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Political correctness and homosexual
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I heard on the radio this morning that the government are planning to stop using the word "homosexual" as people find this word offensive and instead say "people who's sexual orientation is towards members of the same sex". Just wondered what anyone thinks about this.
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A rather long description as well. It will make conversation a rather elaborate affair: "I went to club for those whose sexual orientation are towards members of the same sex. I was with two friends, one of them a man whose sexual orientation is towards members of the same sex, and one a woman whose sexual orientation is towards members of both sexes. A guy chatted me up and I had to explain to him that I'm not one whose sexual orientation is towards members of the same sex. At which point he shouted 'bloody heterosexual!' I was very offended."
Gays/homosexuals, straights/heterosexuals, bisexuals/cat flaps (swing both ways). There is absolutely nothing wrong or improper with these terms (apart perhaps from the cat flap expression
"you're as straight as a £7 note?".
Bugger, damn PC brigade. Where's Rubberskin, how do you feel about being called:
Gay, puff, homosexual? Where do gay people actually stand on what they are called? Or is it something you don't really think about. And would you prefer to be known as the man with a sexual orientation to the same sex or MWSOTTSS?
shortened to "wotsits"? Yeah, that's an improvement.
Typical Govt interference where it isn't really needed...
homosexual is the actual scientific name so whats the problem. i have heard gay used as a n offensive term, but generally ot people who arent actually gay just to wind them up. that got on my nerves at high school.
Everyone will still use the original terms, except official publications. But official publications are the most racist of all.
oh no i cant use those letters anymore, all the rest will get jealous and offended.
lets call it FV now.
my post is about as stupid as not calling gay people gay or a rat a rat.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
:rolleyes:
does the 'homo' part of the word mean same, or similar?
like homogenous (sp) or homosapien etc. etc.
Oh well
In Greek, "homo" means "the same," e.g. homogeneous, homomorphism, homonym, homosexual.
In Latin, "homo" means "man/male," e.g. Homo sapiens, Homo errectus, homonid.
do you realise that to be stupid enough to make these rules you have to be "educated" ? who the fuck spends thier time and our money dreaming up this crap ? who the fuck are the people who decide that yes this is a good idea ? fucking lunacy.
i'm older than you lot and can remember when a puff was a puff. a queer was a bloody queer. we were told we couldn't refer to our friends as such any longer and had to change it to gay.
another few years down the line and the next lot will be saying something completely different. just ignore it all for fucks sake.
please just ignore it all. NO... don't ignore it, tell em to fuck off and get a propper job.
cheers
have you noticed how noone who's actually what gets laughingly referred to as 'pc' ever uses phrases like 'vertically challenged' or whatever? they're a myth designed by people who don't like the way the world is changing to make it look stupid when really it's perfectly reasonable. Of course such overzealous behaviour as this would be absurd - but it very, very, very rarely ever really happens. Most such stories begin 'I heard about this bloke' or 'someone told me' or 'apparently in america' - hardly ever are they from first hand experience.
Political Correctness can, of course, go too far. But if the alternative is the kind of society in which casual racism is never questioned, in which real racists or sexists or homophobes can get away with making other people's lives hell through genuine prejudice because it's nigh-on impossible to distinguish them from everyone else, I know which one I choose. And as silly as it can get, it's a kind of necessary over-compensation to set against the kind of society we had before and still haven't entirely escaped from now. The past matters: there's no getting away from it. The wounds of a racist and sexist history don't heal as quickly as we'd like them to, and if we're just a little more careful in the language we use now we'll live in a truly equal society, where people really don't care about the colour of someone's skin or their gender or their sexuality, much sooner. Here's something Clare Short said:
"Political correctness is a concept invented by hard-right forces to defend their right to be racist, to treat women in a degrading way and to be truly vile about gay people. They invent this idea of people who are politically correct, with a rigid, monstrous attitude to life so they can attack them. But we have all had to learn to modify our language. That's all part of being a decent human being."
That sums it up pretty well, it you ask me.
(this isn't aimed at you specificallyy, randomgirl, and I'm sorry if it sounds like it is. This is just one of my bugbears.)
Thank God someone posted it.
That's my favourite quote on political correctness, and one I use far too much (about three times on theSite so far), so I didn't want to post it again.
Sorry to not credit you!
You don't need to credit me - you credited Clare Short, who actually said it.
I heard this "story" on 2TenFM radio in Reading. I didn't just make it up! The reason I posted it was because the radio debate on it was quite interesting but only represented the views of 3 people all of whom were straight so I wanted to hear a wider range of people's opinions. On the radio it was asked if that the word "homosexual" was a bad, un-PC word, did it imply that homosexuality is a bad thing. I just wondered if any gay people out there ACTUALLY were offend by the term as hearing it deemed offensive by a gay person is far more likely to make me stop using the word than it being deemed offensive by the government.
However, I would prefer not to be called a "homosexual" in day-to-day living because it does sound a little like some sort of medical affliction. If used by people friendly and tolerant towards me, I would prefer them to use the word "gay" whenever possible unless used adjectivally, as in a "homosexual relationship". "Gay" sounds less threatening and informal.
I also often don't like the tone of some newscasters etc that say "hom-a-sex-sual" - it makes them sound as though they are disapproving and distasteful but maybe that's just me being a bit paranoid.
We often call each other poofs, fags, queens etc and we don't mind if straights call us that too - as long as they are laughing WITH us and NOT at us. Then it become offensive. Just as Black people often call each other "nigga" - or fat people make fat jokes. As soon as someone else says it BUT with ridicule, then it ceases to be acceptable.
Well being a homosexual, i think this is fucking pathetic. It's just a definitive word, that has no other meaning. Like using Latin for flower names, as they have no other meaning. I have a big problem with PC anyway. Equal opportunities, the use of PC to remove hate, bigotry etc, yeah, all well and good. But all this shit about blackboards, manholes, blackmail et al, absolute bollocks. Makes you wonder what some people's motivation in life is when there's so much shit and crap in the world, they're complaining about a fucking word!:mad:
Sorry i'm late poppet. Come into polititics less frequently than i come into women:D Too full of people showing off their education.:)