Comments on: The Meaning Of Words

By: Tessy

Tessy — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:13:42 +0000

I think one of the reason it bothers me is that the real meaning of this word is diminished when people are using it as a metaphor in other circumstances, like the ones I listed.

I rarely say anything either when I encounter people who flaunt their arrogance and/or ignorance like this. Like you say, it’s hard not to feel sheepish or preachy or to worry about being targeted next.

Maybe I should speak up, and remind people that it’s not hard finding words for what you want to say without having to resort to words people might find offensive, like Nazi or racial or sexual abusives.

By: batgrl

batgrl — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:18:53 +0000

Yes, it bothers me too. If it’s in general I just assume that it’s a bunch of boys or girls who never had a woman in the family to take them aside and talk about how awful that word can be if you’ve ever had a family member or friend raped – and how we should all be caring enough human beings to assume that someone within earshot might be personally effected by such a word.
But I worry about sounding too preachy/stuffy, so I never say anything in general – though I always wish I had. But there’s always the thought that you’ll be the next target for the jerks in general.

Our guild has that as one of the words that we don’t ever use – and we’ve never had any complaints. (In fact, several people have given us thank you’s for it.) But then, we’re an all adult guild, which may have something to do with it. The longer you’ve been on the planet the more you realize that kindness towards others, even those you don’t know, is a wonderful thing. I think there’s a lot of us folk out there, who silently don’t like the word, and happily put those using it on the ignore list.

By: Oriniwen

Oriniwen — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:03:53 +0000

I’d suggest people who misuse the word maybe look at something like http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/

But I think we all need to delinate our personal boundaries. When I hearing a comment like “what are you, the Vent Nazi?” I don’t feel that it is degrading a very real and very awful portion of the history of humanity. Someone who said such comments all the time though, even after being instructed on the more serious side behind them – well that person is just a complete waste of space. Possibly even guild space.

By: Tessy

Tessy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:36:51 +0000

It is indeed good to hear I am not alone feeling uneasy about this.

I wonder how many of those out there who don’t seem to care at all actually feel like we do.

By: Elleiras

Elleiras — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:08:56 +0000

I have an entire rant written on this subject that I could never quite bring myself to publish; I honestly felt a little sheepish for admitting that it bothered me, because so many gamers seem to take the secondary meaning in stride. I'm glad I'm not alone. Elleiras’s last blog post..Reflections of a Twilight Vanquisher

By: Brishcoos

Brishcoos — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:45:02 +0000

You shouldn’t mind those ppl(and i think that they aren’t wemen) and first of all they are the bored onces trying to be “smart” or “cool” (as you said). I agree that this word should keep his primary value [many bad things are happening in the world(of not warcraft) and some words should "show"/remind about what's really happening @ us], but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t use it rarely in good/stupid jokes; as i say sometimes “After all, the mankind is bad.”

By: Anea

Anea — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:22:03 +0000

Yes yes YES! I also feel like I am the only one who is bothered by this word and it's usage. I really very strongly agree. More people need to understand that it's not a word that can be bandied about so casually. Anea’s last blog post..Push me