Political Correctness

[Wanderer]

At work we use Slack, both for directly related stuff and for general issues regarding all sorts of things. On one of the general ones we were having a discussion about FTP clients for macOS and I chirped in with 'GUI's are for girls!'

This chap from USA DM's me and says 'FYI, your 'gui's are for girls' comment is perhaps not kosher'

I'm getting sick of all this ****! I was going to suggest in response that 'not kosher' comments are 'not kosher' too but decided to leave it.

I was speaking to another US chap when he came to UK and I randomly said 'look at that car's spoiler, looks a bit gay' and he starts 'You cant say that!' WTF not!

I can see myself going to jail for frequent and persistent non-PC references before long....

If I want to say something genuinely without offence and someone gets all high and mighty with it they can lick my hairy strap-on.....

 

[Manc5]

At work we use Slack, both for directly related stuff and for general issues regarding all sorts of things. On one of the general ones we were having a discussion about FTP clients for macOS and I chirped in with 'GUI's are for girls!'

This chap from USA DM's me and says 'FYI, your 'gui's are for girls' comment is perhaps not kosher'

I'm getting sick of all this ****! I was going to suggest in response that 'not kosher' comments are 'not kosher' too but decided to leave it.

I was speaking to another US chap when he came to UK and I randomly said 'look at that car's spoiler, looks a bit gay' and he starts 'You cant say that!' WTF not!

I can see myself going to jail for frequent and persistent non-PC references before long....

If I want to say something genuinely without offence and someone gets all high and mighty with it they can lick my hairy strap-on.....

Lol.. we used to call any GUI for HPE Storage, Blades, SAN, Switches the "girls tool"... got told off for that one a few years back by a hacked off Lady in my team who is a whizz at command line work... !!

 

[Wanderer]

And this sort of bolllocks too!

Facebook apologises for Plymouth Hoe 'error'

The social media platform removed posts after wrongly identifying the place name as offensive.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[allandwf]

I took my apprentice out to the plant on his first day. He started laughing at something. It was graffiti on a panel door. "It's all B@ll@cks"! That he was told was his first lesson and never a truer statement made.

 

[Corranga]

At work we use Slack, both for directly related stuff and for general issues regarding all sorts of things. On one of the general ones we were having a discussion about FTP clients for macOS and I chirped in with 'GUI's are for girls!'

This chap from USA DM's me and says 'FYI, your 'gui's are for girls' comment is perhaps not kosher'

I'm getting sick of all this ****! I was going to suggest in response that 'not kosher' comments are 'not kosher' too but decided to leave it.

I was speaking to another US chap when he came to UK and I randomly said 'look at that car's spoiler, looks a bit gay' and he starts 'You cant say that!' WTF not!

I can see myself going to jail for frequent and persistent non-PC references before long....

If I want to say something genuinely without offence and someone gets all high and mighty with it they can lick my hairy strap-on.....

/warning - I'm skipping the bit where you are venting, and going straight to education mode, just as you've skipped the polite warning from the DM, and went straight to moaning about it...

Spoiler: I'll even spoiler tag this so you can choose to just walk on by...

Political correctness:
the avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

If you want to say something genuinely without offence, then say something genuinely without offence.
You didn't.
It's not acceptable, they were right to pull you up on it.

Simples.

If you want to get more into it ask yourself some questions about why you felt the GUI was specifically for girls. If the answer to any of these is yes, and you are being genuine when you say you want to
say something genuinely without offence, then you need to rethink.

Did you think it was a funny comment?
Do you think woman are less skilled than men?
Do you think they can't operate command line driven applications?
Are you somehow superior to women?
Was it pink, or did it have ribbons and flowers on?
Is that not 'masculine' enough for you?
Are you just uncomfortable with your own masculinity?

For these ones, your 2nd statement was ok if they are yes.
Was the spoiler sodomising another spoiler at the time?
Did the spoiler have the statement "I am gay" on it?

 

[RobinL]

This!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[rossyl]

Oh god...here we go again.

 

[zagatoes30]

Another one to put hard hat on before entering

 

[rossyl]

I was speaking to another US chap when he came to UK and I randomly said 'look at that car's spoiler, looks a bit gay' and he starts 'You cant say that!' WTF not!

I can see myself going to jail for frequent and persistent non-PC references before long....

If I want to say something genuinely without offence and someone gets all high and mighty with it they can lick my hairy strap-on.....

I've had to learn to stop myself from using this term. Throughout my youth, particularly in school, it was a common comment to make. I never thought of it as offensive. But, it is.

Did you think the spoiler looked good or bad?
My guess is bad.
If you think it looks bad, aka negative, why did you liken it to someone being gay?

It's simple stuff.

Yes, we cannot live our lives in cotton wool. Yes, we will be offended and we will cause offence. Its human nature.

But, surely there's better things to be proud about than being proud of offending someone?
And, surely, its better to when corrected or pulled up on something, to have an open mind and genuinely consider why someone has chosen to intervene and tell you "that's not ok"?

If you think everyone else has a problem, quite often, you are the one with the problem.

p.s. Have fun with your strap-on, it must be custom, I didn't know they did hairy ones. Use lube, or else, with the added hair, it might chafe.

 

[rockits]

Oh god...here we go again.

You know you don't have to go into a thread that you know you will have issues with? The title is pretty clear what the content will contain.

 

[rossyl]

You know you don't have to go into a thread that you know you will have issues with? The title is pretty clear what the content will contain.

Public forum, is it not?

Also, saying that the Title of a thread on this Forum is in any way indicative of the contents of that thread is wholly incorrect. We love a thread drift!

 

[Swedish Paul]

It is an interesting discussion I have had from time to time with my son. I believe the terms often used by us oldies are by habit. I don’t think that we mean it in any derogatory sense. The issue we have is that younger folks are so used to targeted abuse, they think that is what is happening. I am not racist, sexist or anything ist and I find it slightly offensive to be branded any of those because sometimes I might say this or that. But equally, we are intelligent creatures and by will we can stop saying things that didn’t offend them but do now.

Could be worse, could be Derby supporters.....

 

[rockits]

Public forum, is it not?

Also, saying that the Title of a thread on this Forum is in any way indicative of the contents of that thread is wholly incorrect. We love a thread drift!

You just seem a little intent on telling people that they are wrong and telling people what they should be saying or thinking. Also what they shouldn't be saying or thinking. Everybody is different and were born at different times, in different parts of the country or world and have different upbringings.

I think political correctness has gone a little bit too far now to the point that free speech is not free anymore. Also that people are often so worried about offending someone somewhere (which you always will!) that they often don't say anything as it is safer that way. Not sure that really works.

 

[rockits]

It is an interesting discussion I have had from time to time with my son. I believe the terms often used by us oldies are by habit. I don’t think that we mean it in any derogatory sense. The issue we have is that younger folks are so used to targeted abuse, they think that is what is happening. I am not racist, sexist or anything ist and I find it slightly offensive to be branded any of those because sometimes I might say this or that. But equally, we are intelligent creatures and by will we can stop saying things that didn’t offend them but do now.

Could be worse, could be Derby supporters.....

I'd agree with that Paul. I think many have been using words for so long it is embedded in their common vocabulary. It becomes almost second nature and they are blissfully unaware they do it. I am sure I do the same with some words I would guess.

It is very hard to change this sometimes and takes ages to reduce and eradicate even if the desire to do so is there. It is quite similar to youngsters using unnecessary words in their sentences such as 'like' etc. and becomes second nature for some so they really don't know they have even said it.

 

[rockits]

Public forum, is it not?

Also, saying that the Title of a thread on this Forum is in any way indicative of the contents of that thread is wholly incorrect. We love a thread drift!

You also seem very argumentative at the moment. Some tolerance and allowances for current circumstances might not be a bad thing.

 

[Corranga]

It is an interesting discussion I have had from time to time with my son. I believe the terms often used by us oldies are by habit. I don’t think that we mean it in any derogatory sense. The issue we have is that younger folks are so used to targeted abuse, they think that is what is happening. I am not racist, sexist or anything ist and I find it slightly offensive to be branded any of those because sometimes I might say this or that. But equally, we are intelligent creatures and by will we can stop saying things that didn’t offend them but do now.

Could be worse, could be Derby supporters.....

This is a decent understanding, but still a little off. It's not that younger folk are used to the targeted abuse, nor that they think that's what has happened.
It's about continuing to allow it to be normal. These phrases should be condemned because they are old and offensive stereotypes that, regardless of how they were intended when said, originated from a view that some people are far superior to others. This shouldn't be normalised, and it should be called out.

Women were oppressed for years, no votes, less pay, presumed to be inferior, or less intelligent, or just for looking at, or having kids etc. when the reality is they are just the same as men, plus some biological differences.
Continuing to say something is "for girls" in a negative way is not moving on from these outdated and
Emily Davison threw herself under the Kings Horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913, she literally threw her life away to raise awareness of how women were oppressed, yet over 100 years later, folk are moaning on the internet about being told off for being unable to stop using the phrase "it's for girls."

 

[Matt82]

And this sort of bolllocks too!

Facebook apologises for Plymouth Hoe 'error'

The social media platform removed posts after wrongly identifying the place name as offensive.

www.bbc.co.uk

There’s an area adjacent to Plymouth Hoe, that is adorned with lots of hoes, so I’m told.

 

[Corranga]

I'd agree with that Paul. I think many have been using words for so long it is embedded in their common vocabulary. It becomes almost second nature and they are blissfully unaware they do it. I am sure I do the same with some words I would guess.

It is very hard to change this sometimes and takes ages to reduce and eradicate even if the desire to do so is there. It is quite similar to youngsters using unnecessary words in their sentences such as 'like' etc. and becomes second nature for some so they really don't know they have even said it.

I'm 39 next month. When I was at school, bad things were called gay and there was a good half a dozen names to call people that al meant gay. The English kid in school was a posh **** that spoke wrong, in fact he was eventually nicknamed Braveheart, the Irish were all in the IRA, choice phrases were used to describe the place you get your sweet and sour chicken from, and the guy who owned the corner shop, who of course was Banglidesh, not Pakistan, pink was for girls and

When I was at school, I didn't know how to drive, nor what a camshaft was, nor how to change an exhaust. I didn't know how to use an internet forum, and I thought you had to move our finger in a circular motion to dial a phone number. I couldn't make pizza, or fix my lawn mower, I didn't have a clue what to do with a baby. I've learnt all of these things since, just like I've learnt to not use language that belittles entire groups of people. It really isn't that hard.

As a very simply start, if someone is struggling, you'll get a long way by applying 1 question and be done with it, especially as most of us here are white males.

Does this joke mention a group of people I don't belong to?

 

[rockits]

So when many suggest that an MX5 is a girls car or is a hairdressers car then this needs to be addressed as well?

 

[Zep]

This goes right back to the loss of nuance from our daily discourse.

Is your right of free speech greater than the right of the person that calls it out? Both are speaking freely.

Is it ok to be close to the knuckle with your mates down the pub? Of course it is, these people know you, they know what you mean and who you are as a person.

Would you speak the same way at work? Not generally, no.

We all know someone who isn’t PC. Does it make them a bad person? Not in isolation no.

It never ceases to surprise me that this sort of thing ends up on an open forum on the internet as a rant. Which invariably triggers and argument.

If I know saying something will offend someone, I won’t say it. When did that stop?