[quote]by White Hart
You're right, I didn't come across very well. I was trying to suggest that the perceived offensiveness of an abusive 'swear word' depends on the extent to which society's attitude to that group has shifted since the word was in common parlance.
This was very gracious of you WH. I was a little afraid of offending you, since I thought I knew what you were getting at. And I actually do agree with you fully.
Americans have no sense that the p-word is in the slightest bit offensive. You may remember that Bush used it in a speech recently. But this kind of bears out your point about the society's attitude toward a particular group. Since America doesn't really have a sizeable population of people from Indian, Pakistan or Bangladesh, these people haven't been graced with negative or positive stereotypes yet in America, and thus, Americans are clueless about racial epithets regarding this group, and Bush genuinely wouldn't have known.
It occurs to me that it's probably just about as offensive to be totally unaware of a population's existence as it is to call them bad names. So yes, there is a way I can blame Bush for this. Whew. Boy, that was close.
Oh, and yeah, he's an idiot for hiring a speechwriter who's too arrogant or stupid to check out local customs and usages. There. Two ways.
(Edited by Diandra 23/03/2002 05:41)
You're right, I didn't come across very well. I was trying to suggest that the perceived offensiveness of an abusive 'swear word' depends on the extent to which society's attitude to that group has shifted since the word was in common parlance.
This was very gracious of you WH. I was a little afraid of offending you, since I thought I knew what you were getting at. And I actually do agree with you fully.
Americans have no sense that the p-word is in the slightest bit offensive. You may remember that Bush used it in a speech recently. But this kind of bears out your point about the society's attitude toward a particular group. Since America doesn't really have a sizeable population of people from Indian, Pakistan or Bangladesh, these people haven't been graced with negative or positive stereotypes yet in America, and thus, Americans are clueless about racial epithets regarding this group, and Bush genuinely wouldn't have known.
It occurs to me that it's probably just about as offensive to be totally unaware of a population's existence as it is to call them bad names. So yes, there is a way I can blame Bush for this. Whew. Boy, that was close.
Oh, and yeah, he's an idiot for hiring a speechwriter who's too arrogant or stupid to check out local customs and usages. There. Two ways.
(Edited by Diandra 23/03/2002 05:41)