Henry Imler June 23rd, 2008

While I completely get the fluidity of language and what is important in a word is its intended meaning, I can’t help but agree with Maeve here when she says:

But while “pimping” a ride or a wardrobe may have become an acceptable usage, “to pimp” when applied to a woman is still the unlovely practice of sending her out to be a whore…

…For some of us pimp will always be an ugly, unacceptable word for any use other than to describe a trafficker in women. Younger people may not understand what the fuss is about. As Jesse Sheidlower says in a Slate article on the subject, “you can’t make someone feel a certain way about a word.”

To some extent, the gentrification of the word pimp can be said to be a generational thing, but it also carries cultural undertones. A dictum of General Semantics is that we see what we say. Language colors our view of the world. Pimps exploit, abuse, and degrade women. What kind of cultural perspective enables pimp to evolve into an inoffensive word?

(From When Did “Pimp” Become a Positive Term?)

• Ethics , Philosophy
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