Richard Book is Innocent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oxfordtweed) wrote2010-12-11 12:38 pm
oxfordtweed) wrote2010-12-11 12:38 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Is it just me, or are people getting way too easy to offend these days? Particularly, I've noticed, college-educated people. I've found myself on more than one occasion being chewed out for using the singular 'they' in a gender-neutral context, because apparently now, we're supposed to use zie/zir/whatever the hell that is. Which, I can understand the whole thing about how language evolves, but that is just a ridiculous thing to get your panties in a wad over.
I can't even say the word 'retard' any more without getting flamed to all hell. I'd mentioned somewhere (I don't even remember where at this point) that forward progress in our government has begun to retard, and will very quickly grind to a screeching halt at the rate it's going. Now, apparently, even these supposedly smart people on the internet never studied music or English in school, because they didn't know what the word actually means. IT'S A GODDAMN VERB. IT MEANS TO SLOW DOWN OR TO DELAY. It's derived from the Latin retardare, which means -- guess what -- to delay or be slow. How many times have you been tardy to school or work? Guess what? It's the same thing! When it started being applied to people, it was a politically correct way of calling someone an idiot. Now, the word idiot is thrown around with abandon, and the word retard has been given this ridiculous stigma. Fuck!
How many people say 'jeez' in lieu of actually swearing? I've seen it occasionally spelt 'geez,' but that seriously raises my hackles. Do you know why? Jeez is a contracted form of Jesus. Whoops. You're not swearing, but you are blaspheming.
And recently, my husband and his girlfriend were involved in an epic row because he'd used the medically correct word 'hermaphrodite.' Apparently, this is not longer acceptable, and we are supposed to say 'intersexed.' Except, my spell check does not recognise 'intersexed,' and a fucking slug is hermaphroditic (which my spell check does recognise).
Around the same time as that, some guy on the internet told a female blogger that he wanted to "have [her] babies." Somehow, this was tantamount to rape. Jesus the Jew, what the fuck? My first thought when I'd heard this was not that this guy had any interest in this blogger sexually, but rather that he was an ONTD Jackal.
On a similar subject, I am a housewife. I am not a 'stay at home woman' or whatever the new PC title is. Because I don't just stay at home. I do a majority of the shopping, I make sure the bills are paid on time, I take things down to the post office if they need to be dropped off there. A housewife. This is my choice. I am not being oppressed, and my husband does not make any decisions for me.
Not too long ago, while my husband was at work, he was approached by a tourist (which, given his job, happens a lot, so this in and of itself was nothing special). This particular tourist was a middle-aged woman, who was apparently in Vegas on her own, and was trying to get to Old Vegas. When she asked the best/easiest way to get up there, Ryan recommended the Deuce, which is an over-priced bus that takes an hour to go 13 miles, but which is still far preferred over the highway robbery one experiences in Vegas taxis.
This woman, looked at Ryan with incredulity, and very offended at the idea that she take a bus at 9:00 at night, asked if he'd let his wife do that. To this, Ryan apparently laughed, and said that he doesn't let me do anything, and how that particular bus was, at that time (and had also been in the past), part of my commute home from work well after 9:00 at night.
Apparently this was not a good enough answer for this woman, and she walked off, probably to get charged $50 for cab fare.
But that's my point. I don't work now. I'm much happier at home, fixing supper and doing laundry. I hate commuting, and hope to never have to do it again. How the fuck is this anyone's business? No, I do not need liberating. Where were all these rallying cries of liberation when I was working a job I hated for not nearly enough money? Why does it offend people that this is how I've chosen to live my life? Seriously, go pay attention to something a little more important, like starving children or sky rocketing unemployment rates.
I can't even say the word 'retard' any more without getting flamed to all hell. I'd mentioned somewhere (I don't even remember where at this point) that forward progress in our government has begun to retard, and will very quickly grind to a screeching halt at the rate it's going. Now, apparently, even these supposedly smart people on the internet never studied music or English in school, because they didn't know what the word actually means. IT'S A GODDAMN VERB. IT MEANS TO SLOW DOWN OR TO DELAY. It's derived from the Latin retardare, which means -- guess what -- to delay or be slow. How many times have you been tardy to school or work? Guess what? It's the same thing! When it started being applied to people, it was a politically correct way of calling someone an idiot. Now, the word idiot is thrown around with abandon, and the word retard has been given this ridiculous stigma. Fuck!
How many people say 'jeez' in lieu of actually swearing? I've seen it occasionally spelt 'geez,' but that seriously raises my hackles. Do you know why? Jeez is a contracted form of Jesus. Whoops. You're not swearing, but you are blaspheming.
And recently, my husband and his girlfriend were involved in an epic row because he'd used the medically correct word 'hermaphrodite.' Apparently, this is not longer acceptable, and we are supposed to say 'intersexed.' Except, my spell check does not recognise 'intersexed,' and a fucking slug is hermaphroditic (which my spell check does recognise).
Around the same time as that, some guy on the internet told a female blogger that he wanted to "have [her] babies." Somehow, this was tantamount to rape. Jesus the Jew, what the fuck? My first thought when I'd heard this was not that this guy had any interest in this blogger sexually, but rather that he was an ONTD Jackal.
On a similar subject, I am a housewife. I am not a 'stay at home woman' or whatever the new PC title is. Because I don't just stay at home. I do a majority of the shopping, I make sure the bills are paid on time, I take things down to the post office if they need to be dropped off there. A housewife. This is my choice. I am not being oppressed, and my husband does not make any decisions for me.
Not too long ago, while my husband was at work, he was approached by a tourist (which, given his job, happens a lot, so this in and of itself was nothing special). This particular tourist was a middle-aged woman, who was apparently in Vegas on her own, and was trying to get to Old Vegas. When she asked the best/easiest way to get up there, Ryan recommended the Deuce, which is an over-priced bus that takes an hour to go 13 miles, but which is still far preferred over the highway robbery one experiences in Vegas taxis.
This woman, looked at Ryan with incredulity, and very offended at the idea that she take a bus at 9:00 at night, asked if he'd let his wife do that. To this, Ryan apparently laughed, and said that he doesn't let me do anything, and how that particular bus was, at that time (and had also been in the past), part of my commute home from work well after 9:00 at night.
Apparently this was not a good enough answer for this woman, and she walked off, probably to get charged $50 for cab fare.
But that's my point. I don't work now. I'm much happier at home, fixing supper and doing laundry. I hate commuting, and hope to never have to do it again. How the fuck is this anyone's business? No, I do not need liberating. Where were all these rallying cries of liberation when I was working a job I hated for not nearly enough money? Why does it offend people that this is how I've chosen to live my life? Seriously, go pay attention to something a little more important, like starving children or sky rocketing unemployment rates.
no subject
But it is easier to get offended about a word than to try to analyze context. Yes, some words carry heavy baggage - nigger, kyte, cunt - and we should be sensitive to that in an active effort to change social perceptions. But the fact that some people use "hermaphrodite" as a slur (or tranny, or trans, or shemale, or WTFever) is NOT the same thing, and I refuse to accept that ANY word is beyond redemption anyway.
Labeling a word as 'bad' only reinforces it's negative power, and gives that racist/sexist/ableist meaning authority over all other usage. True progressives should be as sensitive to that as to negative context.
But then, this gets back to my whole issue of "hurt feelings do NOT equal activism" rant, which is epic. *sigh*
no subject
I used that word once, in regard TO MYSELF, and got my ass chewed for it.
DUDE, NOT COOL. FFFFFFFFFFFFF
no subject
I'm tempted to get into the rest of this, but I don't have the fucking energy right now.