May 7th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
The Breeders
So in this post about how John Thune says he won’t vote for a gay Supreme Court nominee, I used the term “breeders” which is a derogatory slang term for heterosexuals. For this I stand accused by the humorless right of anti-straight bigotry. As a hetero-American myself, I think of it as me “reclaiming” the term.
Good excuse for a “Cannonball” video, though.
57 Responses to “The Breeders”
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May 7th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Getting demonized by the right for using the term “breeder”? Holy shit, it’s like a badge of honor.
I’m fucking jealous is what I am.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Gotta love Matthew joking about using a derogatory slur about sexual orientation.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Matt! Please call for all U.S. currency to be printed with Andrew Dworkin’s face!
May 7th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Hey Al,
Bree’da please.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
1) ‘Breeder’ is in the dictionary, so I’m not sure how it can be a slur;
2) Actual heterosexuals can call each other ‘breeder’ all they want, right?
3) I LOVE the banner ad at Legal Insurrection: an American flag and the words “Click to Request Free Government Funds.”
May 7th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Does ‘breeder’ even really count as ‘derogatory’? I can imagine people using many slurs, even those aimed at the privileged, in anger and without humor. ‘Breeder’ is not one of these. It is, in my extensive experience, invariably used in a teasing, ironic manner. I’ve never heard any queer person use ‘breeder’ to mean that they think of straight people as inferior. You’ll say it to your straight friends affectionately, maybe after a straight couple engage in some annoying PDA. But it isn’t a real slur.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I don’t know if it would really count as a derogatory, matt.
http://politicsdecoded.com/2009/05/08/swineflu/
May 7th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
As a hetero-American myself
This is not the video we want as proof.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Humorless right indeed. That is the same blogger who didn’t realize that the word “historic” in this sentence:
was meant to be ironic.
I’ll bet that guy’s a lot fun at parties.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
1) Is anyone actually offended by the term breeder?
2) You are a breeder that makes it ok. I know some white people that get really upset when black people use anti-black slurs and they can’t. Like the feel left out. Maybe that’s what’s going on here.
3) The joke wasn’t at the expense of people who have children it was at the expense of anti-gay bigots. That matters.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I vote no on the question of ‘breeder’ as slur. It’s a faux-slur. Somebody had to come up with something for us whitebreads. (Oh wait — is whitebreads a slur???)
And I still vote Pixies over the Breeders.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I think it’s clear that heterosexuals are the real oppressed minority in America.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
1) Is anyone actually offended by the term breeder?
Clearly, Al is, and Al would never make a comment in bad faith about prejudice.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
And I still vote Pixies over the Breeders.
Seconded.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Note: the 2 Many DJs bootleg that combines “Cannonball” with “I Wish” and “My Gigolo” is inspired.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I hope Bill O’Reilly picks up on this story. Well, maybe Colbert does. It is time for Matt to zoom up the ranks of people who are destroying America. Real America that it.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
This is the Legal Insurrection blog that’s spent all day flipping a shit about how Obama put dijon mustard on his burger and MSNBC covered it up? I wonder where he found the time to get insulted by “breeders.” Not worth your time, Matt.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Clearly, Al is, and Al would never make a comment in bad faith about prejudice.
Never.
I like the term “humorless right”. Presumably there is an equivalent “humorless left” consisting of those who cannot understand Jeff Sessions’ joke about marijuana.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Please. You’re a baller, not a breeder. Not Safe For Work!!!
May 7th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Also, can someone please explain comment #4?
May 7th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Presumably there is an equivalent “humorless left” consisting of those who cannot understand Jeff Sessions’ joke about marijuana.
I actually suspect Al’s right about this. At least, my first reaction was that it was a kind of self-depracating joke. It struck me as a quip meant to highlight the right’s own standards of “political correctness” — i.e. that among conservative public officials, racism is cool but drug use is a no-no. One of those ‘it’s funny because it’s true’ sorts of quips.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
There are some words that you could use that would cause you to be receive some criticism and others that will cause more serious discipline. If heterosexuals want to organize to stop the use of the term breeder they can do so and if they succeed then over time its unacceptability will grow. Obviously words don’t instantly switch from the mildly annoying catagory to the totally unacceptable catagory. No need to accuse your critics of being humorless though, if it really offends them you should probably stop using it.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Of course there’s a humorless left; we call it “the left.” But it’s worth noting that people on the left mostly kick up–at The Man–while the right mostly kicks down–Gay Americans, African-Americans, feminists, and anyone we are currently torturing and/or killing. That’s a salient difference for some people.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I like the term “humorless right”. Presumably there is an equivalent “humorless left” consisting of those who cannot understand Jeff Sessions’ joke about marijuana.
I don’t know that the left “cannot understand” the Jeff Sessions joke. The problem with it is that it’s one instance in a whole big, longstanding pattern of behavior that suggests Sessions isn’t all that interested in protecting the civil rights of minorities, a problem for someone specifically tasked with that job. It’s an easy-to-grab hook for a larger problem. If there were no larger problem, Sessions could apologize for making a bad joke and we’d all move on. But we get the intent behind joke.
On the other hand, Jacobson doesn’t get that “breeder” is a borderline slur at best. Sometimes it’s derogatory; sometimes it’s playful mocking. It’s not really the “equivalent of calling a homosexual a ‘fag’” or “new-fashioned, un-subtle bigotry,” particularly since Matt is heterosexual himself. In this context, it’s clearly an offhand joke and there’s no evidence that Matt harbors secret self-hatred of heterosexuals.
I just can’t quite tell if Jacobson is kidding me with this stuff. Dijongate and now this? If it’s meant in an ironic way, the irony’s pretty unstable. I can’t tell what he’s supposed to be parodying, unless he’s parodying a right-winger expressing faux outrage over random imagined slights by liberals.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
This is clearly all of a piece for Matthew. We all knew you were an anti-Semitic Jew. Now you have “come out” as and anti-hetero hetero. Internalized heterophobia is more rampant than we realize.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Are we totally convinced that this Jacobson character’s blog is not satire? Because I honestly don’t see how a parody could be any more ridiculous.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I can’t believe you referred to “taking back” a slang term/slur without linking to the (more-or-less) original “taking it back.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6OselVRTsM
May 7th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
And apparently Dusty beat me to the punch with the same sentiment.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Jesus, first the mustard, now this. Jacobson’s been trolling the left hard all day and y’all been falling for it. Do. Not. Feed. The. Troll.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
This is a guy who’s written two thousand-word posts about the mustard on Barack Obama’s burger, and who didn’t realize that the word “historic” in this sentence:
was a joke.
I’m NOT supposed to consider him humorless, but I AM supposed to believe he’s arguing in good faith.
I think not.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Most of the time I’ve seen ‘breeder’ used, it was in response to being called ‘fag’ or ‘dyke’ or something like that.
‘cracker’, now there’s a word that I use with malign intent. As in, ‘Jeff Sessions is just another damn cracker from Alabama, what did you expect?’
May 7th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I suppose now I’ll be criticized for calling y’all chimpanzees.
Breeder chimpanzees at that.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I wonder what Cameron thinks of humans when she wants to be derogatory.
Fleshies?
Meat puppets?
Bags of bones?
Sacks of shit?
Or Catherine Weaver’s “disappointing”?
May 7th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Leonardo da Vinci once claimed that “Men are but sacks for food.”
Epictetus said that “You are a little soul carrying a corpse.”
Not sure I’ve seen anything to contradict either.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
As reactionary as I am compared to most people here, I can’t say I’m offended by the term ‘breeder’. In fact, I would wear it as a badge of pride. It reminds the world of the high importance I give to procreation, of my beliefs about what the natural law requires, and the fact that I intend to honor these precepts in my life. If Mr. Yglesias wanted to alter the tax code to reduce the child credit then I would be incenced, but the use of the term ‘breeder’? Please. Who cares?
May 7th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
But Hector, weren’t you the guy who admitted to being a virgin in a previous post?
So you’re not really a ‘breeder’ now are you?
May 7th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
The fellow at the “Legal Insurrection” blog uses a wikipedia entry on the term breeder to “prove” his point that it is strictly a derogatory term.
However, earlier entries described it as: “Breeder is a slang term (either joking or derogatory) ….”
The entry was changed without explanation of the removal of “either joking” in the 16 December 2008 edit.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
And I still vote Pixies over the Breeders.
Seconded.
I’ll vote Last Splash over Trompe Le Monde or Bossanova, although obviously Last Splash is nowhere near as great as Surfer Rosa.
And I will again remind other commenters that as Pope of Indie-Rock Snobbery my pronouncements are infallible when delivered ex cathedra.
May 7th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Whenever my gay brother and his significant other use the term breeder I become quite indignant. I let them know in no uncertain terms that without my “kind,” breeders, their “kind” could not exist. Since the dawn of man, breeders have carried the heavy burden of promulgating the species while gay people have been on an uninterrupted one million year joyride.
Then we tip a glass of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, not just because it is a good brew, but because Brooklyn Brewery is powered solely by wind energy, which all agree is a good thing.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Connor,
I admitted to nothing. That was Pseudonymnous in NC trying his ‘Fake Crusader’ sh*t again just to get a rise out of me.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
And I still vote Pixies over the Breeders.
Heterophobe. And the term is “fairies” not “pixies.” Duh.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
So are “chink” and “faggot”.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
WRT Sessions and the KKK.
The KKK is a domestic terrorist organization that has been active for over 100 years.
Imagine a Republican ‘joking’: I used to think al Qaeda was ok, but then I heard they smoked opium.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I’ll never forget that day on the playground, in 5th grade, when a phalanx of gay kids surrounded me and jeered “ha-ha, breeder, breeder!” And to this day I’ve always been a bit ashamed of my straightness, though deep down I know it’s what I am. Kids can be so cruel.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
divine hammer > cannonball
May 7th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Hector Says:
May 7th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
As reactionary as I am compared to most people here, I can’t say I’m offended by the term ‘breeder’. In fact, I would wear it as a badge of pride. It reminds the world of the high importance I give to procreation, of my beliefs about what the natural law requires, and the fact that I intend to honor these precepts in my life. If Mr. Yglesias wanted to alter the tax code to reduce the child credit then I would be incenced, but the use of the term ‘breeder’? Please. Who cares?
What role do the non-hipster hipsters play in all of this?
Maybe I’ll make up a term for people like Hector—librarians. What? His views have nothing to do with being a librarian? Too bad, I’ll just use it anyway and you can figure out what I mean.
I’m sick of hearing about librarian Jesus.
May 7th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Fuck them other breedaz
May 7th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Matt, in light of the fact that you appear to have a conservative audience now, maybe you should start simplifying your posts? If this “legal insurrection” clown is representative, yikes!
O.T.: why are conservatives so aggressively unfunny?
May 8th, 2009 at 12:50 am
It reminds the world of the high importance I give to procreation, of my beliefs about what the natural law requires
In other news, Hector is still a virgin who says it’s all on account of being an “ascetic”. Of course, Saint Augustine had fucked his way across most of north Africa by the time he was Hector’s age.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:52 am
That was Pseudonymnous in NC trying his ‘Fake Crusader’ sh*t again just to get a rise out of me.
You’re funny, Hector. You’re like this blog’s very own LARPer.
May 8th, 2009 at 6:16 am
Re: Session’s ‘joke’: It’s my lot to actually know some KKK members, and in fact, they do smoke dope. They are lower class (almost typed ‘klass’) idiots, marginal construction guys. Not bright, racist, bigoted, and stoners.
Some of these dudes are into meth, too.
And let me add you can be gay and a breeder: I came to terms with my sexuality after my wife died, and my kids have two construction worker dads. Naturally, we’re not out at work.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Right now I see links to legal insurrection here *and* at Atrios http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/mustard-madness.html and at . I am so fucking jealous. My bet is that legal insurrection is a joke site aiming to get massive massive advertizing revenues via links from liberal sites.
Speeking of reclaiming the word breeders, I understand that in your old neighborhood (roughly my DC geography is shaky) they have an annual tradition called the “17th Street Drag Race”. In the spirit of coming together, why don’t you organize a “Breeders Cup” for the same day.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:02 am
I’ve actually bred, and I think “breeder” is quite funny.
But more importantly–I just realized the Deal twins are almost 48. Which in turn makes me feel very, very old.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I have never heard the term “breeder” used as a slur.
I am, however, accustomed to seeing conservatives pretend to be upset by something so they can pretend to have values.
Occam’s razor.
Done.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
[...] #7: And Matt Y responds to Legal [...]
May 10th, 2009 at 1:30 am
The Deal sisters. Babe city. I am so breeder for the Breeders.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Legal Insurrection is quickly becoming my blog of choice for comic relief. May he never catch on to the fact that *he* is the joke.
C’mon, thinking that the use of “historic” was sincere? This guy is so far out of touch, it’s…*awesome*.
No, I do not care if MSNBC edited out the mustard; compared to FOX, they pull that kind of crap about, I don’t know, one-tenth as often. And there’s always the possibility that they did it just because they wanted to hand conservatives more guns to shoot themselves with.
Conservatives like Jacobson, quite simply, have no sense of humor. In his first post on “Dijongate,” he says MSNBC is Obama’s favorite network, with a link to Kareem Dale, WH Adviser on Disability and Arts and Culture Policies, saying, “At the White House, as we always like to say, we love MSNBC.” Not only is this in response to being introduced by a pundit from MSNBC, but…IT’S A JOKE. Everyone knows MSNBC leans more to the left than the other networks, and of course the administration knows everyone knows this. It’s not a secret or something. Then once “Dijongate” flares up, he makes another post in which he links to a HuffPost article laughing at the conservative reaction, to point out what he thinks is the author’s sincere use of the word “historic” to describe Obama and Biden’s trip to Ray’s Hell Burger.
Oh, my. Wow, wow, … wow.