Rep. Michelle DuBois wants to remove a statehouse sign that reads "General Hooker Entrance" because it is an affront to "women's dignity."
Here's a twist on the debate over public monuments to problematic figures like Confederate leaders: A Massachusetts state lawmaker wants to censor references to a man who scored Civil War era wins against the Confederacy. Her reasoning? That man's name is Joseph Hooker.
As we're all aware, General Hooker's last name became slang for "someone who has sex for money." Today, "hooker" is widely considered a slur by folks in the sex-work community. Yet as far as I'm aware, there have't been any sex worker campaigns to remove references to Joseph Hooker from public view—presumably because most well-adjusted people realize that words have different meanings in different contexts.
"There are all sorts of benign words in our language that sound like words unfit for polite company," writes Jon Keller at CBS Boston, offering Uranus and clap as further examples. "And they offer us an opportunity to teach snickering kids about Civil War history or outer space—and about showing respect for others while avoiding making fools of ourselves."
State Rep. Michelle DuBois (D-Plymouth) disagrees. She has been calling for the removal of a statehouse sign that reads "General Hooker Entrance" (so inscribed because it stands opposite a statue of General Hooker), which she described as an affront to "women's dignity."
"Female staffers don't use that entrance because the sign is offensive to them," DuBois told WBZ-TV this week.
If that isn't the ultimate in futile, fainting-couch feminism, I'm not sure what is.
DuBois also complained that she had heard teen boys joke with teen girls that they were "general hookers" while using the door.
Of course, DuBois is positioning herself as a crusader against sex-based harassment and patriarchy. But attitudes like hers—which treat women as excessively fragile beings, and which posit that female "dignity" is diminished by even so slight an association with sex work as walking under a door that says "hooker"—just props up old-fashioned and patriarchal ideas about sex and gender. Michelle DuBois @RepDuBois
R U a “General Hooker”? Of course not!
Yet the main entrance of the Mass State House says otherwise.#Metoo it’s not all about rape & harassment but also women’s dignity
A “funny” double entendres misrepresented as respect for a long dead general?
1 Keep statue
2 Take sign down
CORRECTION: A previous version of this post stated that Hooker had famously defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee in battle, when it's really the other way around. (We should have paid more attention to those Ken Burns documentaries after all.) The opening paragraph has been edited to remove this reference.
#1: Pinguinite To: Deckard (#0)
My understanding is that the use of the term "hooker" as an alias for prostitute originated with General Hooker, as he was known to have prostitutes travel with his army for troop morale purposes.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-03-17 11:17:33 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: Deckard (#0)
Then simply change the sign to read "General Joseph Hooker Entrance".
Come on, people.
misterwhite posted on 2018-03-17 11:21:12 Reply Private Reply
#3: A K A Stone To: Pinguinite (#1)
A K A Stone posted on 2018-03-17 12:08:30 Reply Private Reply
#4: Vicomte13 To: A K A Stone (#3)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-03-17 12:31:04 Reply Private Reply
#5: A K A Stone To: Vicomte13 (#4)
A K A Stone posted on 2018-03-17 12:41:45 Reply Private Reply
#6: Vicomte13 To: A K A Stone (#5)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-03-17 13:35:50 Reply Private Reply
#7: sneakypete To: Deckard (#0)
The question HAS to be asked of her "Is this because you are a discrete hooker,and think you are being discriminated against?"
Assuming of course you can find someone that can make her comprehend the meaning of the word "discrete". She's liable to think it's a type of concrete.
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-17 17:20:56 Reply Private Reply
#8: Tooconservative To: misterwhite (#2)
Why is it necessary to have a name for the main door of the Masshole legislature to begin with?
Just call it "the front door" or "the main entrance" and take that stupid looking sign down.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-03-17 23:42:57 Reply Private Reply
#9: Fred Mertz To: Tooconservative (#8)
I hope you don't play rugby since an important position on the team is the hooker.
Fred Mertz posted on 2018-03-18 00:15:14 Reply Private Reply
#10: Tooconservative To: Fred Mertz (#9)
But I do play rugby every day, pretty much in all my free time when I'm not posting at LF.
Unfortunately, you're still a total idiot.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-03-18 02:00:28 Reply Private Reply
#11: misterwhite To: Tooconservative (#8)
I could say the same about "Martin Luther King Drive". Call it East 169th Street or somesuch.
"Just call it "the front door" or "the main entrance" and take that stupid looking sign down."
And give in to the puerile complaints of those who object? Never! It's time they grew up.
misterwhite posted on 2018-03-18 10:32:06 Reply Private Reply
#12: Fred Mertz To: Tooconservative (#10)
Fred Mertz posted on 2018-03-18 14:16:21 Reply Private Reply
#13: GrandIsland To: misterwhite (#2)
Weakness (pussification) makes me sick.
GrandIsland posted on 2018-03-18 14:38:48 Reply Private Reply
#14: misterwhite To: GrandIsland (#13)
In it, he demonstrates what our society has become by relating the story of a guy walking up to a bulletin board in the public park and seeing an ad for guitar lessons. He rips down the ad, throws it on the ground and screams, "I don't want guitar lessons! Then he calls the guy up and yells at him, "I don't want guitar lessons!
Ain't that the truth?
misterwhite posted on 2018-03-19 09:19:46 Reply Private Reply
#15: IbJensen To: Deckard (#0)
IbJensen posted on 2018-03-20 07:56:09 Reply Private Reply