Post by Deleted on May 7, 2015 14:01:21 GMT -5
May 7, 2015 13:48:01 GMT -5 @pineappleoranges said:
While I can see your point, the difference is the feelings that people associate with certain words. While you may logically know that a person didn't intend to be offensive, the past experience with the word still stands. The stories your families and friends told you about with their experience in that instance becomes yours. A white female in 1973 Alabama telling a group of Black teenagers to clean-up boys is going to be an problem. We are talking context here. Alabama was a hotbed of racial tension at this time and well into the 1980's. This is one of the States referred to as Deep South so there leaves little ambiguity in this instance. I once had a female student confront me about sexism after class because I said "Good morning, guys!" at the beginning of class. I was shocked because the class that day was on feminist discourse and I consciously used "guys" instead of "ladies," "girls," etc. because I thought it was less patronizing and it is also widely used in trans* communities as a way of avoiding assigning gender people. To this student, however, because the singular "guy" usually means male, I had "created an unsafe learning environment for her."
ETA: I agreed to stop using the term in class, but also asked her to listen to my reasons for using it as a feminist myself.
Was she failing the class and looking for a way out? Or just a PITA, in general?