What's taboo?

[glenny_c]

I agree- intent goes a long way in this. I refer to one of my close friends as "camp as a row of tents" but as that is one of the reasons I love him, we laugh at it. If someone used the word "camp" to describe him (or anyone else) in a derogatory way then I would have a problem.

[Kazzo]

I was thinking about this last night and I am also one who thinks that it is who your with and what you or they can own. I also think that what is taboo to me has changed as my life has changed and I know as I continue to grow and my life changes I know it will change more.

[Traveller]

The only things that are really taboo for me are when a word is used that is derogatory to a group. Examples being retard, gay (meaning stupid), etc. Swear words I don't have an issue with and I have been known to use the c word. I don't see why that one particular piece of our anatomy is so much more off limits than any other, and I choose to take the power back from the word by using it iyswim. That being said I use it infrequently and only in certain company.

I also dislike jokes that poke fun at peoples misfortunes. So pretty much everything from Holocaust jokes to "Australia's funniest home videos" when we are meant to find kids getting hurt and people falling on their wedding cakes funny. Not what I consider humorous.

[Calluna]

So pretty much everything from Holocaust jokes to "Australia's funniest home videos" when we are meant to find kids getting hurt and people falling on their wedding cakes funny. Not what I consider humorous.

I have never heard any holocaust jokes, but I doubt I'd find that amusing.

I can't stand funniest home video show either. The only time those videos are funny to me is the cute baby ones (not when they hurt themselves or others or parents making them cry (!)) and when a person hurts themselves doing something particularly stupid (really, what did they expect would happen when they do these things?)

[meow]

For me it's generally anything about:
violence
smacking children
animal cruelty
abuse
rape
suicide
mental illness
disability
race
gender
sexuality
domineering wives (the ball and chain stereotype)

My BIL loves to make un-PC jokes. He thinks he's the next Chris Lilley, as though anything that is obviously un-PC is funny. He is so NOT funny and doesn't have Chris Lilley's sense of irony. I can't stand all his stupid "jokes". He just sounds like a sexist, racist, homophobic shumck most of the time.

While I don't personally use words like retard, gay (as a put down) or the c words, they don't instantly offend me if used by a person in a context that I know is not intentionally offending those that the words refer to IYKWIM.

[Dollyroux]

Things that are always off limits - rape/abuse jokes, violence jokes, race jokes, jokes that use phrases/words that the people it refers to object to (e.g. Abo for aboriginal, fag for gay).

If some people of that group don't mind being called that word, but others do, then it's off limits. This one can be contextual - for example I don't mind my friends calling me a sl*t because it has context and a relationship but if a man used that against me then it is not on. My default position with specific words/phrases is that it is always easier not to use the word/say something else to say then it is to use the offensive word.

I think the newest thing I am objecting to and finding taboo is 'girl slurs' - big girls blouse, don't be a little girl, stop crying/acting like a girl etc. Girl is not an insult!!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[meow]

I think the newest thing I am objecting to and finding taboo is 'girl slurs' - big girls blouse, don't be a little girl, stop crying/acting like a girl etc. Girl is not an insult!!

That's why I put gender in my list. I hate those jokes too. Running like a girl, woman driver etc etc.

[ElleJay]

For me, I will never make fun of the disabled (I have a mentally disabled brother), race (I've made so many friends of so many different races), and people who suffer depression/anxiety/other mental issue (because I suffer from at least two things myself)
And there's only two words I will NEVER use (and never have said in my life) and they are 'retard' and 'n**ga' (fill in the blanks - I can't even write it!)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - even though I should be cleaning or sleeping

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

TBH, any word or phrase that can cause offence to another - I won't knowingly use it. And I want to be pulled up if I do say something and cause offence without knowing it. Name-calling, pain, "practical jokes" (aka bullying), insults - why should they be OK or amusing? I don't understand that a word can cause offence from the mouth of person A but not person B, because of whatever reason. Someone calls you a bad name, why is it OK because they look like/act like/have known you for...? I am called "prudish" and acutally I DO care - because I won't bully or put down other people, it's OK to do that to me? "Prude" isn't a nice term for someone who thinks the world could be a pleasant place if people stopped abusing each other. I have a great sense of humour, it just doesn't involve pulling people down to the lowest common demoniator.

Having said that, I do know a fantastic joke about GBH.
"A chap threw some sodium chloride at me the other night. I said "hey mate - that's a salt (assault)."