An interesting discussion of breastfeeding came up on a nutrition list I belong to, and as I've never had children I didn't participate in it at first. But a few issues came up that related to some of my experiences breeding dogs and raising puppies, so I posted a bit about it ... using, as dog breeders and exhibitors do, the word "bitch" to describe my mama dogs.
Now, to me that word is just a word. I'm so used to using it and hearing it and reading it in my strange little dog world that I literally forgot that, for these nice people, it carried just a little charge of the forbidden and nasty. No one was upset; I think they were just startled and amused in roughly equal parts.
And it reminded me that when I first came to work at PetHobbyist.com, the word "bitch" was in the profanity filters on the website's forum system. That lasted exactly one day, when I went to my boss and said.... ummmm, if you seriously want to develop your dog community and reach out to responsible breeders and exhibitors, I think you'd better take the word "bitch" out of our profanity filters. Which he immediately did.
Of course, even better than that is that he now owns two dogs, rescued Rhodesian Ridgebacks, the first dogs he's ever owned. I take full credit for his assimilation into the Dog Collective. Resistance really IS futile.
My niece once informed her mother: "At Aunt Gina's, "bitch" is not a swear word.You can say it any time you want."
Posted by: gina | 29 August 2005 at 11:33 AM