Letters: Concern Over Business Name

Editor:

I am disappointed that a business person in our community would choose a name for a new business which demeans at least half of the population. I am disturbed that this business person is a woman, who is, herself, being degraded and insulted by the term, whether or not she recognizes it. I am concerned that our children and grandchildren, introduced to terms such as this will learn to continue the insulting, belittling terms and be desensitized to the feelings of others and question their own worth.

I am glad to hear my neighbors, men and women alike, speaking out with outrage at their disgust at the offensiveness fostered by the signs they`ve seen that promote a proposed dining establishment named after a vulgar term historically used to describe a female`s genitals. It is NOT a complimentary term to anyone.

The problem with a term such as this is that it reduces a human being, in this case a female, to nothing more than a body part or thing. This objectification negatively impacts our culture by perpetuating the idea that a person is merely an object, to be possessed, used, abused and thrown away when of no further use to another. It harkens back to the time when, in the law, one person could be the living property, or chattel, of another, with no rights or freedom.

Even though the use of the name technically may be within the law and Constitution of the United States of America, why would someone deliberately use a derogatory name which is so disrespectful and bordering on obscene? I cannot imagine a reasonable or responsible answer to that question.

Molly Jubitz
Cedar Key