Re: this thread, post #88.
There should be a military draft? Did I read your post right? You seem to be implying that Dopers (specifically, those in the thread) would be the ones drafted. This strikes me as very odd, because I am assuming that they span a variety of ages and countries. But even were it to be the case, do you think of the draft as a punishment (that falls on those who disagree with you)? Even if one supports forced conscription, shouldn’t military service be seen rather as an obligation expected of adults* in a modern nation-state, not as a punishment?
Have The Pansy beaten out of them? Anti-gay violence against both youth and adults is a serious problem all over the world (links I’m including refer only to the US, but a Google search for “anti-gay violence” will bring up examples from many other countries). It’s a problem in the US military too. It’s not funny, it doesn’t make someone straight and it shouldn’t be condoned. There are gay people on the Dope (as well as non-gay people whose posts might make them seem like “pansies” to you) and it’s incredibly offensive to state that they should be attacked for their sexual orientation and/or non-normative gender expression. Just because someone disagrees with you and has more compassion than you, or because someone is LGBT, does not mean it’s okay to hurl insults at them and threaten them.
Sincerely,
A (female) Pansy on the Dope
*I am aware that the selective service and the draft are expected only of men in many countries, in which case the obligation falls only on men, specifically young men. This issue is outside the scope of this thread.
Jesus. “Pansy” generally means an effeminate man or more generally a soft person. Seriously, there’s nothing in the context of that thread to indicate he was trying to insult homosexuals.
I’ve never heard the word ‘pansy’ used as a pejorative without it including the specific connotation of ‘homosexual’. To me, that sentence is no different than if he’d said, “Or at least a program where people can go to get The Fag beaten out of them.” (emphasis mine.)
Maybe it’s not what he meant but it is rather like calling Liberace, “fruity”. (ie - no, it doesn’t necessarily mean gay, but we all know what it means.)
If we’re going to pit Chessic Sense for anything here, I say it should be for the fact that I’m going to have that “There are two places black people like to go…” jingle stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
Pansy means neither effeminate nor gay. It means wimpy. Weak. Prone to whining and complaining. I originally typed “whiny bitch” but it was IMHO and the thread didn’t have the appropriate tone.
I didn’t say we should have a draft. I said we should have mandatory military service, and I mean that at about the same level of seriousness as people who say you should have to pass an IQ test before having kids.
Look, Little Nemo said that if Wal*Mart doesn’t make a big stink about this, then they are supporting institutionalized racism. And I’m saying he’s WAY overreacting to a silly prank, which is exactly what pranks are designed to induce. I’m saying that the people that are boycotting the store are whiny little bitches that deserve to be mocked and jeered for their PANSY behavior. They need to stand up tall and quit bitching that someone sob hurt their sob FEEEEEWINGS!
To which “it” are you referring? The OP or my comment?
Only in the Pit and GD. You should see me in MPSIMS. I’m huggably, squeezably soft!
As much as Chessic’s pansy remark was a poor choice of words for the older leaning Dope, the word hasn’t meant “homosexual” in a long time. It means “wimp” and it amazes me that I’ve had to explain this to multiple people in the last few months.
Whatever the merits of this pitting in a larger sense, dragoncat’s point isn’t really diminished by acceptance of the (incorrect) assumption that pansy doesn’t mean homosexual, because it certainly does mean effeminate, and it has for a long damn time. It’s hard to believe that otherwise intelligent people will claim that when it comes to a word that has historically had connotations X and Y, where X and Y are nominally different but carry the same kind of stigma, they can authoritatively claim that the word no longer means X, just Y.
“No, you know, I just meant he’s not that strong, like a flower! Flowers can’t like lift a lot of weight!”