elspethdixon: (Default)
elspethdixon ([personal profile] elspethdixon) wrote2009-01-29 12:44 am
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Holy mother of God *is horrified*

Oh my God, every time I wincingly look back at the ongoing Cultural Appropriation bitchfight of doom, it gets worse. I'm not otherwise going to get involved, but here, I just couldn't help myself.

So, for those, like me, who hadn't seen or heard about Teresa Hayden's post wherein she expresses her anger over people badmouthing her husband (at least, that's what I assume she was doing from the descriptions - I haven't read any of the stuff involving him, either, but apparently he said things that offended people, refused to appologize when called on it, and then deleted his journal because people were yelling at him): Holy fuck, she calls fans of color and those who support them nithings.

In terms of offensiveness, as a former student of old English? Fuck, people, that's, well, not as horrible as the other n-word (which, please God, I hope no one's actually said), but it's pretty god-awful. Like, enough that I was reduced to staring at my computer screen in horror.

She has basically stated that all the people who disagree with her husband (including but not limited to, fans of color) are hateful, malicious, deformed, insane, sexually deviant, possibly cannablistic, sub-human or less-than human things. Because that's what that word means. It means monster. It means Not-a-Person. It means Grendal in Beowulf, the Ring-Wraiths in LotR, the in-bred, cannabalistic degenerate monsters in Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear."

That's what she's saying fans of color are. Maybe she doesn't really know what the word means and implies, but even if she just thinks it's an old spelling of "nothing" that would be offensive all on it's own.

And to think I used to respect her so much...

ETA: Apparently, there are differences between the Old Norse and Old English definitions, with the Norse one being a far worse insult and the Anglo-Saxon version being a little less on the digusting monster side and more on the outlaw side (see the discussion of several people with more expert knowledge than me in comments). Both versions are still insults, though.

[identity profile] cimness.livejournal.com 2009-02-01 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I assume that it must be related to Nidhögg, the dragon who eats the root of Yggdrasil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Níðhöggr), although I can't find anything in Wikipedia that would confirm this. If the dragon symbolises the forces of chaos steadily working to destroy the tree of life, and his finishing the task heralds Ragnarök; and if nidingsdåd, the evil acts of nithings, are his acts, then the evil force possessing/motivating their magic as mentioned in that fascinating encyclopedia article has very serious connotations indeed. The fundamental chaos/evil working to bring about the end of all life... yeah, it's clear the past connotations at least, if not the more recent/widely-known ones, are pretty severe.