The topic was not harming others with language and being courteous enough to change one's speech if someone is hurt and/or offended by it. To me, it's derailing to try and explain why they shouldn't be hurt or offended in the first place.
There's practical usage to be considered, and I don't think we should bend over backwards for everyone who's offended by outdated meanings.
And there we've come to the crux of our disagreement. I don't see it as 'bending over backwards'. I see it as showing human decency when someone says, "Hey, that phrase hurts my feelings."
There's plenty of words in current usage to be rightly offended by.
It's the words in current usage that I was talking about in my post. Every single word or phrase currently listed in the post are ones that I've seen someone else take offense to within the last ten months for the reasons that I listed with each of them.
Why should we dredge up ancient linguistics that no one in everyday life would associate with offense?
No one is 'dredging up' anything and I really have to take exception to your use of the word 'ancient'. Every one of these words has been used in it's "ancient" meaning within the last 100 years and to me, that's not ancient history.
And who is this no one in everyday life of whom you are speaking? The reason that I brought these words up is that there are people in everyday life who ARE offended by them.
I just realized that I never addressed your point about the privileged majority several comments back. I am in that majority. I'm US-born, Christian Protestant-raised (though I'm atheist, I can still pass for Christian), white, able-bodied, and though I'm queer I can easily pass for both straight and cis-gendered. I have pretty much every form of privilege it's possible to have except that of being male.
I'm the person that can dismiss someone who tells me that 'pussy' is misogynistic because even though I'm a woman, I'm not affected on an obvious level every day by sexism because I also happen to be beautiful (not vanity - I make my living off my looks and looks are fleeting). I don't have to worry about wheelchair ramps and disabled access. I don't have to worry about 'gay' used as a slur because I can walk down the street holding hands with the person I'm currently in a relationship with.
I don't have to care. I can dismiss every person who tells me that something I've said or done is hurtful because I 'know the history' or 'no one uses that word anymore'.
And again I come back to no one in everyday life. No, it's the MAJORITY of those in everyday life, but it's not the majority who are being hurt here, it's those on the fringes and they're the ones I was speaking on behalf of.
Again, it wasn't my place to do so. I shouldn't have presumed to speak for groups of which I'm not a part.
However.
I'm a woman. I'm bisexual. I have gender identity questions. I'm a sex worker.
As a member of those groups, I'm personally invested when I encourage people to stop using 'gay' to mean anything negative. I have a right to be enraged when I see sex workers being treated as expendable people by society and the media. And I have a vested interest in doing my best to try and fight the rape culture and the sexism that's still inherent in our society.
Everyone has issues about which they are passionate and again, it's impossible to please everyone. I'm not trying to please everyone - if I tried that, I would fail. I'm only trying to be as open-minded and sensitive to the feelings of others as it's possible for me to be. I'm not sure where that line is and I know that no matter how hard I try, I will offend someone through careless words or deeds at some point in the future.
But I'd like to be able to say that I cared enough to try.
no subject
There's practical usage to be considered, and I don't think we should bend over backwards for everyone who's offended by outdated meanings.
And there we've come to the crux of our disagreement. I don't see it as 'bending over backwards'. I see it as showing human decency when someone says, "Hey, that phrase hurts my feelings."
There's plenty of words in current usage to be rightly offended by.
It's the words in current usage that I was talking about in my post. Every single word or phrase currently listed in the post are ones that I've seen someone else take offense to within the last ten months for the reasons that I listed with each of them.
Why should we dredge up ancient linguistics that no one in everyday life would associate with offense?
No one is 'dredging up' anything and I really have to take exception to your use of the word 'ancient'. Every one of these words has been used in it's "ancient" meaning within the last 100 years and to me, that's not ancient history.
And who is this no one in everyday life of whom you are speaking? The reason that I brought these words up is that there are people in everyday life who ARE offended by them.
I just realized that I never addressed your point about the privileged majority several comments back. I am in that majority. I'm US-born, Christian Protestant-raised (though I'm atheist, I can still pass for Christian), white, able-bodied, and though I'm queer I can easily pass for both straight and cis-gendered. I have pretty much every form of privilege it's possible to have except that of being male.
I'm the person that can dismiss someone who tells me that 'pussy' is misogynistic because even though I'm a woman, I'm not affected on an obvious level every day by sexism because I also happen to be beautiful (not vanity - I make my living off my looks and looks are fleeting). I don't have to worry about wheelchair ramps and disabled access. I don't have to worry about 'gay' used as a slur because I can walk down the street holding hands with the person I'm currently in a relationship with.
I don't have to care. I can dismiss every person who tells me that something I've said or done is hurtful because I 'know the history' or 'no one uses that word anymore'.
And again I come back to no one in everyday life. No, it's the MAJORITY of those in everyday life, but it's not the majority who are being hurt here, it's those on the fringes and they're the ones I was speaking on behalf of.
Again, it wasn't my place to do so. I shouldn't have presumed to speak for groups of which I'm not a part.
However.
I'm a woman. I'm bisexual. I have gender identity questions. I'm a sex worker.
As a member of those groups, I'm personally invested when I encourage people to stop using 'gay' to mean anything negative. I have a right to be enraged when I see sex workers being treated as expendable people by society and the media. And I have a vested interest in doing my best to try and fight the rape culture and the sexism that's still inherent in our society.
Everyone has issues about which they are passionate and again, it's impossible to please everyone. I'm not trying to please everyone - if I tried that, I would fail. I'm only trying to be as open-minded and sensitive to the feelings of others as it's possible for me to be. I'm not sure where that line is and I know that no matter how hard I try, I will offend someone through careless words or deeds at some point in the future.
But I'd like to be able to say that I cared enough to try.