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Nerdlove and Lolz

@nerdloveandlolz / nerdloveandlolz.tumblr.com

If you know me in real life, please just go elsewhere. Thanks. My blog is cute animals, feminism, funny things, random fandoms (Buffy, Who, Trek, Sailor Moon, MST3K, etc), pretty pictures, and so on. I am critical of or at least careful about many things. I'm totally going to do a real pull-up someday.
Emily: Why do people say "don't be a pussy" when talking about weakness, more like "don't be a man's ego" because you know there isn't nothing more fragile than that
Spencer: Uh, because "pussy" is the shortened form of the word "pusillanimous" which means "timid, cowardly" and not the slang word for the female genital region?
Derek: Literally nobody else knows this, nobody

The reason no one knows this is that it isn't true.

I guess this is the hill I'm dying on, on this site?

But yeah. Not fucking true. Wrote a long take down about it a few years back. No energy to link to it. But try looking it up on an etymology site rather than trusting randos on tumblr. Even me.

What you looked up was a dictionary site that shows that pusillanimous means cowardly. That doesn't mean that the word pussy is related, in etymology, to the word pusillanimous. (Etymology means the study of the origin of words.) I linked you to a thorough explanation that you are welcome to read or to ignore; if you'd like to go through life believing something that isn't true, you are welcome to do that.

Anonymous asked:

Christ! It must be exhausting to live every day of your life desperate to correct literally everyone alive on, like, the smallest detail of linguistics ever. I think you need a new hobby. A productive one.

Well, I do think it's funny that you think I can reach "everyone alive" via Tumble. I mean... um... look around.

Anyway.

I wrote that post in 2014.

It blew up a year later.

I dwindled off using the blog after that, and every time I peeked in all I got was messages and comments about this shit. Then I stayed away from this blog for FIVE fucking years. I came back to start a totally different tumblr, which is my main interest at this point. But even now, almost ten years after I wrote this post, people send me these things and ask me to comment on it. Check the time stamps on my blog if you dont believe me. Scroll through. I wrote one post that went semi viral and now this is what I have to live with.

I agree with you. Life would be dull if this were my only interest. Here are some of my other hobbies:

True crime

Music

Improv comedy (I do this professionally! People pay money to watch me do make-em-up funnies!)

Learning chemistry

Gardening

Baking

Escape rooms

Snarky recaps of reality tv

Hiking

Weightlifting

Mst3k

Travel

Learning languages

Honestly, it is exhausting to keep on dealing with this shit. And people like you make it more exhausting. But at least I am trying, sporadically, to make the world a better place by teaching people something.

It must be exhausting to make assumptions about people based on 0.01% of the posts on their blog, btw. You're every bit as pedantic as you accuse me of being, but your only goal with this ask was to insult me -- not to teach, help shed light, etc. Just make the world a little bit worse for a stranger. I hope you have other hobbies too. You probably do. Maybe you're just having a shitty day. Hope it gets better.

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WHAT THE FUCK I JUST LEARNED THAT “PUSSY” AS A TERM FOR COWARD DOESN’T MEAN THE SAME AS LIKE. SEX PUSSY. IT’S SHORTENED FOR PUSILLANIMOUS WHICH IS A TIMID PERSON. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not true. Pussy isn't short for pusillanimous. You learned something that isn't true.

Anonymous asked:

Dear Ms. Nerdloveandlolz, I have just come across your excerpt about the nature of the word "pussy". While I did find your writing to be informative, I was quite turned off by your choice of vocabulary. While it seems apparent that you are passionate about your writing, it might help to choose less profanity. As a mentor once told me, "Always strive for objective speech, for once you loose one's emotions, you lose their ear". This is merely a suggestion and I wish you a wonderful day.

Thank you so fucking much for your fucking comment to me.

PS: It's "lose" both times. Learn to spell, my love.

Have a great fucking day <3

PLEASE click through and live through the horror of these real estate pics with me. PLEASE. 

If you were willing to put in a lot of work, I honestly believe you could get your money back and then some just selling all the crap inside. It’s in great shape, it’s just insane. It’s gotta be somebody’s kid selling it all who just did not want to deal with the mechanics of that. 

Going through this slideshow, multiple times I thought it could not get worse, and then it did

All I could think about was what a nightmare dusting everything has to be.

Wow. What a … shitshow. 

idk if men know this but

if you have to beg a girl into saying yes, it’s not consensual. if you make a girl feel bad for not wanting to have sex with you to the point where she says yes, it’s not consensual. if you have to trick a girl into saying yes, it’s not consensual.

so many fucking men in the comments saying “guess i haven’t ever had consensual sex then lol”

yeah. you haven’t, you rapist fucking creep

“Koko, the gorilla famous for knowing sign language, was asked where gorillas go after death, she responded by signing “Comfortable hole, bye.”

“Comfortable hole, bye

Women of Missouri, get out and vote against Courtland Skyes

“I want to come home to a home-cooked dinner at six every night, one that she fixes and one that I expect my daughters to learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives,” Sykes said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article196687404.html#storylink=cpy 

(please reblog -- let’s make this go viral if it isn’t already)

What we need to learn from the Aziz Ansari clusterfuck

This is not actually an article about him, the claw, or anything to do with the night in question that we are all reading about this weekend. I wasn’t there. We haven’t heard his account, and so I have no right, nor inclination, to comment.

But it has indeed sparked an interesting conversation about consent, both technical and more importantly, emotional, and how vital it is to read the room and make sure the other person is not just willing, but damn well enthusiastic. Especially, in my opinion, if that person is the one to be penetrated. You want to enter them. You best ensure you are a welcome guest, not someone who just begged, pressured, guilt-tripped or harassed their way inside.

There are men I know who are respectful and patient in sexual scenarios, who I daresay are actually turned off if a woman isn’t very obviously enjoying herself. These men are sadly the exception, not the norm.

Our society has mislead men. We have allowed pornography to continuously promote that narrative that a woman is a hole for a man to enjoy when and how he feels like it. Very rarely is a woman’s needs paid much/any attention to in porn, and when it is, it’s often illustrated as the woman just happening to enjoy whatever the man does, even if she doesn’t at first, without fail, she always comes round to his brilliant idea, and is the good sport we all hoped she would be.

A lot of pornography is dedicated, quite literally, to the thrill being how much a woman literally didn’t want to have sex at all and how he did it, really violently, anyway. What is going on?  

Then we have music videos where the girls are always practically naked and performing rehearsed dance routines for the men, who are sitting there on their arses, sometimes in outdoor winter layers, doing nothing other than enjoying their needs being met.

Then you have music lyrics which went from, “Try a little tenderness,” to MURDER THAT PUSSY. BEAT THAT PUSSY UP. PUT THAT PUSSY IN A TOASTER. SHRED THE PUSSY AND PUT IT IN THE BIN. THROW THE PUSSY OUT THE WINDOW. FLUSH THE PUSSY DOWN THE TOILET.

(Poor old pussy having a terrible time.)

Our society, the internet, and even our most mainstream media, constantly perpetuate the idea that men do not need to worry about what our needs and boundaries are. They just need technical consent, however that consent is acquired.

CONSENT SHOULDN’T BE THE GOLD STANDARD. That should be the basic foundation. Built upon that foundation should be fun, mutual passion, equal arousal, interest and enthusiasm. And it is any man or woman’s right at ANY time to stop, for whatever reason.

We also need to reassure women that their fear of being thought of as “difficult” “awkward” or god forbid, “frigid,” should be completely eradicated, effective immediately. These are stereotypes created by the patriarchy, about women, to rather astonishingly, douse women in shame for feeling ownership over their own bodies and moving at a pace they are comfortable with. If you think that he won’t call you again because you weren’t ready to meet his sexual needs on his schedule, then HE DOESN’T LIKE YOU VERY MUCH. Women have traditionally been taught to please, to placate and to avoid embarrassing a man. This has to stop, and it has to come from us. If a man asks you to put his penis in your mouth, and you don’t want to, but you do it because you want him to call you again, you are doing yourself a disservice and have to accept some responsibility. If he is not actively pressuring you, but you feel pressured by his eagerness, desperation, or the fear of his disappointment, then it is frankly on YOU to say no and act in honour of your needs. (Obviously in a situation where you feel in any danger at all, this is a completely different case.)

It is fairly modern for women to be allowed to choose who they marry. It is very modern for women to be “allowed” to have casual sex. It is extremely modern for women to ask to have their needs met and for that to be considered an achievement for a man. WHAT EVEN IS FAKING AN ORGASM? What does that say about women’s attitudes towards their role in the bedroom? “I’m going to congratulate him for something he didn’t take the time or make the effort to do?!”  Women’s magazines forever, constantly writing about “how to please him” Very few men’s magazines with titles about “how to give her the orgasm of her life.”

The subliminal messaging is thorough and it is constant.

If a woman is not enjoying herself thoroughly, throughout your entire sexual engagement, and is not delighted about all the things your are doing together, then STOP. YOU ARE FAILING. This should not be your idea of fun. This is not sex. This is just a wank, you are using another body for, regardless of her needs or desires.

Women must learn that “no” is a right, not a privilege.

I hope one day more young women in the public eye, in music videos and on instagram, use their platforms, when being sexual, to promote a balanced approach to arousal, one that promotes pleasure for both parties involved.

I hope men stop singing about putting pussies in blenders and making Pussy humus out of them, or whatever.

I hope the men (who don’t already) actually realise and come to terms with the fact that porn is a bullshit fantasy and learning sex from pornography is like learning how to drive from The Fast and the Furious. A terrible idea.

And I also hope men start to understand one day, that women have been oppressed since the beginning of time. We are only just starting to find our voices and demand equality. Do not abuse our conditioning to bend to your whims. Especially in the bedroom.

“erm…Ok” shouldn’t be encouragement enough for you.

You can and must do better.

holy moly

My “pussy is not short for pusillanimous” post just passed 1,000 notes.

I kind of wish I had proof-read it better now.

I would have preferred to proofread my pussy is not short for pusillanimous post. That would have been perfectly preferable.

Also, this is the first time a post of mine has gone past 1000 without me submitting the post to a blog with a lot of followers, and it’s all because my lovely followers spread the word, so thank you guys!

Oh fun fact I forgot to mention in the original post: pusillanimous literally means “small of spirit.” See, the second half of the word is “animous”, which has the same root as “animated” – it means something like soul or spirit. You’ll also see that root in “magnanimous” which literally/technically means “great of spirit” (see the prefix “magna,” like magnified, or Magna Carta?) and as used today actually means “generous. ”

Oh and the word “coward” means “tail between your legs” if you look back far enough in etymology.

Etymology is fucking awesome, ya’ll.

If you’re bored sometime, go look up the origin of the word “orchid.” As in the flower. :)

A clarification about my pussy v. pusillanimous post... again.

So, a few people have noted in their tags that in my now semi-famous post, I said “both genders” at one point when I should have said “all genders,” because saying “both” implies that there are only two and ignores agender people.

I see the point and it’s valid, so I decided to change the post’s wording.

Let me just explain what I was thinking at the time. I was thinking that the problem is mainly in comparing men to women and using women as the butt of the joke, so the people it impacts the most are men and women. I was thinking sort of like, if men and women are the cats and dogs fighting this out, that the agender/multi-gender people would be like birds, flying overhead, not involved in this fight. That’s what I was THINKING, but it wasn’t articulated at all, and I see why some people might have been offended or hurt. Plus, it’s probably not even the right way to think about it. Anyway, that’s why I changed the wording to point 7.

Sorry about that.

Anonymous asked:

Hi. I just read your post about the etymology of the word "pussy". It's a great post btw. Just wanted to add that we also have the connection between cat and vagina in the German word "Muschi" [pronounce it moo-she]. It used to be an endearing word for cat, some people called their cats like that. Some decades ago, it also was an acceptable nickname for women. Now, it basically only means vagina, and also cowardly man...

It’s almost as if the connection between the idea of a woman/woman’s sexual parts and the idea of cats isn’t just a random coincidence, and that therefore isn’t a random coincidence of letters.

Danke! :)