Dear Oxford University Press: Get a clue about “teabagging”
I’ve linked in previous years to the word of the year announcement by Oxford University Press. It’s usually good fun and water cooler-worthy.
Today, OUP unveiled 2009′s word of the year: “Unfriend.”
But it was one of the runner-up words that caught my eye:
“Teabagger.”
Yes, they chose “teabagger” and defined it thusly:
teabagger -a person, who protests President Obama’s tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as “Tea Party” protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773)
Hello?
The “teabagger”/”teabagging” terminology is a vulgar smear of the Tea Party movement — smugly invoked by “respected” journalists such as Anderson Cooper, easily accessible in urban slang dictionaries, and now derogatorily adopted by the Commander-in-Chief himself.
Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi had no shame in spelling out the crude sexual allusion. I am reprinting what he wrote about the Tea Party movement — and my reporting on it — back in April. Language warning:
I have to say, I’m really enjoying this whole teabag thing. It’s really inspiring some excellent daydreaming. For one thing, it’s brought together the words teabag and Michelle Malkin for me in a very powerful, thrilling sort of way. Not that I haven’t ever put those two concepts together before, but this is the first time it’s happened while in the process of reading her actual columns.
Previously Michelle Malkin’s writing was on the edge of unreadable; she’s sort of like Ann Coulter, only without that tiny fraction of P.T. Barnum/Mick Jagger-esque self-promotional flair that makes Coulter at least vaguely interesting. When you read Ann Coulter, you know you’re reading someone who would fuck a hippopotamus if she thought it would boost her Q rating. That’s a rare quality and it commands one’s attention.
Michelle Malkin doesn’t have that. She’s just a mean little dunce who’s wedged herself into a nicely paying career as a GOP spokesclown, and she’s going to ride that gig for as long as it keeps gas in her minivan.
And that’s fine, good for her. But that doesn’t make her readable. However, this move of hers to spearhead the teabag movement really adds an element to her writing that wasn’t there before. Now when I read her stuff, I imagine her narrating her text, book-on-tape style, with a big, hairy set of balls in her mouth. It vastly improves her prose.
Either Oxford University Press approves of this language or its editors and staff are completely ignorant.
Neither option reflects well on the institution.
People who make a living in words should really get a clue about the words they purport to define for the rest of the world.
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Googling “tea bag” isn’t much better, unfortunately. Sadly, the profane definition seems to outweigh even the original reference.
Historically speaking, linking a “tea bag” with the original tea party is inaccurate since tea bags were not invented until the 20th century.
There’s not much defense for the leftist spin and very deliberate choice in using this connotation. It’s crude and only the willfully ignorant would insist that there’s no offense intended.
For some people world revolves around “President Obama”.
I vote for “clueless”.
And its just not Obama, it is all the corrupt and out of touch folks in DC.
The line between trying to seem intellectually cool in the “progressive” sense and simple sneering is very thin indeed.
Someone once put the debate between a liberal and a conservative thusly: the conservative outlines his or her thinking, then sits down; after which the liberal stands up, grins, moons the conservative, sits down again while still grinning, and waits for the audience applause to begin.
There’s nothing in this story to make me think that the analogy above is even a little bit off the mark.
Well… if they insist on a work with “bag” in it…
.
.
.
Scum-Bag – (n.) A liberal, Democrat or supporter of liberal ideals.
I vote for leftist approval. I’m guessing that former Pres. Clinton, Oxford University alumnus, approves.
Boy, did I have fun trying to explain the T-Bag terminology to my 76 year old Mom. Yeesh! She won’t be using that word anymore.
And “Birthers” are “Conspiracy theorists”?
What’s wrong with wanting to see the Long Form BC… the one that actually proves where he was born, rather than the COLB, which only proves where his birth was registered? How much would YOU pay to prevent the release of your LFBC? Obummer is up to $1.2 million now, I think.
Maybe Mr. Matt Taibbi would like to meet ol’ Trav for some high ‘tea’. I could read to him from the book of common sense and decency. I guarantee you he would never think of Michelle in vulgar terms again. In fact he would bow in reverence when I got done b*tch slapping his a$$ back to where he comes from. Sorry Michelle, but I take serious offense to such vulgar attacks on a young mother and and wonderful role model as yourself. Keep it up. You obviously scare the hell out of them.
I heard an idea last week that I think sounds good. In response to the fact that Teabagger is accepted vernacular, we should come up with a similiarly disgusing euphamism to describe the Statist agenda. There was mention of a tossed salad. Anyhow, I don’t mean to be crude, but the lefts response to the Tea Party movement sickens me. Marginalize, radicalize, and degrade your opponent with ad-hominenm attacks rather than have a principled debate. I’ll get over their rudeness once the Tea Party movement sweeps them to power. Plus, those idiots fail to respect the historical significance of the Tea Party revolt in Boston. They are fine disparaging us and the partiots that stuck it to king George way back when.
This is, sadly, what passes for analysis in the liberal world; crude and debased invective is about the best they can muster. They aren’t able to produce genuine, reasoned debate, and almost every liberal, when confronted with the self-contradictory nature of their infantile “opinions”, will resort to precisely this tactic, once their self-righteous flailing at windmills exhausts them.
Teabagging Expert Anderson Cooper is one of the people that worked this derogatory term into the MSM meme on the Tea Party participants.
Just picture Teabagging Expert Anderson Cooper explaining it to his colleagues who don’t participate in Anderson’s sexual parties. The giggles of Cooper were informative.
This was not an accident with Oxford University Press, perhaps they will be embarrassed by the revelation… Probably not…
Ya’ll gotta remember, most libtard/progressives are living alternate lifestyles (meaning they’re gay) and as such are obsessed with genitals and how they are used, so I’m not surprised when they use the term “teabagger” in reference to their hatred for conservatives, since they are generally projecting their own proclivities.
Actually, both could be true.
Liberals and “journalists” who use the term teabagger obviously have an obsession with the concept. They can’t get it off of their minds or out of their mouths.
Both meanings should have been detailed.
The word ‘gay’ has taken on additional meaning. This is much ado about very little. So what, the term has more than one meaning.
It’s a little hard to watch — I’m embarrassed for them. The pathetic image of their sophomoric snickering, thinking they’ve somehow “pulled one over” on conservatives, oblivious to what fools they’ve revealed themselves to be, evokes the urge to avert my gaze from their wrenching self-humiliation.
The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773. The first tea bag was patented in 1903. Todays Tea Partiers are celebrating the earlier event. You would expect a group as prestigious as the Oxford Univerity Press to get their histerical facts straight.
It’s intentional. Universities are mostly controlled by lefties, and they now control dictionary content. I was shocked when I first found swearwords in my American Heritage dictionary in the 1970s. It made sense when I saw Gloria Steinem listed as an advisor to the dictionary company.
Institutions attempting to publish denotation should avoid connotation.
Tea Party protesters do not use this term to define themselves. OUP neglected to include that this term is used by opponents of these protests and not in common vernacular.
They were cautious enough when defining “death panel” as a “theoretical” body.
Looks like Oxford is going/has gone the way of Harvard and Yale. Drifting down into irrelevance and oblivion.
I have never heard of nor read anything by Mr. Taibbi. And I know nothing about his family situation. However, I hope Mr. Taibbi is blessed with many daughters who will grow up and be able to read the the things their father wrote for public view.
I am sure his parents are very proud of him, too.
It is a VERY offensive term. And I am angry every time I hear liberals use it…
I am not sure even people here understand it… I hope I am not offending when I post the definition…
THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT US EVERYTIME THEY CALL US THAT!
link
Hillary probably disapproves. No word yet from a host of third-parties…
Hello, Oxford Rowing Club? I have one chest of tea to deliver.
Once you really understand the meaning, you can be INCENSED at the use of it in this sentence!
Mr. Taibbi, look up douchebag. You will see a picture of your face as a facimile. Sorry folks, it just those smug a$$es that make me want to hurl!
Mr. Taibbi is ill and if Rolling Stone still employs him they are not much better.
When I see the hate by the liberals directed at conservatives making a latch ditch effort to stave off disaster I am reminded of delinquent teenagers spewing invective at their parents for trying to keep them from destroying their lives with one bad decision after another. What I am wondering is at whom will they direct their hate when this country falls apart? As his profanity laced commentary won’t be in very high demand what will Matt Taibbi and the like think when they find themselves competing with Mexicans (er, undocumented Americans)for what few jobs remain and the federal budget has been forcibly slashed and supposedly “guaranteed” entitlement spending has evaporated ? Note Matt: that means no free health care for you or anyone else. No one will be spared their foul mouthed attacks as their liberal fantasy world crumbles and they will turn on each other. It will add some comic relief to what otherwise will be decidedly non-humorous times.
If someone is a teabagger there is someone else getting teabagged. In this case it’s Oxford University Press.
Me suspects Mr. Taibbi has teabag envy syndrome, dried up, shriveled, useless.
Why do you all let people who you would never introduce to your mother define the use of your language. The favorite socialist trick (as I remember from grade school in the 50′s) is to label a perjorative idea with a previously plus-word to change the public distaste for the idea. The press is often the perpatrators of this, but special groups do this also. Similar to the descriptive “gay” to describe homosexuals and lesbians so they don’t feel bad, an even scummier part of our society has applied a perjorative meaning to “teabagger”.
In the case of the word “gay” I think that the PC publishers should renamd Cornelia Otis Skinner’s book to “When our hearts were young and homosexual/lesbian”. They stole the word and penalized the rest of us for using it correctly. They have done the same with teabagger.
Several years ago, Henry Bellmon, the frst Oklahoma Republican Governor started a campaign to use the word “OKIE” to describe Oklahomans. Many wore gold OKIE pins. This wasn’t political, but a way to instill some pride in a poor state. As soon as a Democrat was elected Governor, the word OKIE became a bad thing and all allusions were forbidden.
Let us all be teabaggers as we, not some television scum or perverts define it. It is still our word. It is still the British word – they obvioulsy don’t have their minds in the gutter like some of the Americans do.
Taibbi: You sir are a disgusting little puke.
Is commie, pinko, queer still applicable?
isn’t it amazing so many on the left know and understand what this means in gay parlance.
I get what you are trying to say here about not allowing liberals to control the language. However, in the case of “teabagger”, I would argue that there is not a non-perjorative definition or certainly not one used in common language. In what innocent context would you apply the term? Certainly no one was referencing “teabaggers” as people prior to the vulgar usage.
Being one of the earlier attendees to a tea party, one of the important memes was to show up with tea or a teabag to send to our congress crrtters. I remember the local radio stastion furnished teabags to those that didn’t have them. This teabag thing was fairly spontaneous. In fact, when the teabags showed up in congressional offices, the beltway idiots thought they were weapons of Mass Destruction and had them destroyed.
At the time I thought “teaparty” and “teabagger” was quite appropriate, as one who attended. In my ignorance, I was not as worldly as the east and left coast people. Doesn’t “teabagger” really sound better in this usage than “teapartier” or “terrorist”? In this country, tea bags have existed a long time, but I admit, not so long as scrotums of homosexuals. Since the homosexual population realisticly is abour 1-2% of the population, the conservative/libertarion part of the population is about 60%. Why should the extreme minority get the word?
In fact the English do not like tea bags, because the bag does not really brew the best tea. The tea has to be ground up for a teabag, but the English like long cut tea. So teabag is generally considered to be a term for Amertican type tea.
Oh, and another thing, Mr. Taibbi. I doubt MM drives a minivan.
My daydream is seeing her drive by you in her gas guzzling Hummer H2 at 65 MPH, while you cower on the shoulder of the road at 10 MPH on your eco-friendly put-put moped, while she is on the way to the bank to cash her New York Times #1 bestseller paycheck.
I can’t believe the NYT didn’t cover for him and leave that word out.
Excellent! Or how about:
Tired-Old-Bag – (n.) A female liberal, Democrat
(Syn: “Nancy Pelosi”)
See also:
Senator-Tired-Old-Bag – (n.) A female liberal aka “Barbara Boxer”
(Syn: Olympia Snowe)
In the comments section of this same piece by Taibbi, he posts the following:
So after 8 months of reported abuses, mismanagement and millions of jobs not saved or created I’d say it is fairly obvious thet the reviled “teabaggers” were right about the stimulus. Who besides Joe Biden and a handful of closeted number-crunchers actually believes it has benefited this country or made any improvement to the economy? And he is actually paid to write his thoughts on politics?
it’s easy to realize Mr. Taibbi’s thought process when he’s eating a hot dog. if he started to gag on it, it would probably excite him.
Mission Accomplished.
That is what vulgar people do-let the heathen rage-Clintons, Gore, Oxford University Press, Obamas and their chum bucket city buddies-rage on. Call me a teabaggger, right wing extremist, gun nut, coconut-I wear them with pride. And if the situation is right I just might sucker punch the clown, hit him-or her-when they are down and ask: Cup of tea?
It took awhile but that first tea party took on what some might call Alternative Protests. There is little doubt in my mind that will be a repeat. It is easier to have an Alternative Protest against people you really hate.
Let the heathens rage.
Yes I know the Brits do not like tea bags. They can not make a decent cup of coffee either. So be glad we had the Alternative Protest or we never would have a decent cup of coffee or learn to speak English-the Brits sure can’t.
Buenas noches teabaggers.
BTW, Old Country Boy writes like a moby.
Why don’t we just swarm wikipedia and force that site to accept “AIDS-infected anal sex” as the definition for Oxford? These guys are supposed to represent the smartest and most sophisticated of British society? They should know better.
Know how Rock Hudson contracted AIDS? Too many Oxfords.
*I am part of the Tea Party Nation here in Tennessee, and the smear words role off me like water off of a ducks’ back; I have a new meaning for tea bagger; Taxed Enough Already and now going to Target and Bag all the Democrats and RINO’s I can in 2010 by supporting conservative candidates nationwide; Target ‘em and Bag ‘em; It’s on!
They strike me as plain old ignorant snobs.
And Matt Taibbi is a “no talent” ignoramus. I’m sure his next gig will staring along side Levi Johnston in some sort of “artsy” film.
Al in St Lou – I had to look it up because I am so square I had never heard of it. You disagree with me so you accuse me of being a troll? I think I have been around the net enough, as we know it today, so that most people know that I am relatively conservative – fiscally conservative and socially somewhat libertarian.
I try to write well to get the idea across. However, a bad idea held by a conservative gets just as much attention as a bad idea held by a liberal. Bad ideas are not respectors of political philosophy. And, for the rest of you, a good idea, however inelegantly expressed, is still a good idea (Alfred Jules Ayer, University College, London)
Zorro – being ignorant doesn’t make you a slob. Not changing you underwear does, though.
Our language is euphemistically referred to as “English”. Maybe the Oxford dons (in Angleterre, England, Albion) know more about it than you. They just might not be up on the latest colonial trash words.
Oy, claiming that “teabagger” is a great label and implying that we should try to take it back sounds just like something a left-winger would do while telling his friends, “Look how dumb those wingnuts are!”
I’m just calling it as I see it.
al in St lou – If you worry what left wingers think of you, then you truly are of the modern generation. To you appearances appear (pun) to be more important than fact. BTW, you seem awfully familiar with the trashy meaning of the word. What sort of crowd do you run with? Have you introduced them to your mother?
I say leave the term “teabaggers” to the homo-erotically obsessed, like Matt Taibbi, Anderson Cooper and Chris Mathews.
They can be the Teabaggers, we’ll be the Tea Partiers (like the original patriots back in 1773).
The irony is that those citizens being labeled this disgusting term that Taibbi apparently has so much knowledge about, didn’t have a clue what it meant until CNN, MSNBC, David Letterman and the rest embraced it and apparently believed it was ‘amusing’.
It shouldn’t surprise us coming from the Democrats, as we fondly recall President Clinton’s impressive behavior in the oval office and how it educated our young teens on the terminology and act that ‘wasn’t actually sex’. It added an additional reality to our children’s lives that cannot be under played. Well done. We now know that both President Obama and President Clinton are embracing the ‘teabagger’ term to describe those that do not agree with their socialist policies.
We’ve come a long way, baby… Class acts.
Never forget: If you lose your language, you lose your history, which is exactly what the socialist/liberals want.
If we are the “TEABAGGERS”… which means WE are the ones putting something in the liberals mouths… then doesn’t that make liberals the TEABAGGED???
Why don’t we start referring to Pelosi and Obama as the TEABAGGED???
I like the sound of that!
Matt Taibbi wrote:
I wonder how many #1 bestsellers Mr. Taibbi has written?
My own strong feeling, and I believe there are one or two posts supporting the notion, is that we should own the word and let it go at that. The left has the maturity of school yard bullies and as long as they know they can irritate us and cause offense they will continue at it. Own the word and they won’t know what to do with themselves.
So here I am, with my middle finger high in the air, getting the ball rolling by saying loud and proud to the bastards, “Teabag this!”
They have to use these terms. They have nothing to counter our ideas and we are currently, soundly and repeatedly, kicking their “single point of contact.”
We have the initiative, we have the momentum, we have seized the Marketplace of Ideas. We need to stay focused and keep hammering away.
I doubt it. They are just ignoant slobs, plain and simple.
Matt Taibbi called MM a “GOP spokesclown”? That’s the most unkindest cut of all!
zorro – some people are born wise, some otherwise. I think you fit into the latter category. Can’t you get off of calling highly educated people who deal with language everyday “ignorant slobs” just because they don’t know your bathroom idiom? Their job is not to tittilate the Holden Caufields of this world, but to serve as a clearinghouse of appropriate English words. However, I suspect they don’t care that you think they are ignorant or don’t change their underwear.
Having a #1 Bestseller, no matter who wrote it, is not a strong indicator of talent. It just means that enough people bought a possibly horrid book to make it #1.
Michelle might be a great read. Dan Brown is not, and a bajillion people bought the unreadable Da Vinci Code.
Either way, Matt Taibbi probably doesnt care. He’s just happy to get noticed in amongst all the Seagram’s ads in that craptastic magazine.
Old Country Boy, you are wrong and Al is right.
That you do not see this is a reflection on your lack of common sense.
Or, as has been speculated here already, you are a troll.
Googling through several articles, it appears the “Word of the Year” is chosen by Americans.
Some UK citizens may be involved, but it’s handled through the Oxford University Press USA as a promotional gimmick for the New Oxford American Dictionary.
Rebecca Ford (senior OUP blog editor) sees it as a good time to cause a few giant ripples in the blogosphere.
I totally agree. I am incensed when I hear anyone using this term to describe people who are using their right as an American to descent.
I don’t agree that we should find a term to use on the left. Vulgar is vulgar.
“in allusion to” not “an allusion to”?
***
Long ago in the Army I heard the term HUM JOB and wondered what it was. Another soldier explained that it was a Marine Corps term for a perverted “tea bag” trick done while the person–of either sex–performing it hummed the FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA tune the Gyrines like.
***
Sometimes military service “broadens” your horizons! Let’s lose this term.
***
John Bibb
***
Of course a sh*t-stabber would use a term like ‘teabagger’
Calling a Tea Party member a “teabagger” is equivalent to calling Obama “boy”.
Petty is as petty does. Class always rises to the top. Then again, when considering much of what you post OMU, that pretty much excludes you.