Thoughts from the ammo line

Our old friend Ammo Grrrll returns:

With contrived controversy and manufactured outrage flying at warp speed, I am often late to the party. So, I know I’m behind the curve on the Bossy meme. But I’ve got some time waiting for the Holy Grail of .22 LR – CCI Stingers! – to come out, so I’ll weigh in anyhow.

The list of degrading terms for women, the utterance of which can get you read out of the human race, is extensive. Many are understandable – the wretched “c” word; the slightly­less horrific “b” word, slut, skank, ho (unless you’re a rap artist).

First they came for those nouns. And Good Riddance.

Then they expanded the list at dizzying speed to include the mildly offensive, the benign,
and the frankly puzzling: broad, chick, girl, gal, ladies, (yes! Ladies!) and so on.
This led to hilarious articles in radical 60’s newsrags in which little 12­year­old girls were
referred to as women. Which probably came as welcome news to Jerry Lee Lewis, Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.

Alas, your old­fashioned country gentleman Dad could not stop using “ladies.”

And clueless Mom just outright refused to give up “coffee with the gals.” Poor Mom who bore six kids and worked in a defense plant and knitted mittens for the troops and planted a Victory Garden and canned her own vegetables, and was always chosen first for sand­lot baseball – well, she just didn’t have TIME to realize what a downtrodden, politically incorrect, embarrassment she was. She didn’t even realize she was an Entitled Victim!

And now, they’ve come for the adjectives.

Womyn celebrities, far richer and more important than you, have declared that female persons of any age cannot be called Bossy. Ever again. Just in time for Hillary’s second run. (Sadly, last time pigment trumped plumbing.)

Evidently, all little girls and even highly­paid female executives cannot be called Bossy without crushing their fragile egos and squelching their leadership potential. In fact, there is no such thing as a Bossy woman or pre­woman, even if one of the bossy celebrity scolds is hellbent on forcing school lunch­ladies to offer nothing but Lima Bean and Liver Surprise with a side of Kale.

My old Irish grandpa used to say, “You throw a stone into a pack of dogs, and the one that barks the loudest is the one you hit.” Is there a chance that someone who objects to being CALLED Bossy, actually IS Bossy? Is there a chance that where there’s smoke, there’s a big fat raging fire?

Perhaps we could settle this with a working definition of “bossy”? Well, let’s hear it. And if bossiness exists, why in heaven’s name can it not apply equally to males and females?

In the real world, there is such a thing as “leadership” – a platoon leader who leads by example, by not asking others to take risks he or she is not willing to take, by making sure everyone knows you’ve got their back; Or an executive who seeks input from others, draws out the shy person, doesn’t demand credit, but does take responsibility.

And then there is Bossy: insecure, imperious, quarrelsome, demanding, ungrateful, pompous, nasty. Riding roughshod over others. Enjoys humiliating people and ordering them about. And guess what? We know the difference.

If you don’t know bossy people of both genders (she said heteronormatively), then, like the President, you haven’t ever had a job. The best and worst boss I’ve ever had were both women. One was brilliant and hard­working; tough, but fair; demanding perfection and modeling it; asking much, but expressing appreciation. A Leader par excellence. She served for decades.

The other was petty, lazy, dishonest, incompetent and mean. And those were her good points. She was also bossy. She lasted a few months.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses