Since when are proper terms for things considered offensive? oO

Silly internet.

Drunk, drunken, drunkenness (banned as offensive when referring to Native Americans) [SF-AW, HM2]

ROTFFLMFAO!

*can't breath, laughing so hard*

~Rico

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Horsemanship (banned as sexist, replace with riding skill) [NES]

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I wasn't aware Nintendo cared so much. o.O

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Postman (banned as sexist, replace with mail carrier) [MMH, HRW1]

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That greatly offends me!!!

This is hilarious!

This modern obsession with having to be so "P.C." all the time is definitely one of my pet peeves.

1984, anyone?

In other words, people now longer know how to take a joke. Nor do they appear to know how to deal with life. What's the point of preparing for life if you aren't prepared to deal with EVERYTHING life throws at you?

Bleh to the Nth degree.

Yay for political correctness.

Homosexual (banned, replace with person, child)
Um...What the hell? Child?
Political correctness sucks. I find it amazing that we have groups like the United Negro College Fund, for example, still around. You couldn't start any group nowadays with words like Negro in it. It'd be racist.

Funny thing is I was watching The Hebrew Hammer earlier. Those of you who don't know: It's a movie about Jewish people. Hilariously sterotypical.

My God, this is hilarious. Especially the "Stereotyped Images to Avoid" section. Just because something happens to be a stereotype, doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

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Snowman (banned, replace with snowperson) [AEP]

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LOL.

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Soda (banned for regional bias, replace with Coke, Pepsi [however, note that brand names are banned by California social content review guidelines]) [AIR]

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LOL.

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Disabled, the (banned as offensive, replace with people with a disability) [SF-AW, HAR1]

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LOL.

Whoa. I'm not gonna talk anymore. =X

I agree, hyper.

I should claim to be offended by the lack of offensive things.

I've seen The Hebrew Hammer! Oh man, that movie is hilarious.

My boyfriend first saw it at his friend's birthday party because it came on TV... ironically, the friend whose party he saw it at was Jewish.

There is a huge difference between deliberate offense and passive offense.

I am "passively offended" when two African American men call each other the N word, but they would be "deliberately offended" if I used the same word to one of them.

I have rarely intended to insult or offend anyone, but that has not stopped the impact of my actions offending other people. However I refuse to let fear of offending someone stop me from communicating as effectively as I can.

Mental "Pain and Anguish" caused by "offensive" words is just plain stupid, and our legal system would do well to curtail such blatant attempts at censorship caused by frivolous lawsuits.

Jimro

Wow such a sad day that things have come to this with political correctness, of course I flat out don't care about "PC" as reading through that list was just a showcase of some sad, sad rules. XD And yeah the one with homosexual just made no sense what-so-ever. So if this continues when do we change from being humans to always having to refer to us by homo saipians.

Yes, this is Political Correctness gone insane. Did you know it's politically incorrect to say politically incorrect?

I studied it in English Language (A2) and we all had a bloody good laugh. Blackboard, black coffee and blackmail are all politically incorrect, as is the nursery rhyme, "Baa Baa Black Sheep".

'History' is non-PC too - it's got to be 'hystory', despite the fact that it was originally derived from the greek word 'histerie', meaning 'investigate'. It's got Jack to do with his story, her story, or anybody's story.

It seems to me that the people who decide what is politically incorrect never ask the people who are affected.

How is 'homosexual' offensive?

"There are no homosexuals, there's only peoplesexuals," reminds me of a line from Coupling, "Size Matters". Or "He won't go out with you dear, he's a person!"

Unless it's used in a derogetory way, or taken offensively, it isn't offensive in my opinion.

If we keep going at this rate, 'he' and 'she' will become politically incorrect too. Calling your dog a pet already is - you have to say 'animal companion' in case you offend them by effectively calling them a slave.

We could sneer and laugh at the idiots who think these things up until the cows come home, but I've said all I'm going to say on the matter, so I'll not bother.

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Foods to Avoid in Textbooks
[HRW2, for all of the foods below]
Gravies
Gum
Honey
Jam, jelly, preserves
Ketchup
Juice drinks
Pickles
Pies
Potato chips
Pretzels
Salad dressings, mayonnaise
Salad oil, shortening
Salt

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Actually, I don't think this particular list has to do with being offensive. I know some of those "foods" on that list can set off immature kids at a certain age for their sexual connotations, which makes for unnecessary distractions.

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Actually, I don't think this particular list has to do with being offensive. I know some of those "foods" on that list can set off immature kids at a certain age for their sexual connotations, which makes for unnecessary distractions.

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I really don't want to know how...

This list is funny...^^...I'm going to print it out and give it to my dad so we can laugh about it.

While there is the occasional moment of sense in the list (e.g. Sioux), most are profoundly stupid.

The terms themselves ae not particularly offensive. While they could be used in offensive ways, so can just about any term. If people want to be offensive, they can do so in many ways which are not provided on the list just through implying sufficient meaning to certain terms. By banning the use of various terms, this will then just shift which terms will be used offensively around, so more terms will have to be banned, and so on. Why not just ban language now, and save time?

There's also a lot of bias shown just in creating a list like that. People generally know when people are trying to be offensive, and they don't need people to provide a list of terms which say what is offensive and what isn't. To an extent, drawing attention to things like considering people stupid, small, or other potentially derogatory idea through creating/using a "PC" term for it is, to my view, as insulting as using a derogatory term.

Insults are a part of language. No amount of censoring/banning will get rid of that. Also, some of the stereotypes are just silly - there's some which are based on scientific evidence (eg women being shorter (on average) than men) which are not allowed to be portrayed according to this list, which is liable to do more harm than good.

In short, PC terms list =

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While they could be used in offensive ways, so can just about any term.

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Indeed.

BTW, this list is such a the, you know?

Snowman. Snow...person? What the hell?
Snowcone. No, it's a FLAVORED ICE.
Slave? No, it's enSLAVEd person.
That and the fact that people were actually paid to research this makes me want to cry. Or to seek a job like that. Easy money.
God, I'm going to go kill a politician now.

Snowman ; Snowperson?

I suppose the Snowman's going to get offended? This winteris gonna be sweet. I', gonna piss me off some snowm- err snowpeople!

Frooosssstttyyy, the Snowperson of ambiguous gender!

Just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Am I the only one who thinks this list isn't ridiculous? I think gendered speech is fascinating.

Okaaaaaaaaaay @ the list.
I'm scared...

And The Snowman flying through the air with that kid with him? Poor guy, first he melted and now he's not even got a gender anymore!

It, it...

I'm more concerned about the mention of California apparently having an Anti-Superbranding law, which disallows people from referring to a product by it's superbrand.

Admitedly, this would be as little of concern as Adobe DEMANDING!!! it's customers not slander the name of it's product by refering to it as Photoshop (there IS a clause in the ToS stating you must refer to it at all times as Adobe Photoshop)

I'd be in hell if I was disallowed to use Superbrands.

"Sticky Back Plastic" for Cellotape; "Cola" for Coke.

I've still not worked out what to call Blu-Tac when it's not Blu-Tac...

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Back to the main topic, though; political correctness is funny. But, at least if we all talk like robots (*snorts, remembering the MFC thread about renaming waiter/ess' "Waitron"*) then Mau Evig wont be greatly offended by anything.

Oh, wait, no... we'll start getting laws at looking at people the wrong way *Shifty eyes, then goes mad-google eyes at the next poster* you're my canine creature of unspecified gender or breed!

This greatly OFFENDS me! }:O

Rapping would be so much funnier if that was the case.

Oddly enough, I didn't recall seeing many expletives on the list... odd.

Sissified (banned as demeaning) [HRW3]<---HAHAHAHAHAHA

Soul food (banned as regional or ethnic bias) [ETS1]<---LMAO. Stop it yer hurting me XD

Foods to Avoid in Textbooks
[HRW2, for all of the foods below]
Gravies<--Gravies? What XD?
Gum
Honey
Jam, jelly, preserves
Ketchup
Juice drinks
Pickles
Pies
Potato chips
Pretzels
Salad dressings, mayonnaise
Salad oil, shortening
Salt---How is Salt something to set off a group of Kids {Someone said that ealier in this topic. Salt? SALT? XD WHAT?}

People of Color: Images To Avoid
People of color as universally athletic [AIR]<---::CRIES:: XD

But Rico..

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Drunk, drunken, drunkenness (banned as offensive when referring to Native Americans) [SF-AW, HM2]

ROTFFLMFAO!

*can't breath, laughing so hard*

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::JOINS:: XD!!!! O man o man o man that's priceless.

This whole list is ridiculous.

I'm gonna do it.
I'm going to destroy the Earth.

But seriously, There's such a thing as going too far with Political Correctness.

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Salt---How is Salt something to set off a group of Kids {Someone said that ealier in this topic. Salt? SALT? XD WHAT?}

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It's a euphemism for something (dealing with the males if I recall), but I can't remember what exactly. That one isn't that popular at the school. Many of the others on that list are on the other hand.

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Snow ball (banned for regional bias, replace with flavored ice) [AIR]

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Snowman (banned, replace with snowperson) [AEP]

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WTF?!!!

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Dirty old man (banned as sexist and ageist) [NYC]

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This is NOT sexist, and its not agist either...

So what if this bloke has got mud all over him, how dare they deny us this freedom?

Salt? The only thing I can think of is it's religious connotations, ie, ye are the salt of the earth? if salt loses it's savour, what is there to season it with?

Jimro

Dude. How can a snowball be called flavored ice? Not all snowballs are pee snowballs, you know.

That whole list should be burned. What kind of politically correct nazis made up all that crap?

And I still don't understand why the list of food has been banned. Ketchup is a god to me. How on earth can any of those foods be sexual? People must have sick, sick minds if every other word triggers a sexual thought. I thought I was bad about hearing things the wrong way, but that list of food? Pah. Only Sigmund Freud would point out ridiculous unintended innuendo like that.

P.S. Sigmund Freud is a jackass. I don't get why he became so famous for such bogus ideas.

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How on earth can any of those foods be sexual? People must have sick, sick minds if every other word triggers a sexual thought.

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As I born and raised in the suburbs and actually learned some of the sexual connotations of some of those words in junior high and high school (particularly juice, jam, jelly, & honey) during the '90s, I know it's not just a city thing. I don't think it's a NY-thing though. You really never heard of at least one of them at all used to refer to something else?

I've heard of using mayonnaise as a lubricant, but nothing else, really. O.o My friends and I are a bunch of RPG nerds, dude.

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You really never heard of at least one of them at all used to refer to something else?

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Nada. Unless "Hey HONEY" or "Hey cutie PIE" are considered sexual innuendos 😛 In my elementary school it was "apples" and "bananas" and "pineapples" and even then it was mostly the younger kids using those words to mean it that way. And in early high school... I'm surprised they didn't have "cherry" on the list?

As for the topic overall... One thing I've noticed that the extreme right and the extreme left have in common is that they try to solve social problems by enforcing nit-picky rules (although they would deny it) even down to what people say and do in everyday life. I agree with the ones like replacing "Sioux" with "Dakota" and "Hottentot" with "Khoi," but then again, when people use the old words it's out of ignorance not racist attitudes. Pretty much all the other ones are ridiculous... what the crap is the difference between DOWN'S SYNDROME and DOWN SYNDROME? And if I say "pop" instead of "soda" does that mean I'm a persecuted victim of society and get to play the martyr whenever I want to avoid personal responsibility?

If I ever transfer to a college that has a similar "speech code" I'm going to throw a tantrum 😛

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Unless "Hey HONEY" or "Hey cutie PIE" are considered sexual innuendos 😛

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Most of those "banned" words are used to refer to body parts or sexual acts. In fact, one of those two words you picked is actually synomous with vagina and that's something it seems most kids at the middle school I have been at for the past 2 years know.

Heh, PiE XD.

It's funny how these things change. Homosexual, for instance. Originally, gay was a derogatory term, you were supposed to call them homosexuals. Then they declared ownership of the word gay, and it was okay to say that. To be derogatory, people started calling them queers instead. Then gay became the proper, clinical term somehow, and homosexual became a bit risky. Then they adopted queer as their own, and homosexual became derogatory. Now queer is the proper, clinical term, and gay and homosexual are derogatory. The big derogatory one at the moment is the three-letter F one that I'm not sure I can say here, but it is gradually being adopted. You just watch - in a few years, academics will be writing theses on "f** rights".

We get a big list of terms to avoid at university. I can't find the sheet right now, but from memory, you're not allowed to call someone a diabetic or a cancer patient. You have to say person with diabetes/cancer. You can't say Asian, only person from Asia, or Latino, person of South American heritage.

Woman and History are good ones. You're supposed to avoid them at all costs because they contain (imaginary) references to the male.

It is out of control. Especially since words cannot be offensive. Only context can be offensive. Words are symbols and sounds, they are entirely benign. By the same token, a PC term like person of South American heritage can be deeply offensive if I want it to be. You stupid, monkey-faced person of South American heritage. Trying to eliminate offensiveness in the world by labelling certain words as intrinsically offensive is like trying to fight a maurauding swarm of bees with a handgun. It won't work. It can't work.

But, you know what Orwell said. The best way to control the people is to control their language. If you control the language, you control people's thoughts. That's what they're trying to do, sending out updated lists every year of which words are now offensive and which ones are now OK.

Aren't there any "offensive" phrases that people use (other than the typical stuff i.e. 'that's gay') that really irritate anyone here? From all the replies it seems as though nobody here gets offended at any term.

Personally, I can't stand it when people, especially PROFESSORS, use "mankind" instead of "humankind". It's just a stupid, simplistic word and it takes about 2 seconds to train your mind to use "humankind" instead.

It is out of control.

Its gotten to the level where its a point of self-depreciating humor! I don't go out of my way to insult people, but overbearing PC-ness annoys me. Grow up and get over it. I can only imagine how offended some people would be if our nouns had genders!

Sticks and stones, people. Sticks and stones.

You know, the only term "gay" actually bothers me is when its used to insult a person. Then I just make the user look like an idiotic by applying the real meaning. It's a rule not to use it here since ki.. I'm sorry "people of young age" love to use it to set off other people.

Personal I wouldn't care of God is refered to as She from this day on because unlike most people I don't look for physical differences at first. Example was saturday, my friend and I go into a restaraunt, the waitress keeps the drinks filled, smiles a lot, and gets the order right. The reactions were as follows.

Rico: Hope all their waiters are like that.

Kevin: I think she was Jamacian, with the hairstyle an all.

I do personally not like the word fag. Of course its one of the those words solely made up to insult people. Like most of the usually vulgarities. Gay? Long as its not used as an insult. SP? Would like it if a something you were turned into a insulting term? I'll assume you're male. What if suddenly you woke up and all the kids were running around saying, "You're MALE." "Thats Male dude, just Male" or the time honored, "@#%$ MALE! Male male male!"

I think it would get annoying.

Isn't "fag" supposed to be a bushel of wood? Isn't "gay" supposed to mean happy? "Queer" isn't that supposed to mean strange? Funny how different words change their meanings over the years. But what you see here are just examples of how languages evolve over time into other languages. o_o;
I personally don't find the term "fag" offensive, but I do find the term "N----" (rymns with digger) and "ch---" (rymns with pink) and other racist words.
But for some reason "fag" doesn't offend me, yet "dike" does.
I think words just offend people on a personal level according to how they're raised...

SP? Would like it if a something you were turned into a insulting term? I'll assume you're male. What if suddenly you woke up and all the kids were running around saying, "You're MALE." "Thats Male dude, just Male" or the time honored, "@#%$ MALE! Male male male!"

What I'm saying is that there are no insulting terms. Just insulting people. Insulting contexts. If the kids in your example started running around insulting me for being male, I'd respond the same way as I would if they insulted me for wearing glasses, having brown hair, being tall or being white. What I wouldn't do is lobby the government, declaring that the words male, glasses, tall, hair and white are now offensive terms, and their usage in any context whatsoever should be banned.

(Besides, I know plenty of women who apply a derogatory context to my masculinity already o_o)

Sure, there are some words I hate, the usage of which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But I refuse to give these words power by declaring that they are intrinsically offensive. There is no word in existence that is offensive in every situation where it is ever used.

Ah yes, then I agree with that one. You have to let things insult you to be insulted. Hehe, of course if didn't let some things insult I could unleash wrath upon the peons. And what fun would that be. Ask anyone, its rather comical when I fly into a DBZ rage and try to strangle users. o.o

~Rico

This gem came straight from the Wake PC archives:

Stefan: "Good morning, how can I help you?"
Heavily-accented customer: "Haro. I order a memory lass week. Is in yet?"
Stefan: "Can I have your phone number?"
Customer: "NO PHONE NUMBER!"
Stefan: "I--"
Customer: "WHERE MY MEMORY, ROUND-EYE?!?!!!"
Stefan: "In China, where your family is still assembling it." *click*

Hilarious, but sounds like a prank.