In recent years, NeoGAF has improved a lot, especially when it comes to gender and lgbt issues and the community has gone a lot to educate people on words and terms to use. At least for me, I must admit that I've learned a lot by reading and browsing the transgendered threads, and the many threads about various related topics over the years. NeoGAF has grown far more tolerant and also knowledgeable about the subject. And this is great!
Old Timers will remember how the forums used to be very raw and uncut about things, and how with times, more and more gay members started showing up and being open about their lifestyle; I still remember clearly when another member made public the fact that he had a reptilian persona and was fully into the scalies scene. People lolled hard at first, but those standout moments opened the doors for other people to 'come out' and talk about their lifestyle and educate others about it. It was the same for members of islamic faith a long long time ago. Don't get me wrong, neogaf and previous incarnations were not StormFront, but people used to joke around a lot, in a way that is not very pc.
You could also say that NeoGAF is now an old forum (as someone put it, we are now in the 14th season!), and that the average age of the userbase has aged and is now far more mature.
But still I find myself kinda surprised to see the word c*nt and b*tch being used (oh god oh god I hope this wont be considered as cross-posting between threads, this is just the quickest example I could find, plz no ban) as some sort of sexually charged insult toward females. Isn't it time we simply stop using those words altogether? Do we really need to say things like that? For example, the poster in the thread was referring to a young 14 years old girl. Is this REALLY necessary? It's kinda like those posts from people would go and talk about what sexual things they would do to a person. this is especially common in threads about celebs.
Some people could argue that 'bitch' can be used as a synonym of 'complaining', and the c*nt is a common slang for 'friends', or 'random guy', but still. Remember in the '90 and early '00 when people used the word 'Gay' to describe something as 'lame', 'dumb', or 'weak'. The expression has been rightfully phased out with time and I don't remember hearing being used in a long time.
How do you guys feel about the usage of these words on NeoGAF and in general in that sexually demeaning context?
Old Timers will remember how the forums used to be very raw and uncut about things, and how with times, more and more gay members started showing up and being open about their lifestyle; I still remember clearly when another member made public the fact that he had a reptilian persona and was fully into the scalies scene. People lolled hard at first, but those standout moments opened the doors for other people to 'come out' and talk about their lifestyle and educate others about it. It was the same for members of islamic faith a long long time ago. Don't get me wrong, neogaf and previous incarnations were not StormFront, but people used to joke around a lot, in a way that is not very pc.
You could also say that NeoGAF is now an old forum (as someone put it, we are now in the 14th season!), and that the average age of the userbase has aged and is now far more mature.
But still I find myself kinda surprised to see the word c*nt and b*tch being used (oh god oh god I hope this wont be considered as cross-posting between threads, this is just the quickest example I could find, plz no ban) as some sort of sexually charged insult toward females. Isn't it time we simply stop using those words altogether? Do we really need to say things like that? For example, the poster in the thread was referring to a young 14 years old girl. Is this REALLY necessary? It's kinda like those posts from people would go and talk about what sexual things they would do to a person. this is especially common in threads about celebs.
Some people could argue that 'bitch' can be used as a synonym of 'complaining', and the c*nt is a common slang for 'friends', or 'random guy', but still. Remember in the '90 and early '00 when people used the word 'Gay' to describe something as 'lame', 'dumb', or 'weak'. The expression has been rightfully phased out with time and I don't remember hearing being used in a long time.
How do you guys feel about the usage of these words on NeoGAF and in general in that sexually demeaning context?
