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<blockquote data-quote="Kurotowa" data-source="post: 8038430" data-attributes="member: 27957">And both are traps. Saying that &quot;someone is offended&quot; makes it easy to dismiss them as thin skinned and emotional. Saying that &quot;content is offensive&quot; sends you into a labyrinth of trying to make rules about why not all offenses are equal, or else be forced to put the inevitable complaints about openly LGBT couples featuring in a story on the same footing as sexism or ethnic stereotypes.Making it about offense at all is a dead end. What we have to ask instead is, &quot;Does this do harm?&quot; As I tried to illustrate in my post, these derogatory depictions do real quantifiable harm to people. If BLM isn't your cup of tea here's another example. Doctors are less likely to take women's statements of symptoms seriously because of cultural stereotypes of women being emotional and unreliable. Studies have repeatedly shown that women have higher rates of being denied necessary care because doctors didn't think they were really that bad off. When I was young one of my parent's friends died because the hospital sent her home to &quot;sleep it off&quot;.The entire debate has to be shifted away from either the giving or taking of offense, otherwise all we'll get is a list of forbidden naughty words without any change in the attitudes or actions those words indicate.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kurotowa, post: 8038430, member: 27957"] And both are traps. Saying that "someone is offended" makes it easy to dismiss them as thin skinned and emotional. Saying that "content is offensive" sends you into a labyrinth of trying to make rules about why not all offenses are equal, or else be forced to put the inevitable complaints about openly LGBT couples featuring in a story on the same footing as sexism or ethnic stereotypes. Making it about offense at all is a dead end. What we have to ask instead is, "Does this do harm?" As I tried to illustrate in my post, these derogatory depictions do real quantifiable harm to people. If BLM isn't your cup of tea here's another example. Doctors are less likely to take women's statements of symptoms seriously because of cultural stereotypes of women being emotional and unreliable. Studies have repeatedly shown that women have higher rates of being denied necessary care because doctors didn't think they were really that bad off. When I was young one of my parent's friends died because the hospital sent her home to "sleep it off". The entire debate has to be shifted away from either the giving or taking of offense, otherwise all we'll get is a list of forbidden naughty words without any change in the attitudes or actions those words indicate. [/QUOTE]

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