Cotton-head

Posted by Faith on Jun 4, 2009 in Daily Musings | 0 comments

One of the things I have to do when writing alternate reality, like Thorn St. Croix’s world or Jane Yellowrock’s world, is to decide if I will use verbal insults and, if so, decide why characters feel they need to use them. Will they be for jobs, racist, a character’s personal history, and then, if I use them, which ones will I use? Or will I create my own?

In the south, back in the heyday’s of king cotton, every small town had a crossroads cotton gin and a depot where the cotton would be loaded to transport. Other small towns also had mills where that cotton was spun into thread. People who worked in the mills were often called cotton-heads because the cotton got caught in their hair during their shift, and formed little balls snarled deep. Farmers were rednecks because they worked the ground, facing down, and the sun burned their necks. There were names for people of every category, from people who spent time reading (squint eyes)  to people who spent time in the saddle on cattle ranches and drives (cowboys and rovers).

It was a job description as much as an insult that people of one class tossed at another. Then there were racial insults which I won’t use here. In Thorn’s world there are insults but not like we use today because the racial lines have become blurred. Instead there are job insults, or mage vs. human insults. In Jane Yellowrock, she calls a character she sees at a distance a Joe.

A guy, a good-looking Joe standing in a doorway, turned his head to follow my progress as I motored past. He wore leather boots, a jacket, and jeans, like me, though his dark hair was short and mine was down to my hips when not braided out of the way, tight to my head, for fighting. A Kawasaki motorbike leaned on a stand nearby. I didn’t like his interest, but he didn’t prick my predatory or territorial instincts.

But over all, I don’t use many. They all seemed silly me when I was growing up and they seem sillier to me now. I hope we will someday grow beyond needing to put down another human just to build ourselves up.

Faith

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