…on a feminist website. (Well, sort of, it’s more just etymology with a cultural dimension, but anyway.) I love her run-through of trying to explain “Damn” and “pardon my french” to a non-native speaker. And the concluding paragraphs:
…if there are words and phrases that I use, but haven’t actually thought about — idioms that may be so common that I don’t have a clue about their etymology, but which I find are undeniably rooted in discrimination and oppression when I use the “explain it to a non-native speaker” exercise above (such as the phrase: “I got gypped” — a slur against Romani people that I’m often surprised people don’t know about) — if I continue to use these words and people are offended by them and I say: “Hey, it’s common usage! I didn’t mean it like that” . . .
Well, if I do that, I think that what I’m really saying is:
“I want to use these phrases because they are an easy short-hand for me, and/or they make me sound hep, or edgy, or current — and I want that more than I want to effectively communicate and connect with you.”
Which, when I put it like that, sounds really shitty of me.
Unrelated, this post on “mansplaining” is also good – I’ve definitely been guilty of it.
I must have been really lucky (or just brash enough to get my point across.) Since my dad really does know how to fix things around the house, I learned so much from him. And at work, well, let’s just say that we have a lot of [Dilbert's] Wallys around and I’m actually doing the work, so guys pretty much leave me alone.
Unless they need something, of course