67d5933c   
   From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:09:53 +0100, Catja Pafort   
    wrote in   
   rec.arts.sf.misc:   
      
   > Brian M. Scott wrote:   
      
   >> I think that you're misinterpreting Sea Wasp's terminology:   
   >> I take 'pansy-ass nancy boy' to be roughly 'gutless wonder   
   >> who'd rather let deer starve en masse than cull the herd   
   >> (for instance)' -- someone so soft-hearted as to be   
   >> soft-headed.   
      
   > We've had this discussion before, and I don't think it can   
   > be entirely resolved, but I *do* think that it's a good   
   > thing if people watch their language and think about what   
   > they're really saying -   
      
   I think that you ought to examine the assumptions implicit   
   in that 'really'.   
      
   > whether it's denigrating women, homosexuals, Blacks, or   
   > any other social grouping: it might not have been _meant_   
   > to be insulting, but I did not have to think twice _why_   
   > Zeborah would want to take it over here;   
      
   I still don't see it, frankly.  Someone from one of the   
   regions where the terms haven't been diluted could perfectly   
   well have raised the question in rasfc.  In particular,   
   Zeborah's post could have been made there: it wasn't exactly   
   inflammatory.  Better yet, somone could simply have asked   
   whether he'd really meant to say 'good doesn't mean   
   stereotypically gay'.  Resorting to rasfm too quickly may do   
   almost as much damage to rasfc in the long run as resorting   
   to it too slowly, and I thought that this was too quick.   
      
   > Sea Wasp's post had the safe effect on me.   
      
   I expect that it was at least somewhat startling to most of   
   the non-North American native speakers.  It was mildly   
   startling to me, though not for the same reason: that's not   
   his normal idiom.  That's why I took the quotation marks   
   seriously.   
      
   Brian   
      
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