Anyway, I remember back in 7th grade, I had a young History teacher who frowned upon use of the word weird to describe foreign customs. I really wanted to argue with her, but didn’t. I mean, what is wrong with the word weird? Doesn’t weird mean the same thing as strange? I’ve always thought that weird just means foreign, or unfamiliar. Right? What’s so wrong with something being odd to me? I just wanted to get that out.
So, is the word weird derrogatory(i know i spelled it wrong, but I’m not even going to bother to try)?
According to good old Dictionary.com, weird is defined as, amongst other things, “Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.” There’s nothing wrong with the word, inherently. I think that it’s come to have a negative connotation, which is probably why your teacher didn’t want you to use it. Most people seem to equate weird with bad in some way nowadays.
"Weird goes well beyond “foreign”; it literally means “supernaturally mysterious or fantastically strange,” and may be compared to words like “eerie,” “bizarre,” and “uncanny.” In common speech, “weird” often refers to behavior that is just this side of crazy. It’s definitely inappropriate for describing foreign customs, unless you really did mean to say “the customs of those people are bizarre and unearthly, and incomprehensible to right-thinking folk such as I.”
What’s wrong with it is that you’re not saying it’s odd to you; when you say something is weird, you’re saying it’s odd, period, as if your customs somehow make more sense than theirs.
But my customs DO make more sense than theirs, isn’t that why they are my customs? I mean, do you see any sense in stretching your earlobes out? I don’t, it doesn’t make sense TO ME. Which is why it is weird to me. I mean, our customs probably don’t make sense to them either.
I understand what you mean about it having negative connotations, but I just mean in the pure sense of the word.
your customs make more sense to you than do theirs. in which case, if you must use ‘weird’ to describe their practices, an acceptable remark would be:
I think that stretching earlobes is weird.
Compare this to:
Stretching earlobes is weird.
one statement accepts that the weirdness stems from your mental organization. the other is a blanket generalization of their cultural practices as being unearthly or stupid compared to your own (a phenomenon referred to as Ethnocentrism).
in any case, i believe in today’s world, you’re safer using terms like ‘different’…never know when someone will take offence at a seemingly harmless colloquialism.
Well, I checked out Webster online, and there is a difference between “weird” and “strange”.
In this instance, the negative connotation is part of the pure sense of the word. “Weird” is used to describe witchcraft and the supernatural. The noun form of “weird” is defined as
And the adjective form has two definitions:
Notice that the primary definition is a (debatably) negative one, and that “weird” is more related to witchcraft than to strangeness.
Umm, why would I say “I think that stretching ear lobes is weird.” Saying, “Stretching ear lobes is weird,” is the same thing. It is redundant to say, “I think,” because I am speaking from MY perspective. I don’t speak for anybody else, just myself. At least that’s what my english teachers always yelled at me about…
if all you were looking for is validation, why didn’t you just post it in the pit? You asked, we answered. Yes, “weird” is offensive; yes, you’re implying that you’ve got some god-on-high perspective on culture that makes you the arbiter of all that is normal; yes, you actually have to SAY that you’re expressing an opinion rather than a fact; no, that’s NOT what your English teachers were yelling about; no, I don’t think this will sink in, not even if we tried to hammer it in with a rock.
And stretching earlobes is no more weird than piercing ears, or painting nails, or shaving facial or body hair, or getting breast implants, or getting a nose job, or deliberately eating less to stay thin, or deliberately lying in the sun to get darker, or any of the many other ways that people change their appearance.
Dude, Bippy, not to be a Spelling Nazi, but I do think it’s weird that you manage to spell wierd incorrectly 6 times, then correctly twice, then incorrectly twice.
There’s different…and then there’s horrible. The ones that cause harm and pain for the rest of a person’s life is horrible.
I only know of two right now that I would classify as horrible. In this case I don’t care if it’s tradition, it’s horrible!
One is this tribe that drowns infants/toddlers if their top teeth come in first (they say there will be droughts and stuff if a child that does this is not killed). One woman not so long ago had her 8 month old get her top teeth growing in first…and tried to hide it. Other village members found out and took the baby at night and threw it into the ravine. The mother went into self imposed isolation and refuses to talk to anyone.
The other is another african/muslim tradition (not religious…not in Koran or any other religious writings) that is where young girls (4-16) are strapped down and their female parts cut off with a razor (usually rusty) in pieces with no painkillers. Then the girl is sewn shut with just a small hole for urine to pass through (menstrual blood can’t…that part is sewn shut completely). It takes 15 minutes and pain to urinate. Then her legs are bound together to help stop the bleeding.
The first born child always dies because the first birthing takes about 5 days of hard labor since the the stretchy labia was cut off.
The women also experience a lifelong suffering with bladder and pelvic infections. When married they are re-cut with a razor to allow ‘fertilization’.
I don’t care if these are traditions…they are barbaric!
:mad:
pulykamell, I blame the Illuminati, they taught me ‘i before e except after c’ but I was given the name Keith. That and dyslexia doesn’t help either.
Eosine those are truly horrific stories, but I’m not sure how they relate to the OP. And though calling them barbaric seems reasonable to you (and to me incidentally), that term like wierd could be and perhapse is offensive.
After all some could say male circumcision is barbaric.
Some could say making sex illegal for 14 year olds is weird.
Some could say locking up an 21 year old for having consensual sex with a 17 year old is barbaric.
Some could say the death penalty is barbaric.
All of which could well be offensive to some people from the American/Christian tradition.
