Great post. I didn't know any of this, but now I see I may have been misinterpreting things with the 12-year-old-boy part of my brain.
Still curious about what others think.
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Can we stop with the balls references already?
- Thread starter ChadTheRat
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Great post. I didn't know any of this, but now I see I may have been misinterpreting things with the 12-year-old-boy part of my brain.
Still curious about what others think.
Nah.
I have more problems with pedals like this infamous Steel Panther one (oh, and this other infamous Steel Panther one) that are aggressively misogynistic.
But as a woman/lesbian? Nah. Someone saying "balls to the wall" or "ballsy" doesn't really get me in a tizzy. Its origins don't even trace back to genitalia, and even if they did...it's slang that's so far removed from its origins that it doesn't even cross my mind. If someone was making **** jokes all the time I probably wouldn't hang out with them, but someone calling my bass tone "ballsy"? A non-issue.
Maybe you could argue that "ballsy" isn't really specific enough to describe tone (there's plenty of actual musical terms you could substitute), but offensive? Nah. And, IMO, trying to change terms like that is what makes people think that more left-leaning people are just overly-PC jerks who are policing language just because they can — it discredits the movement. There's bigger problems to deal with, you know? If it bothers you don't say it.
I have more problems with pedals like this infamous Steel Panther one (oh, and this other infamous Steel Panther one) that are aggressively misogynistic.
But as a woman/lesbian? Nah. Someone saying "balls to the wall" or "ballsy" doesn't really get me in a tizzy. Its origins don't even trace back to genitalia, and even if they did...it's slang that's so far removed from its origins that it doesn't even cross my mind. If someone was making **** jokes all the time I probably wouldn't hang out with them, but someone calling my bass tone "ballsy"? A non-issue.
Maybe you could argue that "ballsy" isn't really specific enough to describe tone (there's plenty of actual musical terms you could substitute), but offensive? Nah. And, IMO, trying to change terms like that is what makes people think that more left-leaning people are just overly-PC jerks who are policing language just because they can — it discredits the movement. There's bigger problems to deal with, you know? If it bothers you don't say it.
I was going to say that. Beat me to it. Nuts.
But, look up the etymology and what these words mean. "Balls" is a word that means many things, not just testicles. For instance, "balls out" doesn't mean what many think it does. Look it up. And even when it does mean testes, it's not literal and has a greater reference to attitude than to anything else. My wife has more balls that I do, for sure.
I had a lengthier response, suffice to say the word has been used as a euphemism for male testes since the 14th Century, and is used as such at every age level from prepubescence to centenarian. It's been a part of the English lexicon for so long, and such a natural and intuitive comparison, that I doubt even a Newspeak-esque legal ban on the use of the word in that context would fully eradicate it. The connotation of maturity on the part of the speaker is entirely context-dependent, and I reiterate that the word is a euphemism, already intended to lessen the shock value of hearing these parts of the anatomy discussed in public.
I'm also pretty over the entire movement to remove all connotation of gender from the English language in the name of making speech as anodyne as possible. It's largely driven by people who will demonstrably find offense in the most innocent, generic message, and as such it is a futile exercise. I see this as little more than yet another pointless discussion in that vein, so I will have no further part in it.
I'm also pretty over the entire movement to remove all connotation of gender from the English language in the name of making speech as anodyne as possible. It's largely driven by people who will demonstrably find offense in the most innocent, generic message, and as such it is a futile exercise. I see this as little more than yet another pointless discussion in that vein, so I will have no further part in it.
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drumvsbass
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Can we stop with using abstract concepts to describe the real world?
Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.
I like more 250hz in my underwear, gives my 1k a nice cushion. (though now having said that some troll will pipe up about how the balls of their bass tone is in some other, and much lower, frequency)
Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.
I like more 250hz in my underwear, gives my 1k a nice cushion. (though now having said that some troll will pipe up about how the balls of their bass tone is in some other, and much lower, frequency)
No, you are way off base.
First off, the OP's critique was not of allusions to aggression, but of references to male genitalia. Second, there is no necessary correlation between masculinity and aggression. Lastly, since when was "substance" a synonym of or adjective for masculinity and aggression? Since never; not in the English language anyway.
If the descriptor needs to have a part of human biology as a referent, I suggest "guts".
Oh good grief. By the time we’re are done all words are going to be considered offensive.
I hate to say this, but as long as we are humans, you are not about to escape this life without getting offended, no matter how many words or terms or words are eliminated, statues torn down, or history books rewritten.
I assure you, thought and speech control is not the answer. It’s been tried and it always results in social failure.
So many things . . .
Don't say it is the least forward thinking comment I've read recently.
I understand your sentiment that there are more important things ( to you ) and this is beneath your thresh hold of ire, but you must understand that others are entitled to their opinion. When it's well voiced, as this one was, with good discourse, which there has been, then it's not harmful. It's not hurting a "cause" and it's certainly better than not saying anything.
Let's rid the world of truck nuts as well, while we're at it. I mean, why is that a thing? Whoever said, "Hey great pickup truck. But it's missing something. I know. A ball sack! Brilliant! 
Besides, it could be referring to a storied member* of a family by that name:
Ed Balls - Wikipedia
* No pun intended.
This is my new favorite quote. Thank you.
Looks like i gotta handfull of spleen!
We dance so well together!
Looks like I got a handfull of spleen!
Oh, make no mistake! I totally think OP's comment is valid! And I didn't mean to discredit their feelings at all. I never said this isn't important, and I did not mean to insinuate that.
But I do think there are instances of people saying "The left doesn't want you to describe your bass tone as ballsy! Can you believe that!!!!!?????" And it's like...that's not what anyone is saying. I haven't given much though to how the term makes me feel; this post made me think about it, and I decided — to me — that it isn't that big of a deal. But I never said that OP's concerns are "beneath me." You invented that.
Let's rid the world of truck nuts as well, while we're at it. I mean, why is that a thing? Whoever said, "Hey great pickup truck. But it's missing something. I know. A ball sack! Brilliant!
Those were outlawed in Maryland. I was in the grocery store a few months ago and bought one of those mesh bags of 3-4 avocados. The mesh caught on a part fo the seat and two avocados slipped and were hanging off the back of the cart in the mesh bag. I didn't even try to do that, but of course, my wife didn't believe that. She was less than amused.
Several years ago, I had to go to traffic school. The instructor said I'm not going to show any bloody car crash videos because people like her (he was pointing to a woman who was probably 4' 11" tall and looked very demure) would get grossed out by the gore. She stood up and said I came here to see the bloody car crash videos. Everybody laughed, including the instructor.
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