Sticks and stones my break my bones. . .

Yikes! Okay, so I really suck at updating, but that's okay because no one is reading this anyway.

Just got back from a road trip, and it occurs to me that I use language pejorative to women a lot when I drive. It's automatic for me to use such as "pussy-assed driver" and "douchebag." While I realized their roots are sexist, as a woman, I'm not offended when someone uses those words most of the time. Is insult in the eye of the beholder?

Some of this speaks to the recent Perez Hilton/Will.I.Am spat where Hilton claims called W.I.A. a "faggot" knowing that it would be a wounding insult to W.I.A. to call him a homosexual. Many communities have struggled with claiming back depreciatory labels that have once been used to marginalize them and instead using them to empower themselves. It seems the debate on "nigger" comes up every few years as the African-American community debates on its usage. The Gay community has done the same with "faggot." Third-wave feminists would probably make the same argument for "cunt" and the words I use above.

I've never sat right with the "I can use it because I am it" because it seems hypocritical. And yet, as a woman, as an Asian, I have rationalized my usage of "cunt" (in extreme cases), "douchebag" (which is my new replacement for "asshole"), and "slanty-eyes" (only in reference to me). Of course there is also the side that is, if I'm amongst friends, be they female or Asian, I know their words are used with affection although they might be completely insulting my mother and my parentage. Obviously we're not always politically correct or refined and are familial and casual with friends and family.

But is keeping it out there, using the pejorative terms, perpetuating the underlying sexism, racism, prejudices that still exist in our society. What do we do about it? Does this fall into moral relativism where usage can only be reflective of intent and in context or is there a universal standard that says usage, regardless of context, is detrimental and only serves to further embed these prejudices into our collective subconscious.