Hoochie<\/i>: a hut or lean-to. According to the OED, the word was used in the WWII-era armed services to refer to a temporary shelter or dwelling, especially one that is rattle-trap, insubstantial. Etymologists suppose the word comes from Japanese, in which language \u201cuchi\u201d means \u201cdwelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huts aren\u2019t anti-woman, though they have played a part<\/a> in certain anti-woman cultural traditions. We kept looking, and there it was, lodged as entry 2 under the head-word. (Note to selves: contact the OED staff, ask why the feminine term is relegated to second class status.)<\/p>\n Hoochie<\/i>, or more fully, hoochie mama<\/i>: a young woman; especially one who is promiscuous<\/b> or who dresses or behaves in a sexually provocative or overtly seductive manner. Example, from non-feminist rapper<\/a> Big Daddy Kane<\/a>: \u201c\u2018Specially if the hoochie\u2019s on birth control.\u201d<\/p>\n The origin of the word is unclear, though it seems to be related to hoochie-koochie<\/i>, a term in recorded use since at least 1890 to refer to a kind of erotic dance. Example: \u201cThey expected a theatre man to be brassy and leering, like a sideshow barker at a hoochie-koochie tent.<\/a>\u201d According to the Urban Dictionary<\/a>, \u201cCouchie is adapted from the French word coucher<\/i> for \u201cto go to bed\u201d (like our word \u201ccouch\u201d, which you can lie down on) \u2026 women who danced suggestively were \u2018hootchie coutchie\u2019 dancers \u2026 These women were not considered morally upright in the general public, so calling a woman a hootchie cooch was calling her a tramp, especially if she dressed in a way that is meant to be provocative.\u201d (Yes, that\u2019s the same French coucher<\/i> as in the song<\/a> that so audaciously portrays a woman intiating an intimate encounter. The daring! The nerve!)<\/p>\n Really, now. Voulez-vous get something better to do than accuse us of woman-hating, when obviously we\u2019ve got the best intentions in appropriating and rehabilitating (a great word \u2014 meaning, to dress in new clothes!) a term of anti-woman sentiment? We like the long \u201co\u201d sound, we like the tschuss-tschuss, we think highly of our diminutive and easy-to-rhyme-with -ie ending, and are pretty happy all around being called Hoochies.<\/p>\n We won\u2019t be changing the name to anything safer, thank you. Besides, all the good<\/a>, wholesome<\/a>, safe<\/a> names are already taken.<\/p>\n But perhaps we\u2019ll consider going in a more risque direction, since that seems to be what our readers want\u2026<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at the latest search terms that have brought readers to our blog. With these numbers, how could Boobie Magazine<\/i> fail to be a hit? Plus, we can guess, we\u2019d attract attention from just the sort of people who might benefit from a challenging feminist perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are often asked if we might change the name of our little feminist initative \u2014 \u2018zine, blog, and related live events \u2014 to something less inflammatory. \u201cHoochie,\u201d we are told, smacks of the derogatory. \u201cYou can\u2019t represent feminism with such an anti-woman name.\u201d Anti-woman? This is always a surprise, our founders took the title … Continue reading Hoochie, boobie, and other dirty words<\/span>
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