Feminist

[Plane]

‘Feminist’ is winning the Time magazine poll of Words to Ban with 45% of the vote.

https://metro.co.uk/2014/11/15/feminist-is-winning-the-time-magazine-poll-of-words-to-ban-with-45-of-the-vote-4949347/


  This poll ran totally out of the control of the management.

     So should they stop proposing bans on irritating words ?

      Should they avoid putting any words on the list that are dear to about half of their readership?

   I think this is hilarious and informative.

    But it isn't the truth, what we are learning isn't the value of the word, but the nature of the poll!

[Xavier_Onassis]

You cannot ban an idea or an attitude by banning the word to describe it.

It is not actually like words can be banned, anyway.

[Plane]

Why don't you ever use the "N" word?

I don't because my mother told me not to when I was small.

And now my employer tells me I will be fired if I start.

Good thing I never did pick up the habit, there really have been people in serious trouble for letting that one slip out.

So we say enquote N outquote word to avoid using that word that must not be pronounced nor spelt out.

I don't think "Feminist" is in the same class of word else the thread title  would be The 'F' word.

  Words do have a primal power , as any poet that struggles to harness them can tell you.

   Putting a ban on a word increases its power.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The "N word" has not been banned, it has been made taboo.
Feminist is in no way similar: feminists are proud to be called feminists.
The "N word" is a word that everyone regards as an insult.

Making the "n word" taboo has not ended racism or the ideas of Black inferiority or White supremacy. It has simply become a swear word that is surrounded with a bunch of rules about who may use it and how.

[Plane]

  Is there a practical difference between "banned" and "Taboo"?

   At Time Magazine an editor might have the power to ban his writers from using a certain list of words, but I would expect Taboo to be more general and widespread.

    Where I work banned would be a good word for the "n" word, I could get fired that way, that doesn't qualify as "banned"?

[Christians4LessGvt]

The "N word" is a word that everyone regards as an insult.

Everyone?

They say the "N" word no less than 4 times in the first 30 seconds of this song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uudn3Y23IYI

[Xavier_Onassis]

"Banned" of course, means that it is illegal to use a word. If you said one of Carlin's 7 banned words on TV or radio, the station got fined.

"Taboo" describes a social ban, rather than a legal one.

The rapsters use the word specifically to make the point that they can say it and White people cannot. It is similar to the use of the Confederate flag.

[Plane]

It is similar to the use of the Confederate flag.

Oh?

I would not have thought so , interesting idea though.

[Christians4LessGvt]

The rapsters use the word specifically to make the point that they can say it and White people cannot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJy48JWiHk

[kimba1]

all words are subjectively based on what offends them and as such people who are on the outside will have a hard timer understand why it`s offensive. very likely a negative situation occor to many females when that word is used so it became offensive. thiers a word that is used to called my race and it greatly pains me to hear or to say and when I explain why I notice it is the same reason all derogatory words are used but sadly my offense seems very trivial to the point people claim hardship not calling me that.

I explain the number one word I will likely hear before I get punched in the face will be this word and still people will try defend the right to say it.

isn`t n-word the one word likely heard by some folks before getting punched also ?

1`m just pointing out offensive words are taught to be offensive by personal experiences

[Plane]

   In the military these words are called "flag words" and there is a strong discouragement on using them.

    I know a person of Japanese heritage who got verbally abused on the job, including such words, our Coronel apologized to him personally and he wound up getting a promotion in the effort to chill him out. The person who abused him did not get fired , but it was close , I (having less clout) might have been shown the gate.

     That is a lot of power for such a few words. The ban on them seems to be a booster on that power.

[kimba1]

I'm just wondering why it's such a burden to not say them. I had a friend who often complain about not swearing in public and say he's an adult and should be allowed to talk like one. I'm trying to recall is swearing is a requirement for being an adult.

I'm not against swearing,but it loses it's impact when used too much. I don't swear but when i do. It has quite abit more kick than most folks.

[Christians4LessGvt]

That is a lot of power for such a few words. The ban on them seems to be a booster on that power.

I agree Plane.
And I think that's really the primary reason rappers use "niggas" so much.
By using it freely they lessen it's power...
they take away the negative and turn it into a term of endearment.
Enemies always look for sensitive spots.
By being overly sensitive it can fuel the fire.
Even in grade school...bullies look for something to tease about.
My elementary classmates found out I was part American Indian. (Cherokee)
And oh boy here came the teasing....I think I was in the 6th grade.
But i quickly showed I was extremely proud of all of my roots American Indian included.
I replied "hey dumbass listen to Paul Revere & The Raiders....they even wrote a song about us".
Once the bullies knew it didn't bother me at all.....they stopped and moved onto someone "sensitive".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojRQ15My7s

[kimba1]

for the most part that works but exception do happen and nonresponse as a sign of weakness and take advantage later on. that`s why hazing is ok to do it`s to show how compliant that person can be. it sure isn`t to gain respect. nobody respects a goodsport.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The "n word" was not a taboo word when Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn and named one of the major character "Nigger Jim". It did not become a taboo word until the 1960's. This was about the time that the Confederate flag started being flaunted. Before that, in most of the US Blacks and Whites lived in separate societies. When cotton, sugar cane and other crops started being harvested by machines, the sharecroppers were driven off the land and went to the cities.

Huckleberry Finn was not about segregation of Jim Crow, but about the hypocrisy of slavery. Jim Crow had not even been born by the period in which Twain set his book. But of course. in the book Jim, Huck and Tom all come to treat each others as equals.

The other major factor were the two World Wars in which Blacks were asked to defend the USA in the name of "freedom", which of course, they did not have.