sensitive words
LatchKeyKid
Shipmate
in The Styx
I made a faux pas in a thread when I mentioned the TV program
On another board a while ago the software referred a post to the admins when I stated my mother liked
If, eg, I was to mention the Bob Dylan song Went To See The
Wogs Out Of Work
.On another board a while ago the software referred a post to the admins when I stated my mother liked
Gypsy
Rose Lee. The post did get approved, but it had never occurred to me that
Gypsy
was a sensitive term.If, eg, I was to mention the Bob Dylan song Went To See The
Gypsy
about his meeting with Elvis Presley, should I use hidden text?
Comments
Due to epiphanic considerations, I have occassionally on the ship referred to a certain novel as "that book by Nabokov", sorta like superstitious actors using "the Scottish play" gets used for "Macbeth". I'm not sure that would work as well for the name of a real, historical figure, though.
Apparently, that was the name of the play, and the TV shows spun from it was called Acropolis Now, with Greeks in Australia being the target of the spoofing, and presumably the slur in the original theatrical title, with scripts created by Australians of Greek descent themselves.
But I am aware that it in other places, that word can refer to groups who have suffered a bit more from the colonial misdeeds of the West.
About 20 years ago, I was in an area where there were plenty of such people, settled in houses. I took a funeral service for one of their leading grandmas and shortly afterwards took a wedding for the same family. They were happy and proud to call themselves
After that, I encountered a number of similar people in the north of England and then in Surrey, over a number of years. On all occasions, they were quite happy to own the title.
With regard to other "sensitive" words, it seems to me that a lot depends on the context. If you are quoting the title of a film or book, then it might be very confusing to omit the word altogether. Is it acceptable to use asterisks instead? After all, you are not using the word yourself, but "simply" quoting another person's use.
In the UK it remains pretty common and forms part of the officially accepted initialism GRT for traditionally nomadic communities in these islands.
Is it really on a par with the n-word in the US? I know some of the lyrics from Sondheim musicals have been changed, such as words that are now understood to be offensive to gay people, but I've never heard any talk of changing the name of this musical or the main character.
This from the Wikipedia article on “Romani people” might be helpful:
Meanwhile, there’s a more extensive article on “Names of the Romani People.”
I’ll also note that in addition to the aforementioned musical and its titular character, the word in question is also a term historically used in American theater to mean a hard-working singer or dancer in the chorus who constantly goes from show to show. I believe, though, that over the last 10+ years, Actors Equity and others in the theater community have tried to move away from using the term to mean that.
And I doubt you will, given that titular character (she’s actually not the main character, her mother is the main character) was a real person and that was her stage name.
So wait, does this mean that Ship policy is that we can't, without hiding the text, refer to songs like
by Fleetwood Mac and Cher, and all the others? Can we actually not refer to
without hiding the text?
(Not to mention that we've "reclaimed" the word queer, so if that's one of the words...)
Hiding it here seems rather pointless -- did anyone reading this thread not click at least the first time to find out what the subject of discussion is?