[LouieG]

I'll get right down to it: There's a lotta bitchassness going on these days.

Time was, men (shit, probably women too) were properly ashamed of going public with their bitchassness. If you were pussy enough to complain about seeing an impolite word, or reading an impolitic column, or overhearing a conversation that didn't comport exactly with your moral/ethical leanings, you got roundly mocked for being a dripping vaj, and then everyone moved on with their lives. Victimhood wasn't some celebrated state to which people could aspire.

Fast forward to 2013. Now we got a whole media sector dedicated to propping up bitchasses and providing them a platform to broadcast to the entire world their trumped up grievances/bitchassness. Seems like every day I read another story telling the sad tale of some sniveling bitchass, and all I ever do is shake my head in disbelief.

RVF has done a good job chronicling the Ascent of the Bitchass, but unfortunately the story is scattered across—ballparking here—hundreds of threads. Here's just a small sampling:

—Female judge sends Chad Johnson to jail to cover up being laughed at

—Girl Finds Men's Forum Dissecting Her OKC Profile, Keeps Hamstering

—Feminist complains on twitter about lack of female protags at E3

—Woman Uses Facebook To Publicly Shame Alleged Cheater

—TO feminist meet up group complains

—The bottom of America found (from Heartiste, but a perfect fit)

—Annoying FB Page Worth Trolling: Women's Rights News

—Lindy West responds

—No women on British banknotes, Feminists not happy about this

—Little Girl Ruins Teacher's Life

—Wikipedia Editors = He-Man Woman Haters


All these threads share a common theme—bitchassness, obviously—but their impact is blunted by scattering them all across the forum. So my suggestion is we have one thread (a la the online girl hamster thread) dedicated to recognizing and ridiculing bitchassness, wherever it occurs and in whatever form it takes. Eventually, we'd have a centralized, easy-to-reference series of profiles in bitchassness.

And because I also believe strongly that way more threads need mascots to convey their essence and encourage an esprit de corps among the participants, I've created a thread mascot that draws inspiration from two of bitchassness's staunchest opponents:

With Putin looking over, my hope is this thread will become a safe space to call a spade a spade, and a bitchass a bitchass. Whenever I come across a fresh instance of bitchassness, I'll add a link or a write-up, and the record will be that much richer if others do the same.

Here's one to get things started:

[LouieG]

Quote:

Fraternity at University of Chicago involved in racist, homophobic prank

You can already tell this is gonna be a stretch when you see the headline with that word "involved." Can't get any more mealy-mouthed and meaningless than that. Let's imagine some equivalent headlines:

Steubenville girl involved in gang rape

Florida teen Trayvon Martin involved in racially-motivated killing

20 Newtown elementary schoolers involved in horrific mass shooting

If, as an editor or reporter, the strongest verb you can run is "involved," that's a real good indication you don't actually have a story. But let's continue.

Quote:

U.S. Postal carrier Iran Becton doesn’t take kindly to being the butt of a frat joke.

He’s insulted that members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at the University of Chicago were involved in a racist prank that had him needlessly dragging postal supply boxes up to doors of their frat house at 56th and University.

The [postal supply boxes] — all 79 of them — were addressed to “Reggin Toggaf.” Written backward, the first name is a racial slur. The last name is a slur for gay men.

The facts, as pulled from the article:

1) A fraternity received a big shipment of collapsed shipping boxes, the type you can order for free from many shipping companies. It took the letter carrier "6 or 7" trips to carry them all from his truck to the frat house. The boxes were addressed to "Reggin Toggaf," which is "nigger faggot" spelled backwards.

2) The boxes were sent to the frat as a joke. It's unclear who sent them, but it probably wasn't a member of the frat.

From that, the writer concludes that Iran Becton, the African-American letter carrier who delivered the boxes, was the "butt" of a racist prank. Becton himself feels the same.

Look, it sucks that the letter carrier had to deal with this juvenile bullshit, but if he was the target of this prank, then Ted Kaczynski was beefing with the postal service. Those anthrax letters sent back in 2001 to Tom Brokaw and Tom Daschle were actually intended for the postman. Every dick pic I send is actually intended for Verizon Wireless.

But clearly, Iran Becton was not the target of this joke. The frat bros who received the boxes were. Becton just happened to see the name on the shipment. That may seem blindingly obvious, but the article in the Chicago Sun-Times barely acknowledges it. Mary Mitchell, the writer, treats the frat bros like they tracked down some black guy and called him a "niggerfaggot."

Quote:

Meanwhile, the fraternity’s mail delivery has been put on hold until the fraternity sends a written apology to the letter carrier.

This is 2/3 of the way through the article, and sweet jesus, talk about burying the lede! The frat's mail delivery has been discontinued because they received a package addressed to a name the letter carrier didn't like. Is this standard operating procedure at USPS? Cause it seems completely illegal, but also—now that I think of it—kinda useful.

I'm in a business where physical mail is still central to operations. It would really help me if my competitors' delivery was cut off for a week or two, and I can think of some names way more offensive that "Reggin Toggaf." So if I send them a big shipment addressed to ammI moorhsum pmats ruoy amdnarg… this could have real potential.

Quote:

“I was humiliated,” said Becton [about the incident].

Here's where the bitchassness really kicks in. What sort of man admits to being hurt by the mere sight of two words which appeared with zero context and weren't intended for him anyway? And not only admits to it, but talks about it with a columnist at a major daily newspaper and then poses for a five-photo slideshow of himself staring butthurtedly into the camera?

Even supposing Becton had a legit complaint, he's taking one step forward and ten back by running and tattling to the press. Or, he would be, if our society still scorned bitchassness the way it ought.

As it stands, this Becton guy will be the darling du jour of the oppression-industrial complex, and warm himself in its spotlight for a few days, until a yet-more-unfortunate soul steps bravely forth to report another vague and vanishing offense.

——

Anyway, if the frat bros had known the score, they would've pre-empted all this by immediately claiming victimhood themselves, before the story ever hit the papers. They would've told the university administration and the press and anyone else who would listen how upset they were by their exposure to those repugnant words. Instead, they probably shrugged it off and went back to flip cup.

Lesson learned: Those who live their lives with the least measure of perspective are forever at the mercy of bitchasses looking for controversy.

[WesternCancer]

Relevant video to the above story

[Wadsworth]

Sometimes it really does seem relentless.