I think we are having some sort of failure to communicate.
I could try baby talk but I can't bear to do it, and if you are asking me if I prefer the company of youth to adults, well quite frequently I do. Many times, they haven't been beaten down by the world yet. Adults are fine, I guess, some of them. Some of them really suck as do youth.
However, for me to state I find certain "juvenile traits" positive and the word "not insulting" does not imply "All mature adults are less than or that some of them DON'T have those attributes, gosh, just picture a Venn diagram I guess, there are way too many teens way too old for their years.
And if you think I don't like maturity that contains logic, order and whatever else, again I'm afraid you'd be wrong. I very much appreciate ALL those traits in my husband, there is no way on this Earth you would catch me doing my taxes VIA DEDUCTIONS although it most certainly is a worthwhile thing, and saves us thousands of dollars every year.
There are as many variations of people as there are terms for a cigarette (well more probably) I was just stating which camp *I* was in, which is the term stinky is not my preferred term, and it is a valid term, and also "juvenile" is not really an INSULT unless you CHOOSE to make it one. I don't think the term "adult" is particularly insulting either but if I'm being insulted, well, I'd prefer to be called immature than wrinkly and set in my ways. It's a personal preference.
Finally, the ENTIRE statement is MERELY about how political correctness is not only baseless, it's ridiculous because every term you use.... .It's an ever shifting target. I mean some black folks prefer black, some prefer African American but whatever, as long as you figure out what "word" your (whatever they call themselves) person prefers for you to use, (and, ahem, asking is a perfectly valid strategy in my humble opinion) and then remember it, no big whoop.
The tendency to take offense and to imply that acceptance of ONE dichotomy automatically PRESUMES the other is not equally valid, if not to me, then to SOMEONE, and that one can actually HOLD two or more dichotomies in mind, and reference BOTH of them, tends to be a sign of a more logical, black and white thinker. Not that there is anything wrong with that! I do NOT actually think "Hell is other people," hell is probably a world, surrounded by other MEs, who think talk act behave and offer the same knowledge and perspective. While I sometimes enjoy talking to myself, well, it can also get old if THAT is all you've got.
But MY priorities, preferences, etc. are equally as valid as the next person, and frankly, I'm allowed to have them and not have it be internally incongruent, because I am capable of working through dichotomies and also recognizing that if I hate "intolerance" well the people I most need to PRACTICE that on are the "intolerant" which I do with varying degrees of success since I don't want to be a HYPOCRITE but I am also a HUMAN being, not Christ our Lord and Savoir and whatnot.
I don't really know what else to say, other than I lived and worked in black communities for a long time. I was really happy they used the "N" word, and even happier when I was one day granted the permission to use it, and yes, it came about more or less how you'd THINK, my particular group well, one of them informed me that I was cool enough to use it and you had better believe I DID so, happily and fervently, although I was occasionally ridiculed for my accent, but trust me when I say I didn't mind a bit.
That's obviously a case by case thing though, I don't walk up to black people I don't know and LEAD with that word because that would be suicidal and insane. But yes, I have actually been the white woman who got to use the "N" word non ironically and I greatly enjoyed it, and words certainly MAY have power, but if your really want to know about Power and Whatnot, well, just know that the MORE importance you give a word (and I'm talking about the WHITE folks who DO use that word while burning crosses) well, the more unhappy people tend to get, since that word achieves a sort of pejorative status which is frequently what happens to words like accompanied by the smell of roasting flesh, I mean look at the Salem witch trials. NO ONE wanted to be a witch. Etc.
The fact that words can be culturally appropriated makes me happy, not sad and I'm super glad that a) my little band of "n's" could call themselves that (they just say it so GREAT) and even happier that I was offered a weak white woman's cultural prerogative to use it also, although I really saved it for momentous things I wanted my band to remember, and they usually did if I tacked the ...... on there because they found it hilarious and also knew that I was not going to pin them to a cross and freaking set the Group Room on Fire, screaming, "I've been hiding here in my robe and cape for several years, N's!!!!!!!!!!"
To be frank, you have to work hard, observe, and have a tough hide to get accepted into another culture and also swallow some rather unpalatable truths about... many things, but I believe it to be a worthwhile endeavor.
I have actually become increasingly DEFENSIVE about my whiteness and being heterosexual and of a certain age, but that is due to the increased, ever rising pressured like, discussion offered by PC groups, I remember when being of another sexuality was fun and cool and you could interact with certain groups WITHOUT getting censored every dang minute, even when I offer "You can certainly call me honky if you'd like, Monsour/madame of a differential gender status," and they'll claim I have white privilege, which both IS and ISN'T true, so there's really no way to win there. I can tell them all about my MI and what it has cost me in time, energy and life points but they won't care because they are in a defensive HUDDLE where only they are wronged, and wronged by ME even if their CURRENT life may be WAY BETTER than what I CURRENTLY have. No penis? Awww.... that's tough, I have NO TEETH. How much is it gonna cost you to convert? Well, dang, that is WAY less than all my mental health points totaled up in my life span, I feel so sorry for you. (Sarcasm.)
That is my point though, I do find that while certain wide general inequalities CAN exist, they don't ALWAYS exist and certainly not to the point that requires the sort of social engineering going on etc. However, it is equally true that with NO social change, a society can remain changeless and static and bad. Etc.
But I say that from a PERSONAL standpoint, not a cultural one, particularly. Everyone has a hard life it is part of BEING ALIVE and well, sure, we may THINK we can judge another person's life as "hard" but we really CAN'T, and not by comparing genitalia or skin color or immigration status, the only way to EVALUATE it is to actually inhabit and "evaluate" their consciousness, compared to your own, which for the LOVE of CHRIST I do NOT hope ever happens, one brain is annoying enough frankly.
But those would be some of my musings on why the term stinky while I find it kind of annoying I just really don't care either. Like use it if you WANT but it's not on the "Words you can't say on TV yet, or only certain ethnicities can say it on TV" list yet.. Like, I could have spent this whole time more productively I'm quite sure and also NOT quite awake yet.
But, I think to overanalyze things to THIS extent that THIS is the explanation I MUST GIVE?
Please just go vape/ecig/whatever and do it around the stinkies/smokers/analogs OR DON'T do it around the stinkies/smokers/analogues words have the power we give them, or don't give them and that is my main point.
I really miss being able to say the "N" word and I wish more black folks would come black up Tucson, well I guess soon to be Sierra Vista because I really miss having black folks to befriend quite frankly, I have found as an overall sociological grouping they're fun, they're funny we share many of the same values, etc. Somehow, I just never got there with Latinos/Spanish/Mexican whatever YOU WANT ME TO CALL you I mean NO OFFENSE to them but I just don't happen to have the same deep and abiding connection, why that is I have NO CLUE, I certainly am not offensive to the folks that I meet but I don't get the culture all that well and I'm never learning Spanish and well, whatever the Mexican and Latina culture around I don't find particularly interesting sense of humor is not so great, and honestly, no I don't approve of you beating your kids, although unless you leave marks, well, there's nothing I can do about it. I do find Mexican art/OMG EXCEPT MUSICA/creativity./ability to do things on a shoestring budget admirable and etc. If you've never seen a Mexican Moving Truck, you owe it to yourself to go find a picture of one, and it's probably QUITE similar to how I would pack if left on my own for more than a minute, etc. So I do share SOME values, but not all of them. Etc.
Also I LOVED Costa Rica, but that's not Mexico, either and it was a long time ago.
Words have the power that are granted by both self and society and so it has always been and so it shall always be. Etc.
Not sure if I should post this, but I don't find anything particularly offensive about it, so I am going to.
Anna
