What you say is really interesting. I'm from a [white] Southern (Florida) with a lower-middle-class/working-class upbringing, and while Dean's language often irritates me, it isn't my biggest gripe with the show. Because there's more to misogyny/non-misogyny (homophobia/non-homophobia, racisim/non-racisim) than, as you put it, "a standard of polite discourse". (Especially since I've seen plenty of sexism/racism/homophobia/etc conducted under "a standard of polite discourse".)
So I'm more bothered by the various female characters who exist only to die tragically to provide motivation/angst for the male characters and by the mishandling of Jo & Bela's characters than I am by Dean's language. And I like that many of the one-shot female characters are quite capable, that Dean never rescues women with the expectation that they're going to hit the sheets, that Ruby is a series-regular queer female character who's queerness was introduced in a non-Very-Special-Episode non-male-gaze manner. So I can definitely see what you mean about the focus on language.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-27 03:36 pm (UTC)So I'm more bothered by the various female characters who exist only to die tragically to provide motivation/angst for the male characters and by the mishandling of Jo & Bela's characters than I am by Dean's language. And I like that many of the one-shot female characters are quite capable, that Dean never rescues women with the expectation that they're going to hit the sheets, that Ruby is a series-regular queer female character who's queerness was introduced in a non-Very-Special-Episode non-male-gaze manner. So I can definitely see what you mean about the focus on language.