I don't even want you to think this is a minor pet peeve. To me, this kind of thing is so obvious, I sit in shock that otherwise intelligent people do it.

When did the word "pimp" become respectable?

There are few lifeforms on the planet lower than pimps. These people - usually men, but not always - use brutality and fear and pain and humiliation to force another person into sexual slavery.  They force a woman or girl to give herself to men - god dammit, think about those words: 

to give herself to men

something that should be so private, so respected, so very much hers to give upon her own choice.

Yet they force her to do it, using any method that works - drugs, hunger, fear, pain - and then they take the money she has earned and buy themselves cars, jewelry, power... leaving her to constant humiliation and pain and poverty. 

But we have begun to throw this word around as a marketing tool, for Christ's sake. This gives the word, and by extension, the profession (if it can be called that) a numbness, a wall between what it actually is, and our perception of it. 

We really shouldn't do that. As writers, we know that words are powerful things. As writers especially, but also as women, or as men who respect and love women, we need to give that word a wide berth. We need to keep it clear and cold, right where it belongs: a word to be feared, to be shunned, to be disgusted by. A word that represents, boldy and defiantly, the worst monstrosity that humans are capable of. 

There are lots of things to be angry about, in our day. Many are far more important than this. But this one is simple: just don't use the word to sell something or advertise something. When you hear someone using it, call them on it. Encourage them to find another way to sell their product. 

I'll start:

John Scalzi: your blog entry was about lovely and special books. Every one of them deserve better than to be "pimped." Give us something else. Please.