From: zeborah@gmail.com   
      
   Brian M. Scott  wrote:   
      
   > On Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:49:08 +1200, Zeborah   
   >  wrote in   
   >  in   
   > rec.arts.sf.misc:   
   >   
   > > But even if they were intended to indicate that the insult   
   > > was someone else's, the offensiveness of the words   
   > > deserves, I think, a clearer disclaimer.   
   >   
   > And I think that you're overreacting.   
      
   No.  Overreacting would be, perhaps, if I said:   
      
   ---   
   Fuck "overreacting", fuck "oversensitive", fuck "hysterical".  I will   
   not be shamed into silence, I will not go back to my room and let the   
   men discuss these things that are beyond my pretty little head, and I   
   will not dose myself with laudanum until I no longer feel the need to   
   speak for myself.   
      
   Fuck the idea that *I* am being rude by preemptively moving a   
   potentially controversial discussion out of a place that doesn't want   
   controversy, and that there is nothing rude about Sea Wasp saying in   
   effect, "I'm too busy and important to spend a moment to look at   
   something you consider important enough to have made the effort to move   
   to another forum and the time to inform me of its presence there."   
      
   Fuck the idea that you are the sole arbiter of what quotation marks   
   mean.   
      
   Fuck the idea that if someone says something offensive, it's the fault   
   of the reader for being offended.   
      
   Fuck "It wasn't offensive, and besides, it wasn't him who said it, and   
   besides, you shouldn't be talking about it here," and fuck whatever   
   objection you decide to add to the litany next.   
      
   Fuck telling me I've condemned when I've condemned *nothing*.   
      
   In short, fuck you, the horse you rode in on, and the heteronormative   
   society that sold it to you.   
   ---   
      
   This would probably be overreacting on my part because it's extremely   
   likely (though it surprises and disappoints me) that you had no idea   
   about the history of accusing people of hysteria, oversensitivity, and   
   overreaction; that you had no idea that using words like this in   
   discussions of this kind is a classic and insidious tactic to dismiss   
   someone's objections and shame them into silence.   
      
   It's extremely likely you meant it innocently.  But in this context, it   
   doesn't *read* innocently.  It has made me utterly, blood-boilingly   
   furious.  Note (if it need be said) that I'm not condemning you, and I'm   
   not censoring you or trying to ban the word or expression of the   
   concept; I'm informing you, so you can choose next time to use it or not   
   as you like, but with the knowledge of the way many people will hear it.   
      
   And when I've stopped feeling so furious, I'll come back and reply to   
   the rest of your post properly.   
      
   Zeborah   
   --   
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