Bitches at the Oscars

By Deanna Zandt
Posted on March 3, 2006, Printed on November 26, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers//33050/

Over at PopPolitics, Jacyln has some words about the Oscars coming up on Sunday night... specifically, which ones will be allowed, and which ones won't, during the first-ever Oscar rap performance ("It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" from the film "Hustle & Flow"). Short story is that "bitches" will be allowed, while, as MSNBC so delicately puts it, the F-word and the N-word won't. Jacyln's reaction sums it up neatly:

So. To review. Saying "fuck," a word, however crude, for a very basic sex act that most adults enjoy, is totally offensive and can not only get you major league fined by the FCC but is waaaaaaaaaaaay too awful to even think about saying on the hallowed Academy stage. But calling a woman a bitch -- saying, to be conservative, that she is equivalent to a dog -- that's totally OK. And using that word in the context of this song about how hard it is for a pimp -- a man who sells women for a living -- in the soundtrack to a movie about said pimp and how great and misunderstood he is: also completely fine.

Got it.

Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet.

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