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Why are so many people still fine with using "The C Word" despite it being officially a derogatory slur towards women? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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[–] 22 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Has anyone ever taught you about the dysphemism treadmill and euphemism treadmill?

Banning words, or trying to reframe them as bad has never worked. It just pushes people to use different words that end up with the same meaning.

Sexism, Racism, Ageism, all the isms... they will always exist as long as more than a handful of humans exist. Humans in large groups are pretty terrible. We didn't evolve to be particularly nice.

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  • [–] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Banning words, or trying to reframe them as bad has never worked.

    The banned words only get more power by virtue of being banned.

    It just pushes people to use different words that end up with the same meaning.

    Like "N-word" is the new n-word. Childish and useless.

    And then there's the whole thing where we let racists define what words mean... They ruin everything they can, so there's no safe place to go to.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    Yup, it's silly. It's a bunch of phonemes stuck together. Not using it is a completely reasonable requirement, but not even mentioning it?

    Well, better too taboo than not enough, I guess.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Again it's the little racist trolls with their "oh but can I use it in this situation" "oh what about this situation" basically playing the "I'm not touching you does this bug you" game that just ruins polite company for everybody. I have never had an instance where I wanted to use that word. But put the Forbidden label on it and racist jackasses can't be help but be tempted by it like a giant red button.

    Because forbidding it tells those types exactly what bugs their targets the most.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    Skin colour being the distinction is actually pretty recent, so maybe not racism. One that used to be a big thing and now isn't as much is slamming people for eating different food. The torah/old testament does that a lot, as do other various ancient texts.

    The general idea of hating outsiders is of course eternal.

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