Gingerbread person

Should of told her you can call it whatever you want and so can she. If she didnt accept it, tell her to shove it the headcase

 

Anyway, who do we think will get person of the match today?

 

Should we be shopping at Morrisons at all though? It really ought to be Morrispersons

 

wait, what, in the middle of a dinner party! some early social experimenting **** going on there!

 

It could be that one day assigning Gender to things changes. It may not. Even within our lifetimes the notion of ‘men’s jobs’ and ‘women’s jobs’ has become outdated. What were once perceived as roles aimed at a particular sex are now increasingly non gendered. On the building sites we set up now site accommodation tends to be 50/50 split between men and women even 5 years ago that would have been unheard of. Times change. Things change. Language changes. None of us can predict the future.

Policeman. Fireman. Already rightfully consigned to history.

 

They widespread through society. Not the purview of the young. ‘Poof’ especially was regularly used in comedy. It was only with the advent of the gay rights movement especially in the wake of AIDS anti gay propaganda that it was rightly removed from everyday lexicon. It’s easy from a distance to forgot this.

 

Agree.
There’s many words that in the day were in common usage that we wouldn’t use today
( I ‘m not sure about puff as I heard quite a few gay people use it) .
I think a lot of young people even then weren’t comfortable with some of the but as is
often the case went with the crowd. ‘Mong’ for people with Down’s syndrome was particularly bad , and the spastic or spaz just wasn’t right even in ‘the day’

 

They were used widely through society. Some comedians made whole acts out of the latter. It’s easy to not see the past for what it was. As close as the 60s the ‘no blacks no Irish’ signs were out. To dismiss prevalence as some sort of childhood abberation diminishes the change in society. The point is what may be commonplace today may not be in 20 yers time. Things change. Language changes.

 

What about the French? Their language is determined totally by gender. Le and la etc

 

Wow, just wow…

Just because everyone did it, didn’t make it right. I’m guessing you believe the more effeminate lads in your school must have thought you were hilarious.

 

Pepys was a proper dirty dog! Here he is lamenting the time when his wife caught him with his hand in another lady's pants!

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1668/10/25/

 

Oh I know that. That's the thing though, they were still offensive to homosexuals but nobody cared because they weren't standing up for themselves and telling you that. Same with spaz. It was incredibly offensive to people with disabilities but nobody cared at all until disabled rights groups stood up for themselves.

 

Yes but poof and spaz, 'no blacks' and things like that are not in any way similar to the word man. Linking those clearly offensive things that had a blind eye turned to them in the past with the word man is bonkers and THATS what harms real fights for equality and inclusion and generally not trying to offend people.

If someone is offended that a gingerbread man is called a man then I don't think their feelings matter anywhere near as much as the feelings of a gay bloke being called a poof. Just like I think a black lass being upset that she's called 'blacky' has more right to be offended than me for complaining that some people refer to Barnsley as the colliers because it doesn't include me as I was never a miner.

 

Yes maybe we'll stop assigning gender to biscuits. I'm sure that will make the world a better place.

 

Do we have to shorten Hobnobs to just Hobs ?

 

I was with you, till the "blacky" bit.

 

It's an offensive word that I chose specifically because people in my family still use and don't understand why it would offend anyone so it's relevant to me

 

It is still true though that context and intent is now disregarded. Too many people take offence when the comment or word is not aimed at them and the recipient is not offended. Interestingly I was giving a driving lesson to a girl in her twenties, years ago when they were phasing out the blue invacars( often referred to by the user's as 13 amp plugs due to their shape and wheel configuration) . They were being replaced by the Motability scheme with standard vehicles with adaptations . I took specialist training to assess advise and teach people with various physical difficulties e.g. Cerebral Palsy to drive. We got stuck behind a slow moving Invacar during a lesson and she exclaimed...," Come on love..get thi Spaz chariot out of the way!" Not sure but I believe a few of the people she knew who had them called them that. She was, herself wheelchair bound having CP caused by a bad forceps delivery.
Of course it is unacceptable language these days but the point I am trying to make is that too many people take offence by proxy and assume that they are defending someone's sensibilities when quite often that person is not offended or upset. Almost anything these days seems to offend someone somewhere to the point where it is like walking on eggshells to talk to anyone you are not very familiar with. It is actually quite divisive and not necessarily, as many try to claim, an inter generational thing.

 

If someone is offended by not calling a gingerbread man then their feelings don’t matter compared to someone who has gender related issues. It’s such a facile argument and easy to flip.

Reading through the word salad though and I don’t substantially disagree with you.

But your head is buried in the sand if you don’t think that we are moving away from assigning and designating things by gender.

It’s not a new thing gender fluidity / neutrality was very normal in India until the Europeans arrived. The Mughals ignored or tolerated it but it was only our arrival that sent it underground. Gutter back the Greeks pioneered the concept really. Like all things it ebbs and flows. But if we don’t want to be old men shouting at clouds we flow with it.

 

That’s a long way to say I want to say things that are unpleasant and I don’t want people to make me feel uncomfortable by pointing that out.