Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
Dozens of quangos and taxpayer-funded organisations have ordered a purge of common words and phrases so as not to cause offence.
Among the everyday sayings that have been quietly dropped in a bid to stamp out racism and sexism are “whiter than whiteâ€, “gentleman's agreementâ€, “black mark†and “right-hand manâ€.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has advised staff to replace the phrase “black day†with “miserable dayâ€, according to documents released under freedom of information rules.
Okay, maybe "gentleman's agreement." (Do y'all agree?) But what's next? Banning "atrocious" and "denigrate" based on their etymologies?
Although Digital Television no longer broadcasts it, I hope my converter box still puts out "blacker than black" signals (synchronizing signals at a more negative voltage than what my analog TV interprets as black).
On a related note, is the analog-TV signal inherently racist since the white signal is more positive and the black signal is more negative?
Emmett
"White noise" seems pretty negative to me. "Armed gunman," (is there any such thing as an unarmed gunman?) seems gender biased as well.
What was unclear to me about "right-hand man" was if it was the presumed gender bias, or the lateral bias, or both that disturbed people. "Left behind" should perhaps be changed to something more neutral like "abandoned." "Being in one's right mind" perhaps simply to "sane," although perhaps that is biased against the unhealthy.
My head hurts.
Me too. (Both that "Spanish practices" was a new one on me, AND that I am a lot less sexy than I look.) But I figured it was British, and I discovered that I didn't care enough to look it up until you mentioned it. Especially so after the "We know what these phrases mean ... ." intimidation. I took it as my yankee duty not to give into that imperialist pressure.
Glenn said:
What was unclear to me about “right-hand man†was if it was the presumed gender bias, or the lateral bias, or both that disturbed people.
I still recall vividly how the morning news anchor in Phoenix began his report during the 1996 GOP convention, the day after the candidate announced his running mate: "Well, it looks like Jack Kemp is Bob Dole's right-hand man."
Glenn said:
What was unclear to me about “right-hand man†was if it was the presumed gender bias, or the lateral bias, or both that disturbed people.
If it's the lateral bias, does that mean we have to give up "dexterity" and "sinister" for etymological reasons too? I imagine that'll leave D&D players SOL. Then what?
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)