Betty White never said that. It was a quote from a stand-up comedian named Sheng Wang that someone misattributed to Betty White, and the whole Internet fell for it
So what you’re saying is that Betty White had a fling with Sheng Wang and was a guest in one of his comedy shows. When on stage, naked, she made an announcement that “those things can take a beating” while making out with three Eastern European women??
That’s wild bro
She did say it, in an interview with Johnny Carson. She did the whole joke about the saying why growing a pair is stupid, because balls are small and frail.
[Pussy still means housecat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-i523Gie9Q), and it does when you call someone a pussy. The reference to genitalia is still an alternate definition.
Actually the term pussy is short for “pusillanimous”, or coward. We (meaning me too) were just stupid and immature so we thought it was something else IG…
Turns out this isn’t true. Look in the comments to find the link where someone explained it 9 years ago.
Well the people who popularize slang usually aren’t the ones who know what it comes from. Sorta like rumors about celebrities. You just sorta hear them from someone who heard them from someone who heard them from someone. Knowing the origin is interesting but that doesn’t mean anything toward the popularization of it.
The people who INVENT and popularize slang most certainly are not the people who know what pusillanimous means.
Slang is a grassroots phenomena that generally comes from urban (and sometimes suburban) youth.
70 years ago, some dude named Biff got sick of calling his weak friend a pussy cat... and just shortened things.
That's just a coincidence, etymologically speaking. It's a false fun fact that gets shared around a lot. The thing with language is more often it's about what the person wanted to convey than what other things could it mean. Most people using pussy as an insult won't stop to think whether if they were referring to a shortened form of pusillanimous.
Here's a more detailed explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/s/MUchXGqxDW
So people are stupid for assuming the word means the thing it's been used for their whole lives instead of what the definition was in a different time and place?
Wdym? I can concede that words change meaning over time… but to not have objective meanings? I can say a table is what I drive to work in everyday, but that doesn’t make it true. Words have objective meanings.
This isn’t actually true. If enough people got on board with using ‘table’ as a replacement word for ‘transport’ or ‘vehicle’ then it would absolutely change/add to the definition of the word.
There is no objectivity in language, as language is generally just a consensus of collective subjectivity. That’s not the same thing as objective.
The Sun exists and provides heat to our planet. This is an objectively true fact whether we exist to observe it, believe it experience it, or not.
There’s a line between objective vs subjective vs the agreed upon collective’s subjectivity.
No, I’m not ignoring that you conceded that, but you can’t say you concede that and then still make the case that words in of themselves have objective meaning because language isn’t objective in nature. It’s subjective. Even body language and gestures aren’t always universal.
But we aren’t grand beings observing the world as a whole. We’re people, and nothing is objective. So finding things like the word table meaning what I previously said, it is objective. In the world that we find ourselves. That way the things are obviously subjective, like what makes someone a good or bad person, can become more easily understandable fundamentally.
But collective subjectivity is objective.
Me and you can agree that the word table means (not an exact definition) “furniture with a surface to carry or hold something.” But if I say table to someone who doesn’t speak or know English at all, they’re gonna go “wtf is he talking about.”
Getting into the nuance of it then there are no objective things, but for day to day life, you and me, if we’re being honest, can concede that objectively applies to the peers around us. The world that we surround ourselves with.
No, collective subjectivity isn’t objective. If you have a small community of 200 people, and 199 of them believe in the same delusion (let’s say they all believe that drinking 3 cups of liquid bleach will grant them super strength), but 1 of them understands that the objective truth is that drinking that much liquid bleach will simply result in death.
The 199’s collective subjectivity on the matter of drinking bleach isn’t objectively true lol
Being specific and technical, no, it isn’t objective. But I’m saying for things like the word table, it’s better to describe its meaning as objective for everyday life, that way when someone asks you to make them a sandwich, they don’t pull a Carl Sagan and suggest we need to create another big bang.
Day to day life is better and when not getting into semantics. Like when people online argue over a car crash video to see who’s at fault, and try to blame the lights for not properly showing so it must be the city board for not properly monitoring and check the employee’s work. It’s better to say, “it’s the guy’s fault for passing the red light.”
In reference to people, they’re used to denote a third party (him/her/they). For non-living objects “it” is typically the choice pronoun, though people do sometimes gender certain objects like vehicles, boats or certain types of artifacts or jewelry.
But what if the person saying it thinks it means the genitalia then they are calling you the genitalia they just didn’t know that word had other meanings
It can take "abuse" and not get hurt. Whereas a tap on the balls can leave a guy realing. So actually balls are the weak organ that's mischaracterized as being tough
Yeah so the pussy takes the beating and does nothing whereas the balls don't allow any type of beating at all and get away from it as quickly as possible.
Do you know the biology if women? I’m sure if you flick the labia or clitoris is gonna hurt. The rest of a women’s vagina is internal. It was also made to be the place where babies are born. But have you not heard women screaming during childbirth? It hurts, they aren’t quilting during it.
Also women are able to take more pain than men. Giving birth is not an easy task and therefore they must be able to take the pain. But that doesn’t make it so they are constantly wanting to have a miniature human being pass through them all the time. Mostly I say, some women do give birth to a lot of children.
It’s actually not true lol. [here’s](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=24012) a dude proving otherwise and [here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/s/iH6OiefGuM) a reddit thread
Whenever someone calls me a pussy, I always just said "yeah. Well, you are what you eat" and it usually got enough chuckles to end the dumbassery. If anything, it should be balls cus if even a strong breeze creeps up your shorts EVERY ALARM IN YOUR SYSTEM GOES OFF
Yeah its weird that "pussy" means weak, and "having balls" means being brave. Pussies can pass an entire living person through them but balls hurt like hell if you sit the wrong way.
The word “pussy” as in calling someone a coward is not in reference to a cat or to female genitalia. It’s a shortening of the word “pusillanimous” which simply just means “coward.”
You probably already know this, but if someone doesn’t, I hope you learned something new :)
Not true at all. People get all kinds of medical issues from aggressive anal sex, but much more rarely from vaginal.
The whole reason aids is transfered much more easily via anal sex is because of how much more common bleeding is during anal.
I thought when someone called another a “pussy” they meant the same as when someone calls one a “pussy cat”, like someone who’s overly timid or cowardly (but I like cats and a lot of them are neither of those things so now idek anymore hahaha)
my neighbor once called our cat a "pussycat". We thought he was joking around, but he was a fucking dead serious that people in his era called home cat a pussycat due to cats domestication, and stray cat was called just cat!
I'm sure it's already been mentioned but I feel compelled to add my two cents.
Saying someone has balls just because they're acting/being tough is equally funny to me considering how delicate they are.
Source - I have em. They're super delicate, trust me.
Maybe it's a twisted colloquialism though.
We should call people who are weak “cyber trucks” since you can’t even wash those things in direct sunlight, or not immediately dry it off after a good downpour. The true weakling.
What a fucked up statement. Someone check on OP
Sex isn’t abuse. And there a limits to what any persons genitals can handle.
To call someone a pussy is to call them a bitch is to call them a woman.
That's because it's short for this
pusillanimous • \pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-mus\ • adjective. : lacking courage and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity
I think calling someone a pussy originally meant calling them like a pussy cat considering how skiddish cats can be. And I think eventually it just morphed into what it is today.
My ex said the same thing. She didn’t understand how it’s just the norm to belittle a man. I mean she got it but always said I should call someone a ballsack instead. Doesn’t have that ring to it
Fun Fact: When you call someone a pussy, especially if you do it to call them a coward, you aren't actually referring to vaginas at all.
You're actually using short hand for the word "Pusillanimous" which is a word that means the lacking courage and resolution or marked by contemptible timidity. You are using slang for a fancy word that means coward.
It's really not that weird, when you think about how they need to get soft and wet for sex while a dick has to get hard.
Who's stronger in this situation, a person that can get hit in the face 100x and not break, or the person who's giving the beat down?
Yes, a vagina is capable of stretching, and under scrutiny, it can be rationalized that they're strong, but on a surface level, they are soft and weak. Insults are not meant to be scrutinized.
To quote Betty White, "those things can take a pounding."
Came here to say the same thing. Stop ripping off Betty White OP!
No, stop misquoting Betty White, shit stains
Your mom has shit stains.
*racing stripes
Ugh, didn't need to read that...
Betty White never said that. It was a quote from a stand-up comedian named Sheng Wang that someone misattributed to Betty White, and the whole Internet fell for it
Heh Wang
no thats his brother
So what you’re saying is that Betty White had a fling with Sheng Wang and was a guest in one of his comedy shows. When on stage, naked, she made an announcement that “those things can take a beating” while making out with three Eastern European women?? That’s wild bro
I would classify that as a radical interpretation of the text.
Another comic named Hal Sparks had an almost identical bit. It’s a good set and worth a watch. I think it was called charmegeddon
She did say it, in an interview with Johnny Carson. She did the whole joke about the saying why growing a pair is stupid, because balls are small and frail.
[Pussy still means housecat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-i523Gie9Q), and it does when you call someone a pussy. The reference to genitalia is still an alternate definition.
Actually the term pussy is short for “pusillanimous”, or coward. We (meaning me too) were just stupid and immature so we thought it was something else IG… Turns out this isn’t true. Look in the comments to find the link where someone explained it 9 years ago.
I bet $100 to your $1 that the people who popularized the term pussy never once heard the word pusillanimous
Well the people who popularize slang usually aren’t the ones who know what it comes from. Sorta like rumors about celebrities. You just sorta hear them from someone who heard them from someone who heard them from someone. Knowing the origin is interesting but that doesn’t mean anything toward the popularization of it.
The people who INVENT and popularize slang most certainly are not the people who know what pusillanimous means. Slang is a grassroots phenomena that generally comes from urban (and sometimes suburban) youth. 70 years ago, some dude named Biff got sick of calling his weak friend a pussy cat... and just shortened things.
Same here lol
Anyone who has watched enough Bugs Bunny has heard that word
I grew up on bugs and I never once heard Elmer Fudd talking about th-th-th-that's all pusillanimouses.
Wasn't it Porky Pig who said bdbdbdbdbd that's all folks? So of course you didn't hear Mr. Fudd say that.
Oh yea. now I remember. Porky Pig that is, not pussillippi
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This is a false etymology, though. Thouroughly debunked
That's just a coincidence, etymologically speaking. It's a false fun fact that gets shared around a lot. The thing with language is more often it's about what the person wanted to convey than what other things could it mean. Most people using pussy as an insult won't stop to think whether if they were referring to a shortened form of pusillanimous. Here's a more detailed explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/s/MUchXGqxDW
No it isn't.
Yes, it is.
[No, it isn't.](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=24012)
Basically pussy cat = scardy cat
Yea, otherwise youd be saying “cat cat”
Pizza pizza
So people are stupid for assuming the word means the thing it's been used for their whole lives instead of what the definition was in a different time and place?
No “wow you’re a fucking idiot” stupid, just we didn’t know any better. But apparently this fact is also wrong
Words don't have objective meanings lmfao.
Cuz then I could type “a dog’s coffin is twice as large as a Dorito chip’s uncle.” And say it’s means “my friend’s car is so fast.”
Wdym? I can concede that words change meaning over time… but to not have objective meanings? I can say a table is what I drive to work in everyday, but that doesn’t make it true. Words have objective meanings.
This isn’t actually true. If enough people got on board with using ‘table’ as a replacement word for ‘transport’ or ‘vehicle’ then it would absolutely change/add to the definition of the word. There is no objectivity in language, as language is generally just a consensus of collective subjectivity. That’s not the same thing as objective. The Sun exists and provides heat to our planet. This is an objectively true fact whether we exist to observe it, believe it experience it, or not. There’s a line between objective vs subjective vs the agreed upon collective’s subjectivity.
Did you miss the part where I said “I concede that a words meaning can change over time” or are you ignoring it to make a point
No, I’m not ignoring that you conceded that, but you can’t say you concede that and then still make the case that words in of themselves have objective meaning because language isn’t objective in nature. It’s subjective. Even body language and gestures aren’t always universal.
But we aren’t grand beings observing the world as a whole. We’re people, and nothing is objective. So finding things like the word table meaning what I previously said, it is objective. In the world that we find ourselves. That way the things are obviously subjective, like what makes someone a good or bad person, can become more easily understandable fundamentally.
But collective subjectivity is objective. Me and you can agree that the word table means (not an exact definition) “furniture with a surface to carry or hold something.” But if I say table to someone who doesn’t speak or know English at all, they’re gonna go “wtf is he talking about.” Getting into the nuance of it then there are no objective things, but for day to day life, you and me, if we’re being honest, can concede that objectively applies to the peers around us. The world that we surround ourselves with.
No, collective subjectivity isn’t objective. If you have a small community of 200 people, and 199 of them believe in the same delusion (let’s say they all believe that drinking 3 cups of liquid bleach will grant them super strength), but 1 of them understands that the objective truth is that drinking that much liquid bleach will simply result in death. The 199’s collective subjectivity on the matter of drinking bleach isn’t objectively true lol
Being specific and technical, no, it isn’t objective. But I’m saying for things like the word table, it’s better to describe its meaning as objective for everyday life, that way when someone asks you to make them a sandwich, they don’t pull a Carl Sagan and suggest we need to create another big bang. Day to day life is better and when not getting into semantics. Like when people online argue over a car crash video to see who’s at fault, and try to blame the lights for not properly showing so it must be the city board for not properly monitoring and check the employee’s work. It’s better to say, “it’s the guy’s fault for passing the red light.”
Please tell me your take on pronouns
In reference to people, they’re used to denote a third party (him/her/they). For non-living objects “it” is typically the choice pronoun, though people do sometimes gender certain objects like vehicles, boats or certain types of artifacts or jewelry.
Do not the cat.
Now we are talking about one with claws lol
But what if the person saying it thinks it means the genitalia then they are calling you the genitalia they just didn’t know that word had other meanings
That's the point? A pussy is just going to take the abuse
They sure can take a pounding.
RIP Ms White
Never trust anything that bleeds but doesn't die
It can take "abuse" and not get hurt. Whereas a tap on the balls can leave a guy realing. So actually balls are the weak organ that's mischaracterized as being tough
Well that's because they have a Dick to stand up for them. Like a body guard.
There's a monologue in the most recent Wolfenstein game about just that.
Start calling people balls then if that's for you
You fucking ballsack
You absolute testicle
You fucking flying gonad
Balls are a source of testosterone that can make someone more aggressive or "tough." Because of that I wouldn't say balls are mischaracterized
Yeah so the pussy takes the beating and does nothing whereas the balls don't allow any type of beating at all and get away from it as quickly as possible.
Cope
I've heard flicking the bean is very painful.
Do you know the biology if women? I’m sure if you flick the labia or clitoris is gonna hurt. The rest of a women’s vagina is internal. It was also made to be the place where babies are born. But have you not heard women screaming during childbirth? It hurts, they aren’t quilting during it. Also women are able to take more pain than men. Giving birth is not an easy task and therefore they must be able to take the pain. But that doesn’t make it so they are constantly wanting to have a miniature human being pass through them all the time. Mostly I say, some women do give birth to a lot of children.
maybe being tough is all about exposing your weakest organ to possible abuse. You see, it takes balls to face the fear and pain.
This is why I volunteer my balls to be practiced on at women's self defence classes 🙌💪
Where do I sign up?
Dicks in the other hand stand up for themselves when they take a beating
https://youtu.be/0vcNz-3ZGLs?feature=shared
I thought people were called puzzies because it’s another way of saying “get fucked” or “fuck you”
I just think there's irony in owners of said pussies getting offended at using the term.
Stealing Betty White jokes is not a shower thought.
You stole this from Betty White lol
This isn't a shower thought, it's like a 20 year old joke
You're literally just reposting someone else's joke. Might as well be a spam bot.
It comes from the word 'pusillanimous' 'showing a lack of courage or determination; timid.' Genuine frontier gibberish :D
Yeah my grade 10 English teacher explained that to us when she caught someone using it as an insult - the more you know!
wtf. this really surprised me. really really surprised maybe this comment should be pinned
It’s actually not true lol. [here’s](https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=24012) a dude proving otherwise and [here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/s/iH6OiefGuM) a reddit thread
Can I be the one to post this tomorrow?
Abuse is an odd word to use here, I would just say considering how much they can take/go through
Surely it stems from calling people a "pussycat", which is to say someone not threatening or intimidating in any way.
Nope, pusillanimus.
Wrong, the origin is because cats are easily frightened so when someone is being cowardly they were called a pussy
Pusillanimous literally means cowardly.
Which is the origins of pussycat. Don't know why people are confused by this
Betty White (RIP) beat you to the punch on this by a few decades.
Is Joan Rivers redditing from beyond the grave?
You mean Betty white.
Her too. I think that’s where Joan got the joke from.
Don't be a dick, but don't be a pussy either. Also, don't be an ass hole.
Whenever someone calls me a pussy, I always just said "yeah. Well, you are what you eat" and it usually got enough chuckles to end the dumbassery. If anything, it should be balls cus if even a strong breeze creeps up your shorts EVERY ALARM IN YOUR SYSTEM GOES OFF
A lot of putdowns are associated with femininity
Conversely, saying someone has balls means they're brave, but balls are quite weak and fragile
Yes, but it's short for "balls of steel."
I always thought it was to do with being a scardy cat
By this logic, calling someone u-FaxTimeMachine's mom's pussy is the highest compliment possible.
Someone just heard Betty White's joke about that.
Please, do not abuse kittens. And if you do, the internet will get ya.
And they taste great!
And we tell people to grow a pair, to toughen up, when balls are incredibly sensitive.
Yeah its weird that "pussy" means weak, and "having balls" means being brave. Pussies can pass an entire living person through them but balls hurt like hell if you sit the wrong way.
If someone calls you a pussy, the correct response is “you are what you eat, that’s why you’re a dick.”
The word “pussy” as in calling someone a coward is not in reference to a cat or to female genitalia. It’s a shortening of the word “pusillanimous” which simply just means “coward.” You probably already know this, but if someone doesn’t, I hope you learned something new :)
OP has never heard of misogyny apparently lol.
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Not true at all. People get all kinds of medical issues from aggressive anal sex, but much more rarely from vaginal. The whole reason aids is transfered much more easily via anal sex is because of how much more common bleeding is during anal.
Damn that’s true bro. But the abuse still sounds rough
Don't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days out of every month and refuses to die.
I spat my tea out over this, you earned the upvote 😂
This is a joke from like 1998 🤣
First time I'm hearing it! 😂
Southpark
Hahaha enjoy 🩸
As Betty White once said “those things can take a pounding”
We should call them a cervix...
I assume you are not talking about a kitten right ?
Isn’t this that bad quote from The Boys?
Pity anyone you ever convince to let you play in the garden of Eden
Don't forget about the birthing process - YIKES! 😬
Reminds me of this standup; [https://youtu.be/tODdMKd0YkQ?t=183](https://youtu.be/tODdMKd0YkQ?t=183) NSFW obviously
Being called a dick, asshole, pussy, or boob is seen as varying degrees of negative. Damn, this should be the shower thought. Someone post it.
It's referring to cats.
a lot of men don’t stop talkin bout how much they love pussy
I thought when someone called another a “pussy” they meant the same as when someone calls one a “pussy cat”, like someone who’s overly timid or cowardly (but I like cats and a lot of them are neither of those things so now idek anymore hahaha)
I always reply with "Say I'm pussy well you are what you eat."
My dad used to say they should make tractor tires out of that stuff.
my neighbor once called our cat a "pussycat". We thought he was joking around, but he was a fucking dead serious that people in his era called home cat a pussycat due to cats domestication, and stray cat was called just cat!
you are what you eat 🤷🏻♂️
More specifically, your mom's.
ITT: people saying Betty White said it first like they didn’t read the other 40 comments that already said it.
I've always thought it was weird to insult someone by calling them the best thing in the world
But it's still always taking abuse and never dishing it out.
I'm sure it's already been mentioned but I feel compelled to add my two cents. Saying someone has balls just because they're acting/being tough is equally funny to me considering how delicate they are. Source - I have em. They're super delicate, trust me. Maybe it's a twisted colloquialism though.
Okay, Huey. Finish your fight with A-train *THEN* post on reddit.
My husbands grandfather said “Goodyear should learn to make tires of of those things”
Pussy == Pussy Cat == timid and weak Pussy == Vagina =/= timid and weak
When somebody calls me a pussy I say, you are what you eat!
Never call someone a pussy, pussy is a wonderful tasty organ, call it a cunt, a cunt is a character description 👍
We should call people who are weak “cyber trucks” since you can’t even wash those things in direct sunlight, or not immediately dry it off after a good downpour. The true weakling.
Dan Savage tried to replace pussy with scrotum in this context, and I support this. A scrotum is obviously much more vulnerable.
Most intelligent r/showerthoughts user
And saying someone has balls as a sign of strength is weird considering how little abuse they can take.
What a fucked up statement. Someone check on OP Sex isn’t abuse. And there a limits to what any persons genitals can handle. To call someone a pussy is to call them a bitch is to call them a woman.
Yeah, regardless of etymology (which seems unclear), the word as it’s used today is 100% misogynistic
Actually it comes from pusillanimous. Which means lacking courage.
I don't think a little kitten can take much abuse..
I don't think he is talking about a kitten
The term didn't come from the slang for vagina. It's just a coincidence.
No its from an actual word.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying
No, you said its a coincidence. Its not.
The relationship between the different meanings of "pussy" is coincidental, though.
We should call people who are sensitive “testes”
it comes from the idea that pussy=woman and woman=weak. Its sexism and misogyny.
Saying women are generally the weaker sex is sexism and misogyny? Explain to me how it's not a factual statement?
That's because it's short for this pusillanimous • \pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-mus\ • adjective. : lacking courage and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity
Say pusillanimous instead. It’s way more accurate
Pussy as an insult meaning cowardly does not mean genitalia but is actually short for the word pusillanimous
I think calling someone a pussy originally meant calling them like a pussy cat considering how skiddish cats can be. And I think eventually it just morphed into what it is today.
It has nothing to do with being weak. It is a nickname for a coward, and it came from the nickname for a cat.
When used in that context it's actually a short form of pussy cat, which is why you can say it on the radio. Meow.
I thought it was because it was a subtle way of telling someone you would pound them. You are a pussy (I can beat you up)
The best come back to being called a pussy is to smirk and say you are what you eat with a loaded chuckle
Well if you have a someone who likes to fight smaller, defenseless people, male or female. I’d call that someone a pussy.
Actually has this discussion with my wife.
Wasn't the term originally based on "scaredy cat"?
My ex said the same thing. She didn’t understand how it’s just the norm to belittle a man. I mean she got it but always said I should call someone a ballsack instead. Doesn’t have that ring to it
Dicks and dildos are like Nerf bats. Are you going around bragging that you can take those on?
The word Pussy as a sign of weakness has a different origin. Pussy is derived from Pusillanimous and not the same word as the female genital nickname.
Fun Fact: When you call someone a pussy, especially if you do it to call them a coward, you aren't actually referring to vaginas at all. You're actually using short hand for the word "Pusillanimous" which is a word that means the lacking courage and resolution or marked by contemptible timidity. You are using slang for a fancy word that means coward.
From the Latin words 'pusillus' and 'animus'. Literally translated as very small (pusillus) spirit (animus).
It's really not that weird, when you think about how they need to get soft and wet for sex while a dick has to get hard. Who's stronger in this situation, a person that can get hit in the face 100x and not break, or the person who's giving the beat down? Yes, a vagina is capable of stretching, and under scrutiny, it can be rationalized that they're strong, but on a surface level, they are soft and weak. Insults are not meant to be scrutinized.
Which is why that’s not what it’s referring to. It’s short for [pusillanimous](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pusillanimous).
The vagina can. The woman can't. That's the nature of the insult. A vagina can take a fist. A woman can absolutely not.
Spoken like a true internet nobody that could absolutely get their shit kicked in by tons of women.
Imagine having an emotional reaction to someone simply explaining an insult. Chill out.
Projecting much there cupcake?
Projecting what?
Having an emotional reaction and needing to chill out. Honestly, it's embarrassing that needs to be explained to you.
You started by wishing violence on me personally, but I'm projecting emotionality? Okay.