[Captain Nash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by squeezeplay

Exactly. Thanks :^)

Do any you think if it were say, me talking about a character from a novel who was called "Lizard-**nt" and a female forum member asked me to please not use that word on the forums, I would try to defend oppressing her, or gracefully agree to use a more egalitarian term? Likewise, let me ask the same question for the character "Jim" in Twain's Sawyer and Finn tomes? What if Blue Marvel or DarkToyLord asked me not to call him ****er Jim? Or maybe if any of you are not "straight" and I was quoting Guns 'n' Roses when they sang "Immigrants and ****ots, they make no sense to me."

Oppression or injustice is oppression or injustice. The right response is to learn and understand that you did something wrong, and refuse to do it anymore if you can help it. It's what I've done every single time in my life. The one WRONG thing to do is try to defend it.

And I'll point out that if the people involved would have just deleted the comment and gone on about the rest of their lives, we wouldn't be talking about it even now.

I could choose to be offended by the use of quotation around the word straight here as it could come across as being a self applied but not true identity. Those who are straight are straight, not "straight," not, "not straight". Those who are LGBT are LGBT, not "LGBT" like it's some kind of true/but not really true identity. But I'm not offended, I'm just pointing out how easy it is to set up ways in our writing and language that can be taken as offense.

As someone who is part of the LGBT community, I would be offended if someone uses such words as F****t to identity us as part of their own way of thinking. But if they are doing it as quoting something that used those terms I see it as being a reference to something beyond their own opinions. That is what the GNR lyrics are (Dire Straights too for that matter which I've sung karaoke with before). That is how Ashley Barton empowers herself in the book (granted Millar is putting that label on her, but it does come across as a self-empowerment tool). THe fact this is part of a creation of work is immutable and does not necessarily reflect the actual opinions of those who use it. Sometimes a reference is just a reference.