I told you that my mom was into some tough stuff because I need to tell you that she she only liked her men to behave in one of two ways – manly and manlier. She hated when dudes were all wussy, and effeminate and stuff and would make the I-smell-something-foul face and shiver in disgust if she observed that sort of thing in the wild. One day my third-wave-sex-negative-feminist-proto-girlfriend was over at my house for a little hanging out after some rock climbing and my mom was ranting about some guys who had done something wussy. She was saying what they had done and then she described them as 'pussies'. My girlfriend was aghast, and never the shrinking violet, she expressed her displeasure loudly and directly to my mom about her choice of words and her unreformed view of gender roles. She told my mom she couldn't believe that she had used the word 'pussies' because it was a dirty word that was meant to degrade somebody by comparing them to female genitals. My mom looked chastened and ashamed as she apologized. I saw the opening for a joke, and as was my fatal flaw, I went in for the ill advised maneuver. I said that it was unfortunate that my mom had used such a horrible word, but in her defense those dudes were total pussies. My girlfriend was absolutely not amused and yelled at me and stormed out as I tried to apologize and smooth things over. She was not having it and she was in a huff for a couple days. I was still proud of my joke and it eventually worked out okay so everyone is a winner; except for those two pussy dudes, they're still pussies, which is its own private prison.
