On Monday’s episode of Samantha Bee’s show “Full Frontal,” she referred to Ivanka Trump as a feckless c**t. She has since apologized.
We on the left might laugh at this comment. Bee uses one of the most offensive words in our vocabulary to express our collective rage over the moral ambivalence of the sycophants surrounding the president. Hearing the term applied this way pops the cork on our rage via an unexpected burst of profanity...and because a talented comedienne with great timing said it, it’s funny.
But the bigger picture is that this particular word, as taboo and sharp as it may be, it’s not a funny word at all. It’s a word that implies that femininity is inherently dirty, inferior and bad. It suggests that a woman’s reproductive organs...which in reality offer a mechanism for us to create life and to derive some of the most important intimate pleasures of human existence...we’re saying that this is the thing in our world that is so awful, and so vile, that it is worthy of being our most potent slur.
That’s just wrong. And it’s stupid. And it’s time for it to stop.
When the word is used as a pejorative, it doesn’t just insult the person it is used against. It demeans all women. It reinforces this caveman concept of “penis good, vagina bad.” It leads us to a society where someone like Hillary Clinton wants to be president, and she must be a “c word” because she’s “arrogant and power hungry.” But when an uneducated boor like Trump wants the presidency to profit and to fuel his own narcissistic fantasies, he’s a “self made man” and a rebel.
The C word offers a slur that anyone can pull out at any time to tell a woman that she can’t strive for success, or that she can’t fight back. That if she gets angry or forceful or treats her employees tersely, then she is the worst thing we can think of...even she’s acting every bit in accordance to how her male counterparts behave.
It is in the same vein as the N word. It demeans someone based on who they are and attacks their core identity as inferior and lesser. It reinforces centuries of idiotic subjugation and flawed ideas. It suggests that there’s this whole group of humans who deserve less, who are not equal.
So when Bee used that term for Ivanka Trump, I understand where her rage stems from. I understand why she wanted to make a statement that had impact. But it was a statement that was inappropriate because it used an entirely offensive slur, and just because Bee in on our side in this tribal dogfight doesn’t make her use of this word morally acceptable.
I’m glad Bee has apologized. But she should do more. She is a feminist and a strong voice for women. I would call on her to not only apologize on air, but to also discuss this word, and it’s context and history, and then to pledge to permanently ban it from her own use in any context ever again. And she should encourage others to do the same.
It’s long past time to retire the C word.
