The Good Word: Pimp
Many older speakers think that any positive use of pimp is sexist or demeaning. But you can’t make someone feel a certain way about a word. Younger people will continue to use suck (“to be notably bad”) or gay (“lame, boring, terrible, stupid”) heedless of what their elders think; it’s just as hard to get people to reject something they think is OK as to get people to accept something they’ve been taught is wrong.-Jesse Sheidlower, Slate
The Clinton camp’s reaction to David Shuster posing the question on MSNBC, “Doesn’t it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?” makes a lot of sense. Not because I agree with the furor, but because this seems to be the reaction of someone unfamiliar with the evolved meaning of the word, someone who may not be convinced of its other applications.
I can understand the Clinton’s instinct to protect their daughter (remember the hellfire spit at Wayne’s World and SNL in the early 90s when Wayne and Garth called out Chelsea’s tween awkwardness?). But geez, bend a little with your interpretation of a word. Did none of your staff or advisors offer alternate viewpoints before the press release went out? Is this the kind of attention you want drawn to your campaign?
