I somehow managed to completely miss the fact that the terms "baby mama" and "baby daddy" have negative connotations. I recognized that they're casual, but thought they were neutral and have been using them as such because they're convenient.
So apologies to anyone in reference to whom I've used those terms. Please understand that my word choice was coming from ignorance, not malice.
3 comments:
Wow, this is really interesting to me.
I missed this whole Obama/Fox flap and don't know any of the songs the Salon article refers to.
But eons ago, when I volunteered and then taught at a youth centre, the girls would refer to "my baby daddy". They were unmarried, but they still may have been involved - the phrase "baby daddy" didn't connote whether or not the couple was still linked.
I always assumed it was black-urban-speak for "my baby's daddy". These kids never used the possessive, rarely even used contractions. "Who candy that?" = "Whose candy is that?" (An actual example I remember.)
I had no idea this now had a negative connotation, but it figures, since these young people are demonized all the time.
Yeah, I never took it to explicitly connote that the couple is not longer linked, but I thought in most contexts you'd land on another word if they were linked.
It's like if you called Michelle Obama Barack Obama's friend, or his lover, and those aren't actually factually incorrect, but it would be really weird to say that instead of saying she's his wife.
Right. Makes sense.
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