![]() It’s fine to say that someone is Japanese, but lop off the last two syllables and it becomes hurtful – the J-word. So many of the words people object to are just shortened versions of the original. Perhaps we can donate it to the Quakers, a handful of whom might have been referred to at one time or other as “Quakes” and are still not over it. This stands for homosexual, which was perfectly acceptable a few years ago, but is now considered a slur, just as “gay” will eventually be, now that we’ve rebranded and are presently queer, which used to be the Q-word but was reclaimed. Gay people have the F-word – faggot – and are now toying with the H-word. ![]() Fundamentalists have also laid claim to the E-word: evolution. Fail at it, and you might be in for what many fundamentalist websites refer to as the D-word: divorce. The abovementioned C-word can be used for a vagina, cancer, someone of Chinese origin, or, new to me and, apparently, that woman in London, commitment. This is what’s called “gendered language”, and should be replaced with the same word you’d use for a man: asshole, as in, “That Kellyanne person I saw on TV is a real asshole.” In front of children you might say “A-hole”, but that doesn’t make this the A-word: that’s a television show about autism. The first time I read it, I went through the alphabet in my head, thinking Bisexual? Blind? Brexit? Bitch, I was told, is what it stands for. Others, though, aren’t so easy, especially when they’re written rather than spoken. And because of that, because there are so many, it’s getting progressively harder to figure out what these letters stand for, an exception being the N-word, the original initial word. Everyone’s got their forbidden word now, something so loaded and hurtful only the first letter of it can be revealed.
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