Council Sets Sights on Ho-lessness

The City Council is considering a [resolution] that would symbolically ban the words “bitch” and “ho,” not from the City Council floor, but from the entire city.

Their reasoning: “The Council believes that the repercussions of words can be constructive or can be insidious, and that words, when misused, can lay foundations to legitimize the illegitimate and codify the unthinkable…”

The “ho” controversy reared its head in early April after Don Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy headed ho’s” on nationally syndicated radio, and was subsequently fired. Later that month hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons recommended that “bitch” and “ho,” along with the "n-word," be banned from clean versions of rap songs and the airwaves. The [Daily News] suggested a few other words, like “slut” and “spinster,” be sacrificed to the river of oblivion as well.  

According to the resolution, which has the support of 19 of 51 council members, the rampant use of the “hateful” words “bitch” and “ho” in popular music, especially hip-hip, causes the Council “grave concern.”

But if you’re going to do away with “ho,” then what about the ever-useful term “manwhore?” And if you eliminated the noun “bitch,” would you get bitched out for using the verb-form too? What about the pronoun “bitchy?” That’d be a bitch.

Photo courtesy of [HAPA G/lloyd on Flickr].