if you seek Amy (or Kay)
We've been exploring shame, so it's time for something shameful. Britney Spears' "dirty" pun, in the title of her most recent song, was prefigured by James Joyce and Shakespeare, writes Jesse Sheidlower. Joyce wrote "If you see Kay" in Ulysses, which sounds like "F-U-C..." when read; he and Shakespeare both have a similar pun, which may have come from an Eve Ensler work. As it turns out, at least according to Sheidlower, Ms. Spears is the first to seek *Amy* and not merely Kay.
I think it is a bit tawdry and sad, that she feels she has to sing about such things, in order to keep her place in the grand cultural machine--but I do appreciate her wordplay.
posted by Chip @ 8:18 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
If you appreciate wordplay Chip you should see some of my picket sign slogans. ;-)
UNSAFE SECT?
is a perennial favorite with the public.
Come to think of it, it is also very much on topic to the theme(s) here.
I know I *really* shouldn't say this Chip but. . .
If You Seek U*U
Ye shall find yet another Unitarian*Universalist wordplay. ;-)
Believe it or not the Word Verification Code for this comment is fulamb. No joke! Well perhaps one of those cosmic ones. . .
All in good fun Chip.
You are being an exceptionally good sport and are thus very much in my good books. We obviously have a mutual appreciation of good puns and other wordplays.
Regards,
Robin Edgar aka The Emerson Avenger
Ah, I am having a "be careful what you pray for" experience. Chips has offered Ms. Spear's "dirty" pun as an opportunity to explore the shame and sex connection. (Nothing relieves the discomfort of feeling shame like sex on the one hand and on the other, the misuse of sex to relieve shame causes harm that can last lifetimes and even generations.) I'm primed to engage, to allow myself to enter the interest to excitement spectrum and yet, I feel a conflict, a need to be humble.
Robin, I lack the talent to follow your word play. What I hear is a very upfront agenda of playfully shaming the UUA into focusing on restorative justice for victims of clergy abuse. I can sympathize with anger against injustice, but that's an emotional connect that feels and sounds hollow to when expressed on a blog. I understand shame can be an appropriate strategy to hold folks accountable, but my interest in this conversation is to learn how to use shame wisely, appropriately and as seldom as possible. As I have a long way to go I think I'll pick up my spiritual practice of Nonviolent Communication and claimiing the mantel of "young jedi" one more time, step back and try to learn by listening as this conversation proceeds.
Blessings, Mudwitch
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