re: #176 Obdicut

It’s not just terms rooted in power and privilege, though. It’s about identity. “Wimp” is a word that only is an insult to men, really— it’s funny, but the stereotype of women in this case is protective against the insult. “Wimp” is an insult because of gender roles that our culture has, not due to power and/or privilege.

See, that’s my main complaint. Obviously, we’re communicating through a text-based medium, and so talking about language is natural, but to me it always feels like you’re saying if we stopped the use of these words we would have a significant effect, and I simply don’t believe that’s true. I think new words, new phrases would spring up, and it’d turn into an endless rigmarole of chase-the-sexist.

First off, I notice that you’re, well, using the very word ‘see’ you were using as an example before. :P

I would argue that many gender roles are built specifically on enforcing and furthering privilege and power. Men are strong, women are weak, for example.

And I don’t think stopping the usage of these terms will fix anything by itself. My major hope is, as I’ve said, to make people more aware of what they’re saying and what it represents. Yes, I don’t always do a good job of that, but this time I thought I came to explain my issue with harpy and why it bothered me, along with why going after Geller’s looks did the same.