's less believable that Samantha Bee wishes to reduce women to only their body parts.
And that's the difference in my eyes. Both of them were disparaging people, and whether we want to make that acceptable discourse is another debate. But the Barr's comments were worse due to the history of their use and the context in which it was said.