Razor

Yeah, I think that changing societal norms is what we should aim for... but as far as insults go... hehe... I do like swizzle stick. Mind if I start using that? "Keep your swizzle stick away from me!" ~giggles~ Anyway... Slurs don't bother me personally, but I know that they harm other people, and THAT is what pisses me off. They don't affect me, because I choose not to be offended and I choose not to listen to them, and it took a looooong time for me to realize that words really are just words, but I know that there are other people who are severely hurt every time they hear something like that. It's for that reason that I can't stand insults like faggot or homo or the like. And yeah, I don't really expect special treatment as a homosexual, but I WOULD appreciate a dash of equality thrown into my every day life. Instead of people using part of my personal identity as an insult, it'd be nice if they'd keep it to themselves... but hey, maybe we should just start saying "gay" when we normally say "cool". Like "Hey man, did you see that? It was so totally gay!" But it'd be in a GOOD way, instead of a bad way. I think we could pull it off...

Good point about it being a fad. I've noticed that too. I understand that this is especially hurtful because you can't always just stand up and be like "You know what, biznitch, I don't appreciate you using the f-bomb around me!", since not everybody is out... Maybe I'm just a hopeless pessimist, but I find it hard to think that any amount of protest will result in the elimination of slurs and insults from our midst. I do think that maybe by quietly correcting people and explaining, that maybe it would help a bit, and eventually get rid of it because it would become a social taboo in itself... but that takes a very long time.

This was really nice, and I'm glad it made everybody happy, but I have a little something to add, just to make it a little more complicated here... How can you ask for an apology when you probably do the same thing in a different way? She called something gay... How many times have you called something retarded? Ever think maybe a retarded kid would hear you and feel offended? What about just calling something plain stupid? Maybe there's somebody in the mass crowd of random people who gets told they're stupid every day, and you using it that way just reminds them of the way everyone puts them down. I'm just saying that maybe we shouldn't ask for apologies for these things... maybe we should just kind of point it out to each other in hopes that it'll happen less and less. And let's face it, if we raise a ruckus every time we get offended, it's gonna be a helluva long time before anybody's happy... Maybe a bit of passive resistance is more called for? In this case it was nice because the teacher realized she really offended someone and tried to correct herself, but is it fair to expect her to be perfect when you know no one else is? Ah, I'm not sure exactly how to articulate my idea, but I hope you know where I'm going with it. Though I have to admit... the story did kinda make me feel warm and fuzzy.