Hit me with your PC stick: Breeders

[stephbg]

[Poll #1365260]

I might point out that the appropriate term for breeding females here would be "queens" :-)

Granted, the fathers often get the short end of the nomenclature stick with "tom" for example, (or "lunch") but perhaps we could go for the more flattering "sire".

Comments

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Yes, unbelievably offensive. Have always thought so. I do not listen to anyone who uses this phrase as it is the equivalent signal of stupidity as any racial slur or class based slur.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Funny thing was, once a upon a time this term never bothered me (because all creatures breed). That was, until a bunch of anti-child gay Furry men I knew started using it as an insult, reducing those who wanted to have kids to nothing more than brood mares continuing the species. It was aimed at the female members of the fandom more than the males. The term now makes me feel like I'm being turned into a walking incubator.

[babalon-93.livejournal.com]

I have chosen other, because I do find it offensive, but more in the way that I would think less of the person who used it rather than see it as a slight against myself :)

But context and intent does matter to me, so I may have equally chosen "no, but only because you said it".

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I dithered. I picked "yes, absolutely" then changed it to 'No, because it was you," and then changed it back to "yeah, absolutely."

So, um, yeah. Absolutely.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

The literal meaning is a simple fact, but I've seen it used pejoratively in discussions on some US-centric steampunk comms, so I'd have been been reticent to use the term myself even before seeing your poll results.

Had I witnessed you using the term before today I'd have just assumed you were being quirkily scientific.

Utopia vs reality

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

It's accurate, therefore nobody should be offended. The unfortunate reality is that many people will (choose to) be offended by labels, even if they are accurate. This leads to the labels gaining an intrinsic power to cause offence. I believe the world would be a much happier place if people would stop managing to find so many ways to be offended.

Reminds me of hearing about a kid writing "Ms X sucks cocks" on a class board. My initial thought was that that's not much of an insult. She probably does. The negated version of the statement is probably a better candidate for being insulting but, either way, it's just a personal choice.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

"Breeder" - one who breeds.
"To breed" - to reproduce, produce offpring etc.

Seems like a reasonable definition to me. ;)

NB : The term "breeder" is used as a vaguely derogatory term sometimes by the childfree crowd - which I closely identify with. (There are plenty of more deliberately offensive terms used however.)

Actually, now I think about it. "Breeder" is generally used by the CF crowd to indicate somebody who unthinkingly has children and/or does not raise them well. Two terms often used are "BNP" (Breeder, not parent) and "PNB" (Parent, not Breeder - somebody who has thought about the ramifications of having a child and is doing all they can to raise another decent citizen).

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

I have only heard it used offensively, but I've never noticed you use it and I know you wouldn't mean it to be so.

Surprised!

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

I am only familiar with it as a derogatory term from the gay community - applied equally to straights of either gender.

Hearing it as a specific description of one whose has carried a child is shocking in the sense that it breaks my preconceptions of the term in that context.

Congratulations on your very own 'shock-jock' moment.

[krjalk.livejournal.com]

I'm somewhat surprised I seem to be in the minority here in not finding it a big deal. Perhaps I'm just reclaiming the word a la "nigger" or "geek".

I have bred. Multiple times, I'm bloody proud of it, and would seem to produce rather stunning results. If we had the money, we'd do it again in a heartbeat (donations and stipends gratefully accepted. Really, it's for the good of the gene pool). Like Merete said when I read this post to her, if someone can't speak of the concept without a curled lip and ostentatious display of contempt, that's their problem, not ours. If they utter the word "parent" with a spit, how is it substantially different?

I know several people who use the term to describe themselves and other parents. I suspect, like I said in the first paragraph, that the term may be undergoing a reclamation process. We wouldn't use the term at a school P&C meeting, but there can be a sense of solidarity in using it informally. Despite my attempted linkage, its usage is fundamentally different to the n-word in that it's not a symbol of institutionalized oppression. It's a lot easier to shrug off or subvert if it can just be viewed instead as a marker of an individual's intolerance rather than society's.