originally posted in:Secular Sevens
[b]Perception[/b]
noun
1. the act or faculty of perceiving or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.
[b]2. immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception.[/b]
3. the result or product of perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.
This is the word that came to mind after reading the entirety of this thread.
Point being: Humans as individuals perceive things differently, meaning that unless the entire population of planet Earth decided exactly what words could carry an offensive connotation, we will always have "derogatory" and "offensive" words.
It's a battle that neither the offended, or the offender will ever win.
But there's still a choice. This goes for both sides. People who use derogatory terms with or without the intention of offending someone, do have a choice to [i]not[/i] use those terms.
And people who have the potential to be offended by any of those terms, [i]can[/i] perceive the terms as either offensive, or otherwise. It is a choice. Whether or not any given term has been established as "offensive", it is still up to the recipient to see that words are just a collection of letters that [i]humans[/i] put meaning to.
So whether you are homosexual or heterosexual, you are still equally [i]human[/i], giving you the opportunity to, as a human, decided if you perceive a word as offensive or not.
English
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It isn't so much our personal reactions to the word as much as it is the toxic social environment fostered by its persistent use. I hear f*ggot all the time without getting offended, because I don't find the word to be all that [i]offensive[/i]. But I would still ask people to refrain from using it because of the social consequences that its usage generates. Consequences that make it harder for LGBT people to live happily in our society.
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Edited by magicmagininja: 8/3/2013 11:49:27 PMI would argue your position that it's "possible" to ignore oppression from society itself.