"Fem" was a southern Wisconsin middle and high school put down when I was growing up there: "Don't be such a fem!" It could have been more widespread -- I still don't know -- does anyone?
The Violent Femmes were from Milwaukee which is just a short drive away from Madison. When I first heard about them I remember thinking "that's a weird spelling of 'fem'." But it was brilliant: it "frenchified" the spoken word, adding another layer of nuance.
The French first explored Wisconsin, but the Germans, Poles, Italians, Cornish, Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders, Dutch, Swiss, & Irish, etc., settled the state. Later on came the African Americans, the Hmong, and the Mexicans. Milwaukee and Chicago were the points of entry for many -- but not every -- family. Mine wandered there from PA much earlier on and never set foot in Milwaukee or Chicago.
Such hegemony...how many native American tribes were in Wisconsin first? My white guilt is for what happened to them.
20 comments:
Where is your white guilt for the people who lived here before the Indians got here? This was not an unpopulated continent when the people we call Indians migrated across the land bridge.
They savagely murdered the original people. They are monsters no more deserving of respect than Europeans, from the perspective of ivory tower idiots. If you hate Columbus, you should hate those he killed, just sayin'.
There's probably not an acre of habitable land anywhere on the planet that hasn't been taken by force, from one tribe by another, a hundred times. Including the Americas before Columbus.
When I first heard about them I remember thinking "that's a weird spelling of 'fem'." But it was brilliant: it "frenchified" the spoken word, adding another layer of nuance.
Not to mention that in French it's a real word. In English you'd have to use other words.
@Ritmo: "fem" as we understood it.
Poor Sixty, lamenting an insufficient display of pride over the loss of native people at the hands of others.
He reminds me of when Borat showed a child psychologist his drawing of some supposedly famous Central Asian massacre, over which they assumed he felt traumatized. Until Borat responded that he felt "very proud…. It is not sad. It is us who do the killing."
How about that?
I have their debut album, or more correctly, their remastered cd converted to mp3.
Dude, the Urban Dictionary gave a sidebar ad for a dating service to help you find single men in my area when I clicked on your link.
@Lem: That's the only vinyl of theirs that I bought. I still have it.
Talk about coincidence... I heard a new word tonight.
Pussyism.
"A disease that makes you a wimp or "pussy" that results in people making fun of you."
Bill won't show up to the fight because he has pussyism.
That word calls for a macho response.
So, a Fem is a guy suffering from pussyism.
But, then the question arises...
Could Titus be a fem?
I think Titus claims he played it straight in Waunakee. He would not have been called a fem -- unless he admitted to liking Liberace.
Hey dude. They're just marketing to what they think we must want. Conclusion being, that not many straight guys have need of understanding the slang word "fem".
Oh, how little they know.
@Ritmo: I'm just recalling and relaying slang that existed 40 years ago where I grew up. Of course words and terms get appropriated -- that's the name of the game in alternative world.
Alternative is the opposite of pop.
Loved most of their albums. 3 is probably the worst. Why Do Birds Sing? is great, as is the debut, Hallowed Ground and The Blind Leading the Naked.
Of course they were stock libs, most notable in Old Mother Reagan, but I really didn't care about their politics when the music was good.
Lem said...
Alternative is the opposite of pop.
Where I grew up, pop = soda.
@EMD: If I rejected bands because of their politics, I'd have maybe 5 albums.
I would have all of Sgt. Barry Sadler's tunes.
You mean the native Americans in Wisconsin didn't set up casinos?
I figure that's how the reparations are being collected.
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