But right now - I feel like I've been relentlessly body-punched by half a dozen female darts players. My abdomen is giggling to itself with drunken pain, waiting for the hair trigger in my larynx to send that uncontrollable spasm out across my torso. Honestly, the soreness in my muscles is almost charming. Almost.
Anyway, there should be a point to this shit. So here we go.
For those of you that give a shit about these things, I'm really rather fond of Twitter, and I'm also really rather fond of comedy. Hence, there are a number of 'comedians' that I follow. Easy, if somewhat patronising, logic. But I've been watching with interest a spat that's been developing for a few days now between @herring1967 (Richard Herring) and @rickygervais (Ricky Gervais) over the latter's use of the word 'mong'.
In Gervais' world, the word is non-offensive, meant to equate to 'idiot' and 'buffoon'. In Herring's view (as a long-time supporter and fundraiser for SCOPE), the word has offensive connotations, deriving itself (as it does) from the word 'mongoloid' - just like the word 'Homo' derives from 'homosexual', the word 'spaz' derives from 'spastic', 'flid' from 'Phalidomide', 'Gypo' from 'Gypsy' and so on. You can't just take a scalpel and separate the shortened derivative from the original root word to suit.
Here's the urban dictionary with a couple of definitions:
| Mongoloid | 180 up, 183 down | |
Person with the features of one with down's syndrome (retard). Generally very ugly with no neck. Also, very low intelligence and often attend Carleton university. The name comes from the similarities of persons afflicted with down's syndrome and the facial features of indigens of Mongolia.
"Hey mommy, why does that retard look like such an ugly piece of shit?"
"Well Billy, his name is Kalonen and he is a mongoloid." | ||
Notice the almost equal number of thumbs up/thumbs down responses there? Yeah you do. This was written by a real fucking grade-A wit who doesn't like someone called Kalonen. I'm sure he told anyone that would listen how fucking cool he was for posting it too.
How about this one?
| mongoloid | 405 up, 281 down | |
(n.) Someone from southern or eastern asia according to a now obsolete racial classification. The name is given, probably as a result of genghis khan's mongol empire, which saw mongols breed with the natives of most asian races/tribes. The key factors in deciding whether a skull is mongoloid or not lie in the eyes and nose.
Most Chinese, Japanese and Koreans were once called 'mongoloid'.
| ||
Plenty more positive than negative reactions there. And at least an attempt to make it vaguely referential, unlike the cockbox above.
I'm sure you're wondering why I used the URBAN dic. rather than a real, reputable one with proper definitions in? Because the ones above were created through two different people's own perception filters. And that's kinda the point. We can allow a word to offend us, or not - but at the same time be aware of and accept that certain words carry connotations which we can't erase or ignore - but we ultimately have the power to choose if and how we use them. That speaks volumes about us as people. And after sitting quietly on the sidelines for a few days, mulling things over (because it's a word I've used myself quite often, and may so do again), I've come to no other conclusion than this:
'M' word aside, one of those two men has risen in my estimation. The other has fallen considerably. And it's not about the words they use or don't use - it's about what their perceptions of reality (and their treatment of others) says about them as men.
JH
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