Proposal to Amend DU TOS Language

[Gormy Cuss]

17. Either one believes that words have power or one does not.

Exercises in taking ownership of words works for some but not for all. If I'm called a bitch it doesn't do anything to my self-esteem but I don't like the word's use as a way of denigrating women. Bitch is just reduced calorie c**t.

But back to why the above proposal was made. In most public arenas we use language filters. For example, most people don't swear in church or in an elementary school. Most people won't use deeply charged racist terms in public even when they believe that other races are inferior. Why? Because we have social conventions on language usage. Such conventions do change over time, but we always have words and phrases that we self-censor based on the social situation. Yes, we do in fact police words by social agreement.

The above proposal was an attempt to reach some common understanding on DU that sexist language is as welcome as racist or homophobic language. The point is moot though since admin thinks there's no reason to do this.