So I just picked up on this new 4chan Vs Tumblr war that happened on the 4th (and is still happening AFAIK) through some other forums. So I went to go take a peek at the whole thing myself.
I consider myself to be fairly learned in English. Political Correctness however, is one of my weaknesses. And I worry about accidentally offending someone through a poor choice of words.
Now this open all new terrifying doors.
I saw someone being told off for using the word "man" while commenting on a picture of a person with masculine facial features and masculine body structure. For Eight Pages.
I saw someone posting a picture "for his lady friends" and getting into an argument for offending someone who considered (himself/herself/itself?) "agender". Seventeen Pages.
There was someone who wrote a 600-word essay because a man "raped her with his eyes".
There were talks (and pictures) of someone losing the use of their thumb after opening up their wrist and fooling around with the ulnaris tendon due to being "triggered" and having a "panic attack" due to not being addressed by the proper pronoun.
I'm already confused on how to address the er... black? portion of the population. "Black" seems to have offensive undertones. "African American" is long and sounds like I'm overly conscious of their skin color. "Colored" makes me think back to those videos of places with "Colored sections" and "No colored people" that show up on the history channel. The N-word is obviously off-limits. At this point I try to avoid the subject completely and avoid addressing their race at all. There aren't that may of their race where I'm originally from.
Come to think of it, is "race" the politically correct term? Or should I use "People"? "Type"? "Kind"?
Like all the other women in my family, I was taught what some might consider to be "oppressive traditional gender roles". I've never really seen it that way, they taught it to me and let me decide for myself which portions are right, wrong, and which can be adapted or altered; even though I may not have agreed with some, I followed them while I was under their care as was expected of me. I still find most talks about homosexuality, transexuality, and all that kind of stuff uncomfortable. It's terrible I know, at the very least I'll smile and let you continue, but I can't help it if I pause or hesitate whenever it's brought up.
"Agender"? "Demigender"? "Magigender"? "Pangender"? "Cisgender"? "This stuff is so far beyond me that acknowledging how far beyond me it is so insignificant that I might as well not have acknowledged it at all.
Do I have to worry that my story in my giveaway thread might offend someone and I'll end up with hordes of people I barely know demanding alterations/apologies? If I look at a person with masculine features who considers him/her/itself whateversexual could I get told off for "raping them with my eyes"? That's terrifying to me.
For now, I'm closing the tab forever. And No-scripting the site. And Adblocking the site.