Since I see that my ability to use the name “Venus Hottentot” is under consideration by the mods, I would just like to briefly state a few things.
I didn’t mean to offend anyone at all, and I honestly didn’t imagine anyone would be offended.
I am sorry that McDribble is offended. I chose the name for purely personal reasons.
I learned about Saartjie many years ago, and related to her on certain levels. I used to be ashamed of my body type, but I learned to love my big hips, protruding behind and thick thighs.
There are many people I admire and respect. Many historical figures have taught me to love and respect education. Many historical figures have taught me to love and respect my quirks, my idiosyncrysies, all the things that make me special.
But very few people were able to make me feel that my physical attributes were beautiful. I remember the day a young man introduced me to writings about Saartjie and told me, “That is you! You look a bit like her.” And he told me I was beautiful. I internalized that and believed it. And I still do.
I was under the impression from much of what I read about her that she answered to the name, and volunteered to participate in exhibits. I understand all that is foul, hurtful, and wrong about the whole ordeal.
But I did think it was ok to take the name in tribute of her. I have been using that name in different capacities for years.
Very smart of you to post your explanation here. While the mods/Admins are still thinking about this, you certainly add facts into the mix that make this a bit more complicated that someone registering with a deliberately chosen offensive name.
I’m glad that you volunteered the information since nobody seems to have bothered to ask you your reasons for choosing that name before their panties became severely twisted. I figured you probably had a good reason.
Not to hijack- but you do realize that the OP of the other thread never suggested that she chose her username merely to troll or be inflammatory. His point, as far I took it, was that even with a good reason, usernames with racial and ethnic slurs could be offensive and hurtful. His original OP may not have been the clearest, but even I, with zero knowledge of this slur, was able to figure out the issue pretty quickly.
While the merits of his position can be debated, I think characterizing someone’s clearly sincere hurt (being the ethnic group that this particular slur is drirected against) as having “his panties in a twist” is unkind and not helpful.
Personally, as a member of an enthic group that has slurs which, at least at one point, have entered common vernacular (to Jew down someone etc), I can sympathize with his position not to have to see this ethnic ethnic slur used on a message board.
Venus – I just wanted to let you know that I was drawn to your username as soon as I saw it in your thread about African-Americans. At the time, I speculated that you had chosen it for the reasons that you have stated in this thread. I feel very similarly about the Venus of Willendorf. If the mods decide that your current username is offensive, I think that Saartjie would be a great alternative that would be similarly empowering. I hope that this controversy doesn’t prevent you from sticking with the boards, because I look forward to hearing more from you.
If the username in question had been Fucking Hottentots or something, I’d get it. But I really can’t see the offensiveness in Venus Hottentot. I can’t find any perfect analogies, but would anybody have a problem with the usernames Elephant Man or Nigger Jim?
Indeed. He repeated a few times that the OPs motivation really has nothing to do with it.
Having only heard the word in passing before today (not in a while, and I can’t recall the circumstances), and after reading the Wikipedia articles and the discussion in the other thread, I think I come down on his side. His comparison to someone choosing the name “Nigger Jim” because they identify with the character seems apt. I can’t imagine that would be permitted even if the poster had a “good reason,” and I can’t imagine accusations of panties being twisted would be thrown around in that case.
I had never realized the meaning of the term Hottentot myself and am glad to have found out what it really means.
My understanding is that this term was hugely deragotory term to reference the South African people the Khoi (forgive me if I spell it wrong- I’m running off memory). It is equivalent to other slurs like Kike, Nigger, etc to the people of this group.
Not being Khoi or South African I must take the word of someone who is who says it is this offensive.
And mine was that the least one could do before complaining about a specific username would be to consult the user in question to ask why the person would pick the name. In this case, it’s a tribute to the lady named. So a new poster who picked the name for no nefarious reason sees her username complained about.
All I’m saying is that before you’re going to single someone out, at least communicate with the person first, especially when she doesn’t seem to be a troublesome element.
OK- thought experiment: Let’s say he did what you suggest and asked her the question. I will assume that she would provide the same info she did in the OP in this thread.
Will that info change McDribble’s objection or his course of action? Personally, I don’t think so. It’s still an ethnic slur that is offensive to him. He would still ask if ethnic slurs are allowed in usernames. He would still petition the mods to consider if this is allowed.
Nowhere in his OP or subsequent posts did he question her motives, so therefore, her motives are not relevant to his motivation for posting the question.
So, that’s my take on the whole thing and as always, YMMV.
I for one am not offended at the word, ‘nigger’ in the sense that there is a character called “nigger jim”.
I am more offended at the word hurled at me viciously, but not as much as one would expect.
I do understand that many are offended by the word nigger, so I don’t use it, except in the company of my peers, where I admit I do use the word ‘nigga’…in slang and in hip-hop lyrics that I listen to.
Sorry!! (Where were you 3.5 minutes after I posted so I could fix it? :smack: ). It’s the cold medicine talkin’ I tells you.
(I kind of like McDribble, though…)
As I said in the last thread where you brought this up, I asked her about her choice of name in the thread about people from the ghetto (see post 16), before **MrDibble ** started his thread. I’m not MrDibble, but it’s incorrect to say that she wasn’t asked.
I think he’ll be “McDribble” in my head forever now, sigh.
May I also say that I hope you know that all this discussion about your username doesn’t mean anyone is upset or angry with you. I hope you feel welcomed here and not put off by this discussion that seems to be occuring around you, but not speicifically about you!
Does that make sense? I think I need more cold medicine…
