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 M¢37  Funded By Mahalo ? |  September 29, 2009 08:53 AM

Is "tea bagger" an offensive term?

Critics of Tea Party protesters label them "tea baggers". This term refers to a sexual fetish or act involving oral sex.
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michelleld... michelleld...
 
 September 29, 2009 09:27 AM
Yes, it usually is. As you noted, it is a sexual reference to a particular act of oral sex involving the male testes, but tea bagger is also used to denote someone who is foolish and clueless, who has a really degrading type of job. It's meant as an insult when it's used, whether it's used as a sexual term or a slang insult.

There are also political meanings to the word and a recent usage of it on the news that you can read at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teabagging

In general, if someone calls you a teabagger, or you call someone else that, it is being used in an insulting or derogatory manner.


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buddawiggi buddawiggi
 
September 29, 2009 10:18 AM
I'm glad you answered this with tact. I might not have been so nice. I have wondered before, as I will offer respect to the intelligence of the members of all political parties, didn't they see that this nickname would be a probable outcome? It seems to me the Tea Party did not think this name selection through.

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albanian albanian
 
September 30, 2009 07:39 PM
The Tea Party folks are not the sort that anyone would expect to think anything through. For example, the original Tea Party was against taxation without representation. Today's taxes are levied by elected representatives. I guess the Pretentious Sore Loser Party just didn't have a good ring to it.

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ticatoca ticatoca
 
September 29, 2009 11:05 AM
errrr yes, if the person knows the true meaning and isn't a tea bagger themselves. I had this conversion with my Grandma a while back, not about 'tea bagging' that would be weird but about the use of the word 'gay.' In her day the word meant 'happy,' not as we've come to assume it's meaning today.

I think if you use the word tea-bagger the younger generation may see it as a sexual fetish and the older generation may see it otherwise. I'm only 31 so I'll have to wait till I'm a lot older to see what other terms change their meaning.
Source(s):
me


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shinju shinju
 
October 01, 2009 01:26 PM
I'm neither very young nor very old, but I do remember when "gay" meant happy. And I confess that I was not aware of the sexual connotations of teabagging. I simply assumed that teabagging was a way of characterizing the protesters, as they model themselves after the revolutionaries who participated in the Boston Tea Party. I think that some terms may simply be more regional than not. I'll have to ask my sibs if they've ever heard this term as it denotes a sexual act. If anyone of them is likely to have heard the term, it would be my brother, who's a cop.

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albanian albanian
 
September 30, 2009 07:29 PM
No. One can argue the point because it comes down to what is the proper definition for "an offensive term"; but, overall, "tea bagger" does not fit very well. "Tea bagger" was first used as an euphemism for someone who engages in that sexual act. There is nothing particularly insulting about it, but sex acts are usually referred to with euphemisms. The Tea Party named itself, supposedly after the Revolutionary Tea Party that was a demonstration against taxes. To call its members "Tea baggers" is really more of a pun than an insult, there being no connection between the tax protesters and the sex act either in reality or implied. It is just a verbal joke. On the other hand terms often have emotive meaning separate from their literal or even symbolic meanings. As the term is used by people who do not like the "Tea baggers" they may intentionally, emotionally convey that dislike in the name. The Tea Party advocates in turn may sense that hostility and be offended. But, they are not in a very good position to complain because they picked their own name and it happened to be an easy pun. Overall, in essence it is not an offensive term and it seems unlikely that anyone really takes offense at it. However, one could say it is intended as an expression of disdain.

Source(s):
http://july.fixedreference.org/en/20040724/wikipedia/Offensive_terms_per_na...


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michelleld... michelleld...
 
October 01, 2009 02:15 AM
That's really not true. Even before the sexual term was coined, teabagger was used to mean someone who has a lowly job or someone who is clueless and doesn't even know they are clueless.

As with many euphemisms, the exact original of the phrase being used for that meaning is muddy, but it's there, and it's meant as an insult. Therefore, I'd say it's offensive to call someone an idiot, so calling someone a teabagger, referring to the same thing as calling them an idiot, is offensive.

As for the sexual act, no, it's not offensive, per se, any more than calling "Doggy Style" offensive. It's a sexual act.

However, it is a sexual act that some have said is more common amongst gay men, and it has sometimes been used to call someone 'gay' by saying they participate in thsi activity with men. While I don't think there's anything offensive about gays, some people do, and use the term as an insult.

I think being insulting for the sake of insult is offensive, regardless of the terminology used.

Thus my answer stands: the term can be offensive when it's used offensively.

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albanian albanian
 
October 01, 2009 01:12 PM
I think you are confusing "insult" with "offensive term" which are two different concepts. For example, consider a Jewish person. If someone calls him an "idiot" that is an insult. If someone calls him a "kyke" that is an "offensive term". If someone calls him a "Jew" in a hostile and nasty tone of voice, then insult is intended and offense will be taken yet you can't call it either an insult or an offensive term. It is the proper term being used in an offensive way. I think "tea bagger" is most similar to this third situation.
Also note that if "tea bagger" really were an offensive term, some officious person or software would be making us type "t** b*gger".

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shinju shinju
 
October 04, 2009 03:51 AM
I agree with this answer, primarily because I believe that the issue of offense is relative to the listener: What may be offensive to you is not necessarily offensive to me. Culturally based names offer a classic example. A person's name in one language can have beautiful connotations, while its phonetic equivalent in English can have offensive connotations.

Another saying that attests to the issue of relativity: "He doesn't even know when he's being insulted."

"Common knowledge" isn't necessarily common. Until now, I had never heard of a "teabagger" as it pertains to a person engaging in a sexual act. And, no, I haven't lived a sheltered life. I've lived in metro-Detroit for most of my life and in Salt Lake City for twenty years. Believe it or not, Salt Lake has a huge openly gay population; the Gay Pride parade is a road-closing event. However, I know more gay women than gay men, there. Even still, as a straight person, I traveled in different circles than my gay friends/acquaintances did. "Teabagger" is just not a word that I would have encountered in casual conversation.

So, to answer the question, I don't find the word "teabagger" offensive. I have no reason to.

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