Maybe they dont as they dont want people dancing right up the the line, and going: "SEE! I am not violating your stupid rule!"
While we’re all holding forth on how use of words like “hot” are mysoginistic and deeply offensive, it seems only appropriate that another word be deemed completely unacceptable here.
I am ethnically a Jew from a family that pre-dates the 12 Tribes of Judea by over 1,900 years. My people were routinely beaten, raped, starved and murdered by their “master”.
If applied to an inanimate object, the word “master” is perfectly acceptable. i.e., " They used to make master audio recordings out of Bakalite™ cylinders ".
If applied to a person, the word “master” is a massive trigger word for anyone whose personal history involves violence and oppression. Not only people of Jewish heritage, but anyone descended from oppressed peoples.
From where I sit, using a word like “master” here is every bit as disgusting, inappropriate and Warnable as “hot”.
I don’t come in to The Dope to be told who my master is.
I don’t think I’ve ever used it, but I’ll refrain from using it in the future if I know it’s offensive to you and to the folks I may be talking to.
(Yes, I know you’re trying to make some kind of point, but that is a sincere answer from me. If you find it offensive, of course I won’t use it. Why would I?)
While I get what you’re saying, the kabuki-theater offense that Cartooniverse plays at is obnoxious. He doesn’t seem to get that people irritated at things like talking about the hotness of female politicians are genuinely irritated, not playing some sort of holier-than-thou game.
Interesting.
Yeah, something smells here.
There’s a huge difference between people who are genuinely offended and people merely claiming to be.
Nice try.
You never disappoint.
Yes, I was making a point. And it wasn’t to disrespect the people who are very very very tired of being referred to as “hot”
The point was that being the Word Police is a losing proposition.
" Don’t Be A Jerk " has served us pretty well since before 1999.
Smells like bad faith, frankly.
Fascinating little thread, here. (I also find multi-vehicle car wrecks fascinating.)
I just thought I’d add that the [Google Ngram results](Google Ngram Viewer" fairer sex ") for usage of the phrase **“fairer sex” **over time are interesting. (Might be issues with their corpus, yadda yadda.) The phrase seems to have been faddish. Usage saw spikes in popularity around the Civil War, from 1900-1920, and around WWII.
It hasn’t fallen out of use – far from it! Lots of references from the late 1960s onwards. But, roughly, as often as not it seems to be referenced as a signifier of old-fashioned sexism.
I wonder if HurricaneDitka suspected that the phrase would be controversial in this context? Or whether “abreast” and “henpecked” would be?
You should probably work on your skills there.
Oh, I totally understand that. But, even if Cartooniverse were playing the kabuki-theatre offense game for whatever dumbass reason, if he told me the word “master” offends him or whatnot, I would just avoid that word, because I try not to be an asshole. I don’t always succeed, but I do my best.
He knows exactly what he’s doing.
He’s been doing it for a long time while complaining he doesn’t understand after it’s been explained to him a million times while he continues to do it while complaining he doesn’t understand after it’s been explained to him a million times while he continues to do it while complaining he doesn’t understand after it’s been explained to him a million times while he continues to do it…
I’ll admit that I won’t disarm myself of a useful word or expression merely because someone claims they are offended by it. For one thing, I’m not convinced that taking offense is a particularly intense form of suffering nor should it rank high in cost benefit situations.
As I student of wordcraft though I like to be aware that certain words offend. And as someone with a very modest amount of manners, I feel no urge to needlessly and gratuitously offend others. To use the technical expression, it’s an aspect of not being an asshole. Still, not all dings and slings are harmful on net.
There are a set of words I try to avoid, but it is not a large set.
Oh, sure. While I agree with some of his points earlier, there’s no doubt in my mind that “henpecked” was picked purposefully to needle people. I mean, who the fuck uses that word these days anyway?
Some try not to be assholes. Others …choose a different direction.
Some don’t try to be assholes. It just comes naturally.
But you haven’t been asking for a definition; you’ve been asking for a LEXICON. The issue is NOT that it’s too complicated; it’s that there’s no way to anticipate every possible way people could make comments that are misogynist.
Imagine a kid saying he can’t figure out on his own what names he can’t call his sister, so his parents should write out a comprehensive list. The parents create a very, very long list of all the forbidden names they can think of, and he tells his sister, “You have the intelligence of an amoeba.”
He’s smugly triumphant. Not on the list of forbidden names! His parents add “Do not tell your sister she has the intelligence of an amoeba.”
He turns to his sister and says, “You have the IQ of a protozoa.”
“No comments on your sister’s intelligence at all!” his frustrated parents tell him.
So he tells his sister that with some effort, she could win second prize at a dog show.
It becomes obvious this isn’t only about his sister: it’s an attempt to manipulate his parents, so they finally tell him,
“Look, just don’t be a jerk.”
Because it’s a perfectly valid word depending on the context*. As a Jew with credentials similar to his, I’m giving you the OK to use it.
*A sensei, for instance, is properly referred to as a master. And this is the context in which Cecil uses it.
I didn’t even know there was a formal misogyny policy. Until it slapped me down with a warning.
Note to self. No matter how tempting, never make a harmless ED joke about an ED ad running on the SDMB.
Those ads are meant to be a bit suggestive. That’s how they sell those blue pills.
I knew we couldn’t make crude sexual comments about women. That’s perfectly understandable. I don’t say things like that anyhow.
But the policy here goes way beyond that.
::rolleyes::
I’ll be on the veranda, since you’re already on the cross.