A week or so ago, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg started a campaign to ban the word “bossy” (apparently, Sandberg isn’t familiar with the First Amendment). Allegedly, the patriarchy uses the word to stigmatize girls who assert themselves, or something like that.
A number of people have pointed out that Sandberg is a major Hillary Clinton supporter and donor, and speculated that this plays into her motives. Glenn Reynolds described it as “astroturf battlespace preparation for Hillary.” And suggested an appropriate bumpersticker, which promptly came into existence:
But my favorite comment on the “ban bossy” idea is from Steven Hayward (emphasis in original):
So we’re supposed to ban “bossy” from our vocabulary, eh? This, coming from the same folks who imposed the mandate that we all buy health insurance from government-run exchanges, and dictate exactly what that insurance policy must have in it. I mean, if liberalism today isn’t about being bossy, then it hardly has a reason for being. …
Just about the bossiest person I can think of is Michael Bloomberg. By all means, let’s ban bossiness.
UPDATE: Apparently, the people who want to ban “bossy” have no problem with using it to describe white male Republicans.