Lessons in insult

I learnt a new word today. 'Gin Jockey'.

This being NT slang for a white man who sleeps with an aboriginal woman. It's derogatory obviously, and used for particular types of men. The slimeballs who prey on vulnerable young women and use them, for sex, money, a sense of power, access to their children, and all the other wonderful things that go on up here in the corners of bars, on mattresses in council house kitchens and deep in the long-grass.

I totally agree that we need some way to describe these men. Slimeball-scumbag-microdicks-who-can't-function-on-their-own-and-need-to-work-out-their-inadequacy-by-beating-down-someone-who-can't-fight-back works for me, but might be a bit long for most conversations.

It's a pity that to insult the men we have to insult the women as well though.

'Gin' is a very insulting word for an Aboriginal woman. So much so that I feel uncomfortable typing it. In recent years there's been some attempts with Aboriginal women to reclaim the term - there's a fabbo band called the Stiff Gins - but it's not a word you want to bandy about often.

I've seen versions of these men all over the world. They're particularly prevalent in places like Thailand and Cambodia - skin roasted shiny red like plucked chickens, arms locked around a skinny woman or little girl. But I see them everywhere where there are women at the edge of existence, where they are women who are vulnerable, who need to be listened to, supported and just recognised for existing for once. When the rest of society turns their backs, these men slip in, where we don't want to see, arms tightening.