Holy mother of God *is horrified*

[elspethdixon]

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.

Comments

[azarias.livejournal.com]

I've seen others translating it to mean "outlaw/outcast," and from tnh's other comments it seems she wants it to mean some combination of "evil lying mob-member" and "person I'm going to snub at parties." What she wants us to act like she's saying vs. what she's actually saying, of course, is the heart of the problem.

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

'Evil, lying mob member' is bad enough all on its own, honestly.

The whole post would be shocking even sans insults, just for the threatening element. Threatening + horrible insults is just the icing on the cake.

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

The term niding/nithing basically meant someone who was completely without the law, rejected by society to the point where killing them carried no punishment. Needless to say one didn't become niding unless one had committed some fairly grisly and cowardly crimes to start with.

[elf]

It means "outlaw" in the old sense of "our laws do not apply to you," including laws like "don't kill this person." It has additional meanings of "decent folk should kill this person on sight, so they stop using up our good air."

It doesn't mean "vile person." It means "the entities that vile persons can feel good about despising, because they're at least human, and these aren't. And not like bugs or trees aren't human... like cesspits aren't human; like diseases aren't human."

I posted about it at InsaneJournal.

[azarias.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's ... pretty heavy.

[elf]

Yeah. "Rapist of dead goats" is a milder insult.