For me, it’s shortbus jokes. I was a special eddie for ten years (and coincidentally, did take a minibus to school most of that time). In grade school I was teased horribly for being a “retard”, and I still shudder when I hear that term, even in medical contexts. When I hear people insulting others by saying things like, “You’re special… special ed”, it makes me furious. I have poor self-esteem on the subject, and it doesn’t help when people assume that special ed=drooling morons.
I’m sorry if the above is incoherent or poorply spelled. I’m having a keyboard dyslexia day.
Sexism, male chauvinism, “chivalry.”
I’m female, but I’m not at all girly (except for my love of cats, I guess). I like to be “one of the guys,” and I don’t like being singled out, positively or negatively, for being female (for example, guys trying to “protect” me in any way, chivalrously open doors for me, make comments about my appearance, call me “dear,” etc.) When I was little and I asked why I couldn’t do something, my dad would say, “Because you’re a girl!” in a teasing way (I was like this as a very small child too and he picked up on it). I hated it. I don’t think he realized how much I hated it, or he might not have done it. I like to think so, anyway.
So yeah, I’m sensitive about that. Sometimes I’m oversensitive, and see things when they aren’t really there at all. I’m happiest when I’m being treated as a non-gender-specific person. There are very few times where it should make a difference, and most of them involve either my doctor or my spouse.
My weight and general physical condition. My age.
Jokes about sexual assault/rape. An acquaintance of mine just put up a facebook status that said he was so excited about something he “wants to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant” and I’m fuming about it.
Animal abuse/death. I ended up with a guilt-induced second cat because I watched a news article on how many pets in NYC were being abandoned in the difficult financial times. I hate watching movies or reading books where the dog dies in the end.
My weight, terribly so. I had a very close friend insult me horribly about it once, for an entire day. I used to have a great self-image in that I never thought about it, but now I’m hopelessly insecure about my looks, hate being photographed, and have been known to leave a clothing store in tears.
Being called a liar. My mother hated liars and always accused me of lying and threatened to throw me out of the house if she thought I was lying. She did this despite the fact that I can remember three instances in my lifetime where I actually lied, and none of the lies were significant or could have hurt anyone (like lying to my dentist that I floss twice daily.) In addition to this, a traumatic experience I had during my childhood was made all the more traumatic when I was accused of lying about it by most of the people in my family, despite the fact that I had an absurdly long record of being truthful even when it meant I would get into trouble. I tell the truth. I get that other people don’t, but I DO, and live my life under the assumption that everyone tells the truth unless explicitly shown otherwise. Don’t call me a fucking liar or I will probably never talk to you again. Also, don’t lie to me.
I used to be sensitive about a lot of things, but what a waste of time, to be constantly upset about stuff other people say. I can take child abuse jokes, retard jokes, misogynist jokes and just about every other kind of joke without flinching. Outwardly, anyway, I’m not really sensitive to much any more. I owe that almost exclusively to the Straight Dope.
People saying that ALL furries are sexual perverts. Furries / furry fans just like media with anthropormorphic or talking animals. It’s a fandom label like Trekkie or otaku. Like always, a small group of utter dipshits have to ruin something for everyone else.
People insulting my friends.
If you didn’t know already, he’s quoting Tracy Jordan form 30 Rock, and I’m not sure there’s any implication of assault or rape in the original quote(s). That being said, I’m pretty sick of unironic sexism. I don;t get personally offended most of the time, but I do call friends and acquaintances on their crap and use stupid jokes to start a discussion (so if there’s one message they get, it’s ‘Say something offensive and get a lecture or debate’).
Overall I am pretty hypersensitive for a cynical bitch. I can’t get as good as I give. But in my experience, it’s the stuff that’s joked about that’s the least important. The things that get tiptoed around tend to be worse…
I don’t think that I’m sensitive about misogyny in terms of hurting my feelings but it infuriates me and wants to make me go claws out in full bitch mode for their throats.
I have bipolar disorder and I’m not at all sensitive about it with friends or with anyone that’s genuinely curious about it or wants to pick my wonky brain apart but in general mental health jokes, ignorance and cruelty about it make me flinch. I didn’t develop it until late in life and all and all was pretty successful at anything that I wanted to do, have a great relationship, good friends, own a home and property that I love and I’ll be damned if some twit that still lives with mommy is going to make me feel ashamed of myself for having a medical condition that there isn’t a cure for and that just needs to be managed. People are just so incredibly ignorant about it sometimes.
Every time someone says something about not ‘sticking their dick in teh crazy’ I have to walk away so that I don’t type half a page of reasons why someone that would make a generalization like that wouldn’t get their dick near me if they were the last man on earth. Then I spend the rest of the day feeling like shit and miserable.
Being called a Liar, or being lied about. My ex-wife spent our entire relationship building a house of lies about me, slandering me from one end of the Earth to the other. The most hurtful ones being about my second issue below. So much so that I had a lot of people calling me a liar when I tried to set things straight. I’ve had plenty of bad bosses lie to me, lie about me, get called on their bullshit and slander me to save themselves. And then be believed because they were in a position of authority over me, or were the favorites of their bosses.
This is the number one thing that infuriates the hell out of me.
The second is being accused of being violent. I’ve thrown exactly two punches or blows in my entire 28 years of adult life, both in self defense. TWO. In four years of working Security, I only laid hands on ONE GUY, ONCE, and that was only to peel a drunk off the back of another guy, because he was literally on the guy’s back, choking him out from behind. I had plenty of opportunity to legally lay people out or beat them within an inch of their lives and have THEM arrested for it. I never did it. I’m not a violent man. I am a PASSIONATE man, but I’m not violent.
And yet, my ex-wife told repeated tales of me abusing her - always extremely short of any actual details - while SHE was physically abusing me. Some former friends told tales of me beating their children and their dogs, when the truth of it was that their children were hitting me (and I never hit back) and their dogs were biting and scratching the fuck out of me - and they would scream at me for allegedly hitting them when I would merely push them away from me.
So pretty much now, I’ve had enough of either one of those. You lie about me or accuse me of being violent, you can go fuck yourself and I will never speak to you or have any respect for you ever again. No apology accepted, no forgiveness, no return. Just get the fuck away from me.
Animal abuse. I can’t even read about it. It makes me physically ill.
AIDS. My uncle, who was like a fun big brother, died of AIDS at age 36 and I’ve never really gotten over it. I watched “Philadelphia” once, and although it’s a great movie I’ll never watch it again. I’ve heard people say wonderful things about “Angels in America” but I don’t think I can watch it.
Anything to do with animal abuse/pain/death. I have to change the channel when the Sarah McLaughlin ASPCA ads come on. That always ends in tears.
Skin problems. Off an on, since infancy, I have had problems with my skin. While I have enjoyed period of relatively clear, healthy skin it’s not something I can take for granted. So I tend to be overly sensitive about negative comments, or even neutral comments, in regards to blemishes, rashes, etc.
If someone suggests that I’m not capable of rational thought because I’m female that infuriates me.
And if someone suggests that I’m a snob, that hurts my feelings.
The former because it’s untrue and harmful, the latter because I try hard not to be.
When people get irritated that they have to repeat things to me. I can explain that I have a hearing impairment but generally, if they’re going to get uppity over repeating themselves a couple times I’d rather avoid them anyway. I dislike having to ask people to repeat themselves as it is, so having them get all uppity on me makes me pretty anxious and immediately makes me want to leave. Luckily I don’t get this all that often. Or maybe that’s why it gets to me so much.
I don’t know if this counts as sensitive, but people lying to me makes me very angry, and I’m not likely to give second chances to liars. I used to be extremely gullible and trusting, and I had several so-called friends throughout my young life who had bad habits of simply making up stuff. One girl promised me a trip to Bermuda to visit her aunt on a private jet–we talked about it for weeks, and I honestly believed it would materialize. Another would go on about how much everyone liked her, but only in secret, especially all the boys. Another had magical powers and would fight off would-be attackers and muggers on her way home every day…it went on and on.
Finally, one guy took me in really badly when I was in college, and it got personal and creepy. It dawned on me that he was reinventing himself through a web of lies and stories to cover up insecurities and fool people, and I was buying everything, because I had never seen any reason for someone to lie about stuff. My trusting nature just fell away one day, and I’m pretty skeptical now. I hate knowing that I was taken for an idiot so many times, that I was fooled. So I’m quite sensitive about that, with good reason, IMHO.
But sometimes I am too sensitive. In fact, I frequently have suspicions that friends of mine are lying to me, but since I have no proof, I can acknowledge that it’s probably just unfounded paranoia. My husband is really accepting of my skepticism problem, as long as I don’t turn it around on him. I’m almost certain that my extreme dislike of dishonesty is one of the reasons I’ve stuck with him all these years. The man couldn’t lie if his life depended on it; he just doesn’t have it in him.
I don’t care what people say about me but I will not tolerate being accused of lying. I also don’t like it if people think I’m mean (unless I am actually trying to be mean). I don’t have much going for me, but my honesty and niceness are very important to me.
I get upset with people who look at a thin person and say “eat a sandwich!”
I think it’s as offensive as calling someone fat. Arguably worse, as it doesn’t currently seem to be considered bad behaviour.
People assuming I’m stupid because I dropped out of college.
I’m going to echo what Sleeps With Butterflies said: