Driving the kids into school, I made some offhand comment that somehow involved midgets, which unfortunately led to my daughter asking me all sorts of midget-based questions. I did my best to answer them, but had to eventually press home the point that I wasn't sure if the term "midget" is considered offensive to...well, midgets. I recommended shying away from it until I could do more research (presumably involving finding one, calling them a midget, and seeing if they proceed to kick my shins).
I'm uncomfortable with situations like this. I'm rarely the most politically correct person in the room, but I try to be somewhat sensitive to the feelings of others. I almost never say things like "Great googly moogly, what's wrong with your face?" anymore. Still, there are cases where I feel that people go out of their way to be offended by something.
I'll give you an example. I'm a programmer. I like monkeys. Also, I like Fritos and Mountain Dew. Guess what the proper term for an individual such as myself is.
Obviously, "code monkey".
I've been told that I should shy away from this term at my workplace though because someone from another country is offended by it. Apparently, wherever they come from, referring to a person as a monkey is incredibly offensive. Well...okay, but we're not there right now and I'm not using it that way, so I'm thinking maybe it's time to let that one go. Frankly, I don't think much of any place that villainizes monkeys, so I get why they left in the first place.
Insensitive of me? Perhaps, but really, if we gather all of the things everyone ever got offended by and decided not to use those words anymore, we'd be left with a language composed of "the" and "rutabaga". Maybe "noodle", but I wouldn't count on it.
Still, I see the other side of it. I've actually had conversations with people online that are completely convinced that it's not considered offensive to call someone "faggot" so long as it's in the context of an online video game. They told me that the word had been adopted by gamers, who had changed the meaning to "not a good player", so there was no reason for gays to be offended by it.
In my head all I could hear were the words of my son: "Yeah, but no". The word was adopted by gamers for the very reason that one would assume, and any supposed change in meaning is rendered moot by the fact that the word is still constantly used, within our society, as an offensive slur. So long as the that douchebag Rev. Phelps and his ilk are on this planet (and remain closeted - wink wink, nudge nudge), the argument is simply unacceptable.
So what do I take from all of this? I guess that offensiveness of a word is a strangely subjective thing, based on current culture as well as context. Also, people are far more likely to consider a word no longer offensive if they were never part of the offended group to begin with. Still, it doesn't do much for the whole "midget" conundrum, so I should probably use a substitute expression for now.
I guess "Shorty McTinybritches" will do for now.
2 comments:
Unfortunately, "noodle" is offensive to men with erectile dysfunction... and perhaps more so to their wives. Looks like you're down to only two acceptable words.
Yes, I realize that the Bible's condemnation of homosexuals is put in no stronger terms that the condemnation of shellfish or shaving one's beard. I was simply using them as an example of the active use of that slur.
Also, it's a shame about "noodle". Still, it does explain Viagra marketing a product that re-dries out cooked pasta. Fascinating.
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