LogFAQs > #979928616

LightningThief posted...

By the same token you've gone over my point. You said people can use a word that in itself is not pejorative, but a malicious actor can use said word to be pejorative. That literally applies to literally any sentence and any word you can think of. Literally. Including the 2 examples you gave. Both example sentences you gave can contextually be used maliciously, including the one you implied/think was nicer.

The point being, context is one of the key foundations of speech. Yet, some most definitely take it upon themselves to do everything in their power to ignore context to warp someones words/sentence to be malicious when contextually it was not.

It's not beneficial to go out of ones way to find a way to be offended or look for reasons for others to be offended while throwing context to the wind so we can look for new ways to be offended.

Because again, no one in this topic is suggesting to walk up to an individual and randomly call them fat or randomly tell them they're fat.

So to answer your question in lesser words, context matters. Neither examples you gave are inherently malicious or more beneficial to choose. Both can contextually be used maliciously.

I think your premise here is flawed.

This isn't mainly in regards to walking randomly up to people and calling them fat, but about being mindful of the casual language used in everyday life. It doesn't work so simply as, "I said this with no intent to cause offense, therefore it does not cause offense, unless the other person deliberately misconstrues my words." The world would be a very different place if that was how it worked.

Neither is inherently malicious, but some people, for reasons ranging from depression, negative self esteem/self image, previous experience, other causes, will read a negative connotation into one, and less so the other.

This is not because they are 'looking to be offended', but simply because that's how their brains work; if something can be seen in a negative light, it will be. That is the context I'm operating in.

More over, this specific topic regards people who are more likely to have body issues. It would seem meet to exercise more care.

The proposed adjustment isn't about not making delicate little flowers not feel bad, or that excess weight isn't a problem, but in altering the lens through which people perceive the world. In much the way poor people using opiates purchased illegally off the street is called a 'crime wave', but rich people using opiates purchased illegally from a pill mill is a 'health crisis'.

Even if you don't see it that way, there are a lot of people who regard one as a moral failing and the other as an unfortunate circumstance.

Cjsdowg wants to move weight problems from the moral failing category to more of the unfortunate circumstance side by de-emphasizing the adjective form and embracing the noun form. By looking past the current state to what circumstances may have brought them to that state, and what might be keeping them there.

And I can't find a way to see that as a bad thing.