Screw the Tone Argument

Because "fuck you" that's why.

I know, I know, I’ve ranted about this before.  But, the reason I find myself ranting about it so much is because it happens all the fucking time.  Seriously, about once a month I get told someone would take me more seriously if I didn’t swear or some shit.  So the other day I posted this on my personal facebook account, to which only people I know get access, sorry:

“Here’s the thing that’s pissing me off regarding the current climate of reproductive rights access and legislation RE: the Tone Argument. Repeatedly people keep telling me they “might” listen to me if I quit being so offensive.

“Really?

“Because I don’t think I’ve said a damn thing anywhere near as offensive as an entire population of people who don’t seem to think I’m a human being, or deserving of basic human rights.

“I think that’s far more offensive than the occasional “douchecanoe,” don’t you?”

This was specifically in response to an interaction on another friend’s Facebook where we discussed Catholic Bishops saying that they believed “birth control was ubiquitous and cheap.”  Sigh.  As if they’d know.  I stated that I believed that celibate old men without a working knowledge of the science of reproduction or the economics of said science of reproduction should sit in the corner and not speak until spoken to, because they have nothing to bring to the discussion.  And I got called out on my “nastiness.”

Here’s the thing.  How is my “nastiness” more upsetting than an entire segment of people in the US, Catholic and not, who appear to think I’m not a full human being because of my gender?  How is calling someone a douchecanoe or an asshole worse than saying that there are people in our society who don’t deserve their right to privacy, the right to marry the person they love, the right to make their own fucking medical decisions?  How on earth is it worse to call someone a fucking scumbag than to think that having a uterus means I’m too stupid to know there’s a baby in there, and not, say, a rock?

For example, that is part of what all these ultrasound laws are doing.  Just a part.  They’re trying to emotionally blackmail you into not doing what you want or need to do by making  you look at little feet on a screen or listen to a fetal heartbeat.  And if that doesn’t work, the other part, the bigger part actually, is to make you jump through more hoops, make the process of abortion even more prohibitively expensive and take even more time.  Honestly, that is the biggest motivation here, not the teeny weeny fingers and precious heartbeats.  They’re trying to price it out of reach of all but a tiny minority of women, and by legislating that health insurance doesn’t have to, or can’t, cover it, what they’re doing is putting it out of reach of even more women.

So, you’ll excuse me if I’m not feeling at all charitable about these knuckle-dragging, dirt-humping, god-bothering, shit for brains, ego-maniacal, neanderthal mother fuckers.

I find the denial of my personhood and the denial of the personhood and rights of POC, LGBTQI, and women everywhere to be FAR MORE OFFENSIVE than me dropping F-bombs every thirty seconds when these arguments come up.

And let us not forget, Tone Arguers, that I and every other woman, POC, and LGBTQI person on the planet is totally on to you, with your pretending that there is some way, shape or form in which we could deliver our message and you’d listen.  Please, don’t insult our intelligence.  You’re not going to listen to us no matter how we say it, so as I wrapped up the discussion on my Facebook:

“Oh, I know. Trust me That’s one of the reasons it pisses me off so much. It’s pretending there is ever any way, shape or form in which they WOULD have listened. Having been chided for both being “too passionate/angry” and “not passionate/angry enough” I’ve decided to err on the side of “Fuck you.”