Ah, Life & Words

[silk_noir]

It's been an interesting week.

Lots of internet kerfuffles, some drama.  Sometimes this is amusing, sometimes it's not.  I just posted a reminder on my facebook wall that I want to foster civil discussion, not fighting, and that I'm interested in compromise and finding common ground.

However, one friend of mine really knocked me for a loop when she

Comments

[noveldevice]

How individuals relate to their bodies is often an extremely loaded issue, and it's easy to fall into the mistake of thinking that the way you do it is the only "right" way and that it's totally legit to try and force that false normativity on other people.

I think some of it is that if you're already uneasy about your approach, other people's differing choices are threatening.

However, someone else's hangups about words are not your problem. :)

[sartorias]

Yay for inspiration!

[amichaels]

I love euphemisms. I think they only become a problem when we are using them in a mature discussion, such as discussing reproductive rights policy, when we ought to be using more proper words. When people can't handle words like vagina in the discussion of women's health, it's a problem. I don't think the issue of word choice is really all that black and white. Like off color jokes I think there is a time and place and appropriate audience for them. Personally, I don't mind them because I reject the idea that having a cunt, or being a homo or a dyke, is somehow a bad thing. I reject the negativity that goes with those terms and would admit freely to representing them. I hope that makes sense.

I would rather claim words and rob them of their power than try and censor their use.

[tedeisenstein]

I just don't know how to respond to that.
Say, "I don't"?

and is still sensitive and responsive in my 50th decade.
For someone who's 500 years old, you must be doing very nice things to it for it to still work so well.

[silk_noir]

For someone who's 500 years old, you must be doing very nice things to it for it to still work so well.

I'm friggin awesome for someone who's 500 years old.

[tedeisenstein]

Come to think of it, you're pretty darn good for someone who's a tenth of that. Or an eleventh, or a twelfth.

.....errrr, not that I have any personal experience, of course, but I'm willing to take your word for it, of course.

[ccjohn]

Do we take one step that isn't common on the ground. OK Neil Armstrong. Think of how long he must have thought, what he was going to say. Whatever anyone could have told him, only he spoke and he knew that. Every step given to us is common.

Cunt. Quim. Slit. Yeah I'm a dude. I just said those words. Each sounds about right.

Glad about the good news, damn glad.