Dragaera

OT: Subjectivity vs. Objectivity (was: bois...)

books at bofh.com books at bofh.com
Sat Aug 17 13:05:29 PDT 2002

>And so it goes.  Now 'gay' meaning, "happy, carefree" is ruined
>forever.  'Special' has gotten all smarmy around the edges.

One of my favorite examples of this is "fagged".  A word that I 
would never even have thought to use.  Where did I see it?  One of
the early _Martian Chronicles_ fron Edgar Rice Burroughs.  

(A definite guilty pleasure)

>Do y'all realize that 'woman' is a dirty word?  Try it.  "See that woman
>over there?"  "Ask the nice woman where they keep the shampoo in this
>store."  "I need a woman to help me here."  Just try using 'woman' in
>every context where the equivalent usage would be 'man'  for a week and
>see if you can stick with it.

I had a fried a few years ago who was an avowed feminist, and she
told me the story of how she went on a kick where every occurrence
of "man" could equally be "woman".  She gave it up when she realized
that she didn't really want them referred to as "womanholes".

-Jot