The logical reason not to use the word in that way is that there’s a significant chance you’ll offend someone, or that your listeners will think you’re an immature, thoughtless jerk.
There’s no objective reason why “retard” is worse than many other insults, no. But there’s no objective reason that anything is an insult. Whether something is insulting or not is determined by how people feel about the word and about the object being described by the words. I was trying to point out that this applies to all insults, not just the one being discussed in this thread.
Men are stronger than women on average, but “throwing like a girl” is caused by a lack of practice. I’ve seen little boys throw like girls because they’re too young to have somebody teach them. I don’t think physiology is to blame, although I think it’s true that there are some differences in musculature which cause men to be better at throwing overhand and make it easier for women to throw underhand.
I mean, why not pick another random minority group to throw in there?
See Marley’s reply. “Throwing like a girl” has everything to do with instruction and little to nothing to do with arm structure and ability to develop muscle.
And yet if you took trained men and trained women and put them in a Baseball/Softball/Basketball match, the Men are probably going to win.
In the Knicks vs the Liberty, my money is on the Knicks.
It is to a large degree about training, but at the same time more boys learn how to throw well than girls, and there are reasons for that. Girls just are not as strong as boys in general, and that strength translates into pitching power.
Men have stronger upper bodies than women in general. It’s stupid to argue otherwise. Some women, all else being equal, maybe have more core/hip/leg strength. I’ve heard this evolutionarily explained as being for holding babies longer and carrying them farther. Don’t know how accurate that is or if it’s even something you can really “prove”, but it seems to make sense.
They do, and I for one would rather have a guy throwing a ball at me than some of the softball pitchers I’ve seen. Those girls get some velocity on the ball!
We should pad our entire language and culture from all teasing, colorful language, and insults. The only appropriate exchanges should be executed in robot voice, and be along the lines of:
“Hello, how are you, respected citizen of this spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy?”
“I am well, thank you, and you are looking wonderful today. Let us go pick flowers.”
[fake hug]
And if you ever get genuinely mad at someone, since insults are right out, punch them. If you can’t throw a punch, hit them with your car. Or just act really really passive aggressive towards them forever.
Taking “you throw like a girl” seriously is about 10 times sillier than saying it. It’s not like people aren’t aware of the Lisa Fernandezes and Jenny Finches of the world. It’s just playful teasing. Does “snips and snails and puppy dog tails” offend you too?
The odd thing for me is that they AREN’T EVEN CALLED RETARDED ANYMORE! So people who find “retarded” to be offensive are actually, well, unaware of the current state of the English language.
Anyways, while I try not to offend people, I fail to see anything logical about that. Logic would only dictate only not offending people whose opinion might actually affect me. Thus, why should I logically care about offending people I’m never going to see again?
Looking wonderful? How dare you comment upon my physical appearance. I feel violated. You have mentally raped me with your lecherous judgment of my body and fashion sense.
Really? How about for little girls, in or out of gym class? There are enough words and expressions equating women and girls with weakness and painting boys and men as inferior for even being similar to them. It’s just not helpful. Not in the grand scheme of things and not for girls interested in sports or anything but dawdling in the sidelines during phys ed. Girls are exposed to a lot of this growing up, from childhood to, well, forever I guess.
I suppose if I said I disliked the expression ‘Crying like a little girl’ or ‘Crying like a woman’ you’d show me a study about how women do cry more than men so really it’s just very logical and rational, like all expressions, and not at all sexist.
Used unironically, yeah, probably. Listen, I understand that everything changes with context. I’ve worked with mentally disabled children. I’ve worked with young girls in less-than-ideal schools. I somehow use ‘retarded’ way too much but hate the term ‘retard.’ But sometimes it just seems that everything’s up for discussion – as it should be – but this sort of thing. It’s like watching a bad '80s college movie where the douchey jocks call the nerds ‘Ladies’ or ‘Girls’ and it’s the biggest affront ever.
