A reader and friend whose opinion I hold in high regard writes to say:

… you can’t just up and decide when masculinity is in the conversation and when it isn’t, particularly in a post about the importance of dealing honestly with privilege. Not everyone has the privilege of ignoring masculinity when and where they choose to do so, and you don’t own the word ‘pussy’ or its connotations. I agree fully with your point, but I know your vocabulary is hardly lacking, and I wish you’d choose some better description.

Fair enough, and when I wrote the word, I knew ahead of time I was getting myself into some trouble— trouble that couldn’t be mitigated by a footnote which amounted to a shoulder-shrug and a mouthed “Oh well!” The word ‘pussified’ was, from my perspective, a messily-delivered but harmless rhetorical flail. But my perspective is one which includes a specific set of cultural and personal assumptions, despite my best efforts to broaden my moral imagination. I remain, unfashionably and beyond my control, white, male, well-educated, and young, and though my political and ethical dedications are located beyond this set, my semiotics and my humor remain well within it. This means I do have the luxury of stripping words of their personal harm in the employ of using them for political harm. For that I apologize, and it is a good reminder that words are never, despite insistence to the contrary, infinitely malleable.

Still, the sensitivity of words ought to be considered in equilibrium with the accuracy of their use. When I used ‘pussified liberals,’ it included a genuine anthropological observation that the conservative world has adopted those terms to describe the cultural demons that upset their sleep. My reaction against it is not a linear opposition to being accused a ‘pussy’ and a desire to be considered ‘manly’ or whatever other word might be considered opposite. Instead, I would prefer to demonstrate the facileness of the conservative use of the term as it is. Regardless of the insensitivity of it, the fact exists that the conservatives and their culture war brigadiers have adopted this vocabulary. It can and should be attacked on the grounds that it is inaccurate and devoid of meaning. Simply dismissing it as a ‘hurtful’ pejorative, however, doesn’t address the fact that it continues to be used.

More likely than not, this didn’t come through in my first use of the term. Probably this is because the post was, as I offered in its introduction, a product of anger rather than very much honest thought.