From: pax@osmium.mv.net   
      
   Elaine Thompson  wrote:   
   >On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:40:31 +0100,   
   >green_knight@greenknight.org.uk.invalid (Catja Pafort) wrote:   
      
   >>Brian M. Scott wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> You should be asking whether the origin comes to   
   >>> mind when the phrases are used.  That varies by person and   
   >>> context; at least with 'pansy-ass' it frequently does not,   
   >>> and I have the impression that some may in fact not even   
   >>> know its origin.   
   >>   
   >>I did not know it's origin, in fact, I cannot recall hearing that   
   >>precise term before, but it's so blindingly obvious a formation that I   
   >>did not need that knowledge.   
   >>   
      
   >/unlurk   
      
   >"blindingly obvious" *to you*.  Not, apparently to Sea Wasp, not to me   
   >and not to Brian here.   
      
   	/unlurk   
      
   	Me neither.   
      
   >All in the USA, I believe.  I've run across the phrase, but only as a   
   >general insult along the lines of lily-livered or yellow-bellied but   
   >with an air of the UK about it.   
      
      
   	Aye.   
      
   >Which is - I think - Brian's point.  In our context it isn't terribly   
   >offensive.   
      
   	Not in a "conveys extreme prejudice about homosexuals" way,   
   	but I might be a bit irked if someone called me that, just   
   	like I'd be irked if they called me a whiny bitch.  Depends   
   	on person and context, of course.   
      
   >I've had to put some thought into figuring out how it is offensive in   
   >other dialects of English.   
      
      
      
   >>   
   >>   
   >>> It seems to me that you are assuming that the problem is on   
   >>> the writer's end and refusing to consider the possibility   
   >>> that it might be on the reader's end.   
   >>   
   >>I think that, when using terms that create a wide-ranging consensus as   
   >>to their offensiveness, a writer ought to be aware - particularly if the   
   >>term is as transparent as the one in question   
      
   	I see no consensus.   
      
   >See above.  It *isn't* transparent to speakers of various flavors of   
   >US English.  (I grew up in California, Brian is somewhere in the US,   
   >I'm not sure where, and Wasp is East Coast - NY, I think.)   
      
      
   	Just as another data point:   
      
   	Not blindingly obvious at all to me, and I'm in Massachusetts.   
      
   ~P.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)