New bad words

[supergee]

One annoying linguistic failure is using the words for sexual acts and parts to refer to bad things. It has been suggested that rather than saying something “sucks” if we don’t like it, we should say it sucks badly. Two other possibilities, pronounced similarly: In tribute to the auto biz we could say, “That suvs.” Or, in honor, if that is the word, I am looking for, of the Patient Zero of Facebook, “That zucks.”

Comments

[violsva]

The secret reason behind "That bites."

[mrissa]

My mother specifies that bad things suck slate through a broken straw, which sounds difficult and unpleasant.

[arlie]

*roflmao*

It's logical that "sucks" as a pejorative has a sexual origin, but it just doesn't have that connotation in my head. I see a vacuum cleaner, aka "suck broom". And when I'm in a mood to elaborate on that expression, the vacuum cleaner gets mentioned.

Why would a vaccuum cleaner be bad? Well, why would various sexual acts be bad? That's equally absurd on the face of it.

And of course most of these are really about dominance. What they are really saying is "not like an alpha male". Where an alpha fucks but is not fucked, etc. etc. Even my vacuum cleaner kind of fits - alphas don't use cleaning tools.

[johnpalmer]

It's interesting because researchers into sexual assault note that people who tend to assault have way different points of view than those who want to get laid.

A hedonist thinks oral is fine and dandy if they like it, and likely a not-unpleasant chore otherwise. A likely assailant thinks of gross, but something that's a *big* score if you can get her to do it, especially to completion.

It's a bit distressing how deep these ideas go, especially given how counterproductive they are to everyone. It's very much akin to realizing how deep racism in the US is.

[arlie]

Having now lived with three dogs, with varying levels of concern about dominance, I see it even more clearly in human interactions. Some humans are all about dominance. They want it. They may have no other source of pleasure in their emotional makeup. Or at least none as strong, or as important to them.

I think that explains a lot of bad behaviour. And part of toxic masculinity is that it socializes boys in this direction.

But it also means that if you don't have a big urge for dominance yourself, it's really hard to understand where these people are coming from.