Arright, lemme try sneaking in one more point here that I'm not sure has already been covered extensively (lord knows everything else has). I believe that, _in a magical egalitarian world_, a plan of simply slagging on everyone equally might be perfectly valid and defensible. The problem is we don't live in that world, and in the one we've got slagging on different groups has different consequences. The reason using "dickhead" as a negative is _less_ damaging than using, say, "faggot" as a negative is that very few people have been deprived of their livelihoods for having a dick*, whereas quite a few face that problem for being gay. Or black. Or disabled.
Now, that said, I'd still say a completely neutral negative term like "asshole" is even better, since everybody has one of those.
It may also be possible that there's certain private venues where you can actually be absolutely sure that not only does nobody actually mean ill-will towards any of these disadvantaged groups, but also nobody is subconsciously biased against them, and nobody is listening who's having a subconscious bias reinforced, or who is themselves disadvantaged and having a subconscious self-loathing reinforced, or.... etc. And then maybe any old slur could be used and really, actually not cause any damage. But that's gonna be pretty rare.
*To head off an objection here, I'm not saying nobody has ever been discriminated against for being male. But in our society as it currently stands, it's certainly a less severe problem than that of other marginalized groups. Kind of by definition of "marginalized".
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chiming
no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 02:25 pm (UTC)From:Now, that said, I'd still say a completely neutral negative term like "asshole" is even better, since everybody has one of those.
It may also be possible that there's certain private venues where you can actually be absolutely sure that not only does nobody actually mean ill-will towards any of these disadvantaged groups, but also nobody is subconsciously biased against them, and nobody is listening who's having a subconscious bias reinforced, or who is themselves disadvantaged and having a subconscious self-loathing reinforced, or.... etc. And then maybe any old slur could be used and really, actually not cause any damage. But that's gonna be pretty rare.
*To head off an objection here, I'm not saying nobody has ever been discriminated against for being male. But in our society as it currently stands, it's certainly a less severe problem than that of other marginalized groups. Kind of by definition of "marginalized".