I can't unhear it

[sasha_feather]

My mom is into the political use of language too; that is probably where I get it from. Listening to NPR:

"Isn't ridiculous that there are these groups that can call themselves things like Protect Marriage and the media honors that?"

Another one she doesn't like is "suicide bombers". What they are doing, she says, is not about suicide at all. Murder and terrorism, yes, but the fact that the bombers are dying too is not the main thing to be focusing on.

My aunt, who has adopted children, thinks that the word "adopt" has become devalued. Adopt a highway! By picking up some litter a couple of times a year. Adopt a park! Etc.

I was listening today to On the Media on public radio, and they referred to John Edward's "illegitimate child". Strange. Aren't all children legitimate?
Later in the show someone said, "love child." Another strange phrase. Don't we want all children to be love children?

Comments

[owlectomy]

I first heard the world "illegitimate" in the context of children when I was reading -- I kid you not! -- an epic romance about the ancestors of the characters of Sweet Valley High.

And I (being one myself) was nervous for a week about somehow being not a real person.

It was weird. It's not a word I'm particularly fond of.

[sasha_feather]

Wow! Yeah, one might expect the happy world of Sweet Valley High to be a little more safe than that.

I realize now how I have cocooned myself in the world of feminist blogs and LJ/DW, where I am surrounded by these anti-oppression voices-- I go out into the wider world and it is everywhere. I don't understand why John Edwards having a kid outside of marriage is even that big of a scandal.

[laceblade]

He didn't just have a kid outside of marriage: he cheated on his wife, and when the media suspected it, he lied about it for months (now years, I guess) and made a staffer claim the kid as his own. Even when he admitted to the affair, he refused to acknowledge that the child was his, going so far as asking his staffer/Rielle Hunter to fabricate a DNA test.

So I guess the big deal is more his lying than anything else - it's John Edwards who made having a kid outside of marriage a much, much bigger deal than it needed to be.

[sasha_feather]

Ha, that makes more sense. Can you tell I don't follow the political news? Oh John Edwards. :(

[owlectomy]

His wife has also been undergoing treatment for cancer since all this was going on. So, no, I'm not real happy with John Edwards. (He came off as really slimy the one time I met him, though that was very briefly, when I was in high school.)

[wrdnrd]

I agree, tho', that despite the sleazeball Edwards is turning out to be, there's no reason to place such ridiculously heavy words on the poor child as "illegetimate" and "love child." It's not the kid's fault!! Kid has enough problems with John Edwards as a dad!

[nearlymay.livejournal.com]

It's shocking that anyone says "love child" anymore. Like it's the 70s.

Whatever, my parents were in love when they had me. They were married, but does that mean I'm NOT a love child? Eff that, of course I am.

[sasha_feather]

Trufax.

[blushingflower]

There's a song, "Love Child" by Diana Ross, and when I was a kid I didn't understand it, because aren't all children born out of love? Of course, now as an adult I a) understand that not all children are planned or wanted or the products of love, and b) "love child" means "child born out of wedlock". Which is kind of ridiculous in and of itself, because shouldn't children born to married couples be the product of love?

[sasha_feather]

Yes indeed! It is a very strange phrase.

[anna-bird.livejournal.com]

Ack, I meant to comment on this earlier. Honestly, whenever I hear someone use the term "illegitimate child" I think of Masterpiece Theater lords cavorting with parlor maids and then said parlor maids standing big-bellied and laden down with a carpetbag out by the road, waiting for a passing coach. It's such a crusty old term, with titles and royalty and shit like that. But also, you could say that politicians (and celebrities/bigwigs in other arenas, of course) are the American royalty or the American lords/ladies.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

Hahah! Good point. I guess legitimacy matters more to the people at the top.