You cunt! I mean, you dick! I mean...

[Audley Strange]

Reading the last couple of posts something struck me. where does this idea come from that recognition of gender differences is somehow a bias? Is it political correctness? Is that why there has been such a rush to revise language?

I am a fan of political correctness as a tool of common civility (if not the terminology), but a lot of it does seem like people projecting imagined affront and demanding that words not be used, at all, ever, under any circumstances because they could possibly be offensive to some potential person.

Here's the thing. We live in democracies. That means minority issues are precisely that, minority issues. We should not be making life difficult for minorities to be sure however nor should we concern them a priority. To me by saying "oh we need to ban blackboard because it might be offensive to someone" actually adds to the problem in two ways. One it makes people think a minority (rather than some confused guilt drenched hang wringing right on merchant) are being needlessly sensitive and pisses people off and two it makes an assumption that said imagined group are going to be offended by it, when most often they are not.

So, it seems to me, the entire fault lies with a small highly politicised group who insist on re-defining our common terminologies as positive and negative and by making such words utterly taboo, they have moved into the playing field where they demand rule changes where those words are out of limits. However the rules have not actually changed and thus those words they wish to see as taboo are not only still in play, they are precisely the words they cannot combat. Thus they go from a potential dominant to a submissive approach every time.

In short as on the net, telling people which words they are not allowed to use will result in people who oppose your demand using them against you.

It's not fucking rocket science.

[hadespussercats]

In short as on the net, telling people which words they are not allowed to use will result in people who oppose your demand using them against you.

You give words power when you try to make them off limits. That's why a parent I know told her five-year-old he could swear-- but to keep it to when sports are on (so the rule was reasonable for the parents, too!)

The first day they started that rule, they watched a game, to give him a chance to just curse a non-stop blue streak. Seems like it worked.

[colubridae]

Take spastic as an example. When it was first introduced into the language, children gave its meaning a derogatory implication. Now spas as it was sometimes abbreviated to, or in its original form, still meant the same thing, but no longer was it a neutral term. It was now emotionally laden. So the Spastics Society changed its name to Scope.

My dad used to work for The Spastics Society. I used to help out. Now whenever I happen to be talking about that period of my life I often say “When Dad was doing Spastics.” For us it was just a charitable society trying to do good. In my family we used the phrase as a pinpoint for that period in our lives. Several times now there has been a sharp intake of breath when I’ve spoken those words. Though they contain no pejorative meaning deliberate or otherwise, it’s still strange for me to use a phrase that I’ve used most of my life and see it cause discomfort.

[Kristie]

In short as on the net, telling people which words they are not allowed to use will result in people who oppose your demand using them against you.

You give words power when you try to make them off limits. That's why a parent I know told her five-year-old he could swear-- but to keep it to when sports are on (so the rule was reasonable for the parents, too!)

The first day they started that rule, they watched a game, to give him a chance to just curse a non-stop blue streak. Seems like it worked.

Wonder how long it will stick though. I know I have a hard time not saying cuss words, it's like they just slip out sometimes.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

In short as on the net, telling people which words they are not allowed to use will result in people who oppose your demand using them against you.

You give words power when you try to make them off limits. That's why a parent I know told her five-year-old he could swear-- but to keep it to when sports are on (so the rule was reasonable for the parents, too!)

The first day they started that rule, they watched a game, to give him a chance to just curse a non-stop blue streak. Seems like it worked.

Wonder how long it will stick though. I know I have a hard time not saying cuss words, it's like they just slip out sometimes.

I know what you mean, Kristie. It's like you just can't cuntwhistle yourself sometimes. There you are, saying something completely bumwipe and next thing you damp cock, you've gone and sworn. I am completely fuckbreath as to why.

[Kristie]

In short as on the net, telling people which words they are not allowed to use will result in people who oppose your demand using them against you.

You give words power when you try to make them off limits. That's why a parent I know told her five-year-old he could swear-- but to keep it to when sports are on (so the rule was reasonable for the parents, too!)

The first day they started that rule, they watched a game, to give him a chance to just curse a non-stop blue streak. Seems like it worked.

Wonder how long it will stick though. I know I have a hard time not saying cuss words, it's like they just slip out sometimes.

I know what you mean, Kristie. It's like you just can't cuntwhistle yourself sometimes. There you are, saying something completely bumwipe and next thing you damp cock, you've gone and sworn. I am completely fuckbreath as to why.

Yeah...something like that.
I know that when I stub my toe or smash my finger, there's no stopping the 'god damn it!' or 'fuuuuuuck!' from coming out!

[Pappa]

Reading the last couple of posts something struck me. where does this idea come from that recognition of gender differences is somehow a bias? Is it political correctness? Is that why there has been such a rush to revise language?

The only reason I've mentioned it in a few posts is because of the OP. As I said in my first post, I don't think gender-linked insults are connected with misogyny or gender-bias, although I'm open to the possibility that they are in certain contexts.

[Audley Strange]

Reading the last couple of posts something struck me. where does this idea come from that recognition of gender differences is somehow a bias? Is it political correctness? Is that why there has been such a rush to revise language?

The only reason I've mentioned it in a few posts is because of the OP. As I said in my first post, I don't think gender-linked insults are connected with misogyny or gender-bias, although I'm open to the possibility that they are in certain contexts.

Oh without a doubt they can and are used that way (I just witnessed some rat faced drunk skank smack her equally rat faced drunk apeboy and call him a "fucking useless fucking faggot".)

It's like a knife. Knives like swear-words are tools designed for cutting. If we go back into our history we can see that originally they were used for animal butchery and killing. Ergo knives are tools of violence. Now imagine someone claiming that you buttering a scone was perpetuating a murder culture because the tool you use, the knife, at one time had less utility.

That doesn't mean murderers don't use knives, it means that not all those who use knives are even remotely enabling anything but convenience.

[hadespussercats]

In short as on the net, telling people which words they are not allowed to use will result in people who oppose your demand using them against you.

You give words power when you try to make them off limits. That's why a parent I know told her five-year-old he could swear-- but to keep it to when sports are on (so the rule was reasonable for the parents, too!)

The first day they started that rule, they watched a game, to give him a chance to just curse a non-stop blue streak. Seems like it worked.

Wonder how long it will stick though. I know I have a hard time not saying cuss words, it's like they just slip out sometimes.

My parents never made any words off-limits, but they did stress that "there's a time and a place." Places NOT to swear (back then) included: church, school (though recess was in-between), in front of Gran or any other adult not on the OK list (which we sort of just understood)...

But we were mostly hyper-mature miniature-adult-style girls, so maybe they had it easy with us.

I do know I never felt the need to scream 'FUCK' out the bus window, and thought the kids who did were sorta stupid.

I don't know. My parents also let us drink alcoholic drinks if we wanted to, from really young, and neither my sister nor I were much for the kegger-in-the-woods parties until we were almost out of high school. Because drinking wasn't that big a deal. But then, it also normalized drinking in a way I look back on as strange-- the plusses and minuses of being a child of functional alcoholics...

[Audley Strange]

My father never really swore nor did my mother until fairly recently. However where I live and have always lived, in lower working class areas, swearing is ever-present. I recall one of my teachers calling a student a prick. He was, it was funny and we all laughed including him. Swear. To me it words like fuck, cunt, prick, fanny, wanker, shit, shite, piss, pish, bollocks, baws, stonner, dobber and motherfucker are perfectly acceptable.

I don't think that is uncommon. At all. This is why it annoys me that a fraction of people think that them being offended means everyone else should stop. They're the ones with the issue, if they can't sort it out, fuck them, they're censorship loving puritans and people like that are, to me, cultural retardants.

[padraic]

Thought I'd share this;from one of Australia's living national treasures, Kevin Bloody Wilson; "You Can't Say "Cunt"in Canada"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBWAjn2a3rA

[hadespussercats]

My father never really swore nor did my mother until fairly recently. However where I live and have always lived, in lower working class areas, swearing is ever-present. I recall one of my teachers calling a student a prick. He was, it was funny and we all laughed including him. Swear. To me it words like fuck, cunt, prick, fanny, wanker, shit, shite, piss, pish, bollocks, baws, stonner, dobber and motherfucker are perfectly acceptable.

I don't think that is uncommon. At all. This is why it annoys me that a fraction of people think that them being offended means everyone else should stop. They're the ones with the issue, if they can't sort it out, fuck them, they're censorship loving puritans and people like that are, to me, cultural retardants.

My mom's one of those Americans who likes to pretend she's British. She always used words like "bloody" and "twat" (and "bloody twat" ) , which were great because it turned out when I said them at school no one seemed to know they were bad words.

"Clot." There's another one. I've heard that for Jamaicans it's the big bad insult-- referencing menstrual blood. Which, well... I do think a clot of menstrual blood, while perfectly natural, is, like many things that are perfectly natural, kinda gross. But if that's the absolute worst thing you can call someone-- it does seem to me that it hearkens back to the time (well, in some places it's present-day) where menstruating women were seen as unclean.

[Audley Strange]

Well it's clart , it does come from clot as in a clot of menstrual blood and is usually associated with bumbaclart which is a general racist insult to white people and idiots in general which is derived (iirc) from a sanitary towel stained with such blood.

Seems very specific, are you sure it wasn't clod?

[hadespussercats]

Well it's clart , it does come from clot as in a clot of menstrual blood and is usually associated with bumbaclart which is a general racist insult to white people and idiots in general which is derived (iirc) from a sanitary towel stained with such blood.

Seems very specific, are you sure it wasn't clod?

??? The Jamaican insult? No, it's the one you're talking about.

If you're wondering at the train of thought-- Mom sometimes says "Clot" ("clart"-- to us, they sound the same) when I think she means "clod." As in "bumbling clod." My sister and I have laughed about what might happen if Mom said that in the wrong place/with the wrong people.

[Audley Strange]

You know something. Since Jamaican patois is a form of Engrish, I could see how the colonial "Bumbling clod" could turn into Bumbaclart.

Your mother is smarter than both of us Hades. However that is a hoot.