I like that the master’s bedroom “easily accommodates twin beds”. Which suggests the folks making fun of the Flintstone’s, Petrie’s and Ricardo’s sleeping arrangements may not have quite as strong a case as everyone assumes.
Being incorrect about the etymology of a particular phrase is a mistake that I suspect most people that you want respect from have also made.
Clearly something must be done about woke capitalism. What do you propose?
“What’s all the rumpus?”
~Tom Reagan
Because it generally isn’t just their problem. Their offense will at least add friction between your interactions (however many that will be). And it could get much worse. It’s often easier to head it off.
There’s obviously a way to go overboard with it, as there always is. You can’t anticipate everything. But it makes sense as a general rule to be somewhat proactive about this. If someone lets you know that some decent number of people find something offensive, it makes sense to take that into account.
Especially with fraught situations like this involving racism, bigotry, or things of similar import. It’s unlikely this is one single stupid person saying it.
Excuse me - when you state:
Then you are, indeed, telling someone they should not be offended. You are telling them how to feel. Whether or not you INTEND to cause offense is not what determines whether or not offense is caused. It is entirely possible, probably very common, to UNintentionally cause offense.
After someone tells you “I am offended” it is your choice whether or not to continue the offensive behavior. It is not your choice whether or not that person continues to be offended because you can not dictate to another person how they feel.
The Online Etymology Dictionary has an earlier US cite than the Sears catalog:
And specifically:
Master bedroom, “bedroom designed for the use of the owner of the property,” as opposed to bedrooms for children or guests, is by 1919 in U.S. home-builders publications (e.g. Building Age, April 1919). It seems to be based on the English master’s bedroom (by 1903) “bedroom of a headmaster or other master at an English boarding school or other similar institution.”
The top floor was treated much the same as the two lower ones. Here the closet was made just a bit larger so as to allow for a bathtub, thus pushing the partition forward, making the front room less deep than the rooms below, yet paradoxically larger, because it takes in the whole front of the house. This is what is known in English advertisements as the “Master’s bedroom.” [The House Beautiful, June 1921]
On one hand, they do think that the usage evolved from “master’s bedroom.” On the other, the English usage it evolved from apparently referred to a headmaster of a boarding school or similar position.
It also seemed to have a very specific meaning of a bedroom that was larger than the others by virtue of taking up the full width of the house.
As I’ve gotten older, I guess I’ve just wanted all manner of things to go more smoothly and pleasantly. I used to argue all manner of things. Now, I just want to live and let live. I’d just as soon not offend anyone if I can avoid it - unless someone is a blatant racist, or misogynist or something.
Something similar may be occurring now.
In real estate advertising, the word most clearly changing is bedroom. In red counties, it is now most commonly a master suite. And in blue counties, it is now most commonly an owner’s suite.
I think the ultimate fate of the word master is still uncertain, even though it has taken a hit. If the locale is 50-50 between our two major political parties, the word master is currently losing.
You are just flat out wrong. I can’t explain it to you any clearer than the words I use in the quote you yourself have just used.
At no point do I say that anyone should feel a certain way, or that they are wrong to feel a certain way. I say that everyone, once in possession of the facts, has the option to choose how to react. A point that you yourself made.
which I assume you are applying to everyone, yes?
This is just a small sample, but I think of the world on a flat map that cuts down the middle of the Pacific, so we are literally on the western side of the world. Similarly, I think of my location within the country as being on the eastern side of my conceptual map.
I’d love for someone to complete the analogy.
We only get:
([a frog in a slowly heated pot] is to [society experiencing linguistic evolution])
as
([a boiled frog] is to … [x])
What is x?
No it’s not but I don’t see what that has to do with the question in the OP. There can be all sorts of reasons for language to change but that doesn’t make 'Master Bedroom ’ a racist term.
Only if their last name is Bates.
(Credit: the first page of Gulliver’s Travels.)
The short answer to the thread title would become: No, but it is anyway becoming obsolescent.
You specifically say that they have the option of “continuing to take offence.” I would argue that’s not generally true. You don’t choose whether to take offense. You believe something is offensive–that there’s something about it that should not be.
Even if the person 100% believes you didn’t intend to offend, it’s possible (and even likely) that the person thinks what you said was in fact offensive, and that you should stop saying it. They aren’t choosing to still be offended. They think what you say inherently carries an offensive element.
For example, I find the idea that you just shouldn’t care if you offend anyone to be offensive. But I have chose to react to that by explaining why I think that reaction is wrong. My choice did not involve the offense, just the reaction to said offense.
Of course you do.
If someone uses a word that sounds exactly the same as one that can be considered offensive your initial reaction may be one of taking offence. If you then have it explained to you how it is being used, the context, the usage and the intent etc. You now have the choice of continuing to be offended and asking for someone else to change their (completely benign) language or shrugging it off and getting on with your life. You are completely in control of your reaction here.
And I find the idea that my mere sense of initial offence must require a change in another person’s behaviour to be far too much of a presumption.
You don’t see the problem with explaining to someone why they are wrong to take offense at something they believe they have reason to be offended by? Again, YOU don’t get to decide what it is or isn’t appropriate for someone else to be offended by. “Explaining” why someone shouldn’t be offended is the same thing as telling them they’re out of line for being offended and shouldn’t feel that way.
But since this is clearly a hill you want to die on I see we are not getting through to you. So… you do you.
Please note : I originally agreed with your statement. The words used have convinced me clearly that I was incorrect.
An individual using words that they know are reasonably likely to cause offense is a choice of an action. Actions are relatively easy to choose to perform or to not perform.
An individual experiencing offense is an internal emotional response, one of hurt. It is extremely difficult to decide whether or not to have an emotional response, even if those responses are not logical. Even within Vulcan culture it took training! We can control our action based on those responses. A person can decide to act as if the offense did not occur. They can rationally conclude that the offense was the result of ignorance and forgive it. They can conclude that the other was aware that what was said would have a high chance of causing offense and did it anyway. In the latter a common reaction would be hurt to anger and anger to action in response, be that verbal, walking away, refusing to do business, etc. Those actions are choices.
Telling someone who is offended that there is no cause for offense, that they are choosing to be offended, will not usually go well.
Again specific to this thread: I think a person in the general population can currently use “master bedroom” in conversation without fear of offense the vast majority of the time. But it is a word that for multiple reasons is going out of fashion (including realtors fear of having even a few react negatively to it), and as that builds? Meanings received can change.