When Shane Gillis joked on Saturday Night Live that women wearing tiny shorts to the gym look like whores, I laughed, perhaps because I, indeed, wear shorts at the gym and I, indeed, seem to have retained my sense of humor. My disposition changed when Gillis complained about men not being allowed to look at said women. I understood the suggestion that women invite attention through their clothing and then unfairly object to it, but the way he phrased it felt uglier than the original joke.
When Dan Levy responded by calling the remarks misogynistic, I virtually stood up and applauded. I was laying in bed, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, which made the gesture somewhat less impressive. Both reactions were genuine and, impressively some might say, I was able to hold on to two seemingly opposing truths at once: that women wear shorts at the gym and film TikTok videos of themselves more than they used to, say, a decade ago, and that the way Gillis phrased and continued his joke was inappropriate.
Apparently, though, that dual position is becoming a difficult one to occupy in America. Suddenly, our increasingly peculiar relationship with language, particularly our inability to distinguish between degrees of offense and consequence, was made oh-so apparent. We've become remarkably careless with words while simultaneously treating every word as potentially catastrophic.
Consider Donald Trump's description of political opponents as vermin during his 2024 presidential campaign. The term carries an ugly history of dehumanization, yet Trump's defenders have often treated his most inflammatory language as ordinary political exaggeration. A defense I can understand, except for the problem that words spoken by presidents carry consequences beyond their immediate audience.
Language helps establish what becomes acceptable in public life, which may help explain why we live in this kind of extra-sensitive America, where everything, from the language to the reaction, is just extra. And the problem extends beyond Trump or Republicans. Across American politics, opponents are routinely described in terms that suggest moral depravity rather than disagreement.
Every controversy becomes an existential struggle, whether it's about politics or, honestly, something as trivial as a celebrity's outfit or an ill-advised joke. Every foolish remark supposedly reveals something monstrous, yet everyone keeps throwing around increasingly inflammatory language as if words cost nothing. Social media makes everything worse, both fueling the problem and showcasing exactly what it looks like.
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