"the term "tranny" is used as a dehumanizing slur to describe transgender individuals and is oftentimes the last word someone hears before they are brutally attacked. Similar to the anti-gay F-word, the term "tranny" is commonly used to humiliate and degrade transgender individuals."
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lance-bass/why-we-shouldnt-use...
This is utterly ignorant of context. There are names used exclusively in hatred against a group, and there are names a group is happy to be called.
By your logic, perhaps we should be going around referring to women as whores, black people as niggers, trans people as trannies, gay people as faggots, because "you can't win this game".
Yet civilised society does not. And with good reason.
In any case, I'm not arguing for anything in particular. I don't think there is a logic to this. My point is not about what words we can use.
My point is that anger and insurrection against systematic hate, cultures of intolerance, injustice are directed against the instruments of intolerance. But, rage and insurrection are not always nuanced tools especially in the hands of young people. They get mad at the words themselves, not just the hate. Sometimes it's fueled by the wrong thing, like enjoying moral platitudes. Sometimes by the right thing.
Either way, I think the net results are good.. essential even, but some of the side effects can be insufferable.
But what about the chucklehead fifteen feet away eating a sandwich, who just heard you reaffirm his belief that it's okay to call women whores, because they're not really people, right, just sex objects?
For you and your friend, that's fine. But this the sandwich eating bastard goes out and --secure in the knowledge that women don't get a say, because nobody around him uses language that suggests they do-- rapes someone, and doesn't think it's a big deal.
And there's that rape culture that people my age are always screaming about. And there's the hate culture that people my age are always screaming about.
We're not screaming about you, who are as annoying to us as we are to you. We're screaming about the people you're teaching by example. The ones who rape women (1 in 4 women have been raped in the US) and men (1 in 6), who murder gay and lesbian and bi and trans* folks (I don't have numbers there, mea culpa) and face no reprisal, because nobody in power takes it seriously.
Seriously. We get twitchy about those words because hearing them might mean that we're about to be killed.
I don't know why I react negatively, considering that I consider myself a feminist, but I suppose that's the whole point of something being 'instinctive'. It's a heuristic that may or may not make sense. But it's one borne of ignorance and the privilege of not having to think about these things (being a white, highly-educated male), and being surrounded by, I assume, upstanding males who don't rape, and upstanding white folk who are not racists.
it's posts like yours that remind me that my instincts can be wrong and harmful in practice, and while I'm free to feel as I feel, it's posts like yours, and stories from my friends, that shock me whenever I hear them, and that give me some perspective and make me realize my instinct is not a precious thing to protect or defend above everything else.
Please remember that it really helps to explain things the way you do. I'm not saying it's a responsibility to do so, or that not doing so gives 'us' the right to remain oblivious. Far from it.
I'm simply saying that practically speaking, posts like yours are much more helpful than blanket judgments and (perceived) knee-jerk outrage. It benefits everyone to try and paint a picture of a perspective that is not necessarily shared personally, however unnecessary it should be to do so.
I wish I was good enough to be sensitive all by myself, but the sad fact is that even I as a person with a sizable amount of close friends who are gay, bisexual, female, or minorities (in every sense of the word), can forget that not everyone shares my rather privileged perspective.
And it's really helpful for me to be reminded that, say, a rape joke might not be a problem for me, but that it might be a problem in a larger context where rapists justify their actions by it.
Oppressed groups sometimes reclaim slurs against them. That's fine, if it hurts anyone, it is merely themselves. It's not others hurting them.
http://englishcowpath.blogspot.com/2011/06/euphemism-treadmi...
Really? I cannot imagine why anyone would feel hatred towards a mentally disabled person, and while some people might be cruel, they're probably cruel towards anybody who's weaker than them. So I don't really agree with your categorization.
However, I admit that a lot of people use the terms "retarded", "stupid", "idiot", etc. in a mean, hateful, cruel way, but these terms as insults are usually directed towards people who are not mentally disabled, exactly because they are not! (When you call a retard a "retard", that's not an insult, it's the truth. It's an insult only if you call a non-retarded person a "retard"!)
I am 100% sure you can tell the difference between calling someone a t* and calling someone a Jew, and I am 100% sure you know when it is appropriate to identify someone as a Jew and when doing so is othering and degrading.
Context matters. If someone wants to use "trans" as an insult, they will.
"Don't speak to me you trans" and "Don't speak to me you tranny" are both offensive remarks. The difference of using "trans" or "tranny" doesn't change the message.
I'd also like to note that the use of "tranny" is still used self-referencingly by many trans.
"Queer" is an insult where I am from but many homosexuals are increasingly using it self-referencingly ("I'm queer.") and I see less people get all up-in-arms over the word "queer" than "tranny", which I find strange.
It is my belief that giving words power is silly. By fearing them you show others that they can use that word to control you. If you are indifferent, their words fall flat. They become weak and powerless. By advocating the fear of words, you give them increased power. You teach people to fear the word because it can hold power over others. Those who wish to abuse that power will see that and use the word.
In the end you result in the abusers having more power, people with no ill-intent to feel bad for the usage, and people whom the word is targeted at grow more fearful of it. That's a lose-lose for all involved.
By not giving the word an "unspeakable" status - the abusers realize the word holds no power and stop using it, people who have no ill-intent don't have to feel bad for using the wrong word, and the people whom the word targets don't grow to fear the word.
I find advocates of making a word "unspeakable" because it, in certain contexts, can be "bad" is counterproductive is all. You increase the power of the word, nasty people will use it with even more glee, and nothing is accomplished other than self-victimization.
Which I think is a pretty solid argument for not using those words, unless you're cool with frequently hanging the threat of murder over <insert minority>'s heads. Personally, I'm not cool with that.
T* is a slur that is too often the last thing a woman hears before she is brutally murdered.