The latest "banning" (NYC_SKP) is an interesting lesson on REPUTATION.

[JDPriestly]

230. I could probably think of a dozen polite ways to convey the same meaning.

I'm a woman myself and probably won't bother, but the fact is that the forbidden word list should be very short. Otherwise we will all find ourselves in trouble. And the creative use of language, the joking, the kidding around, will become less common and we will all be bored.

What is demeaning to women is the fact that the work that is considered to be women's work like teaching, etc., and the biological functions of women like nursing babies, like taking the birth control pill, like menstruating, etc. are all considered to make us less than men or have to be hidden or not talked about, etc.

A stupid word like the "c" word doesn't really bother me that much. The utter obsession in our society with the female breast, which apparently causes so much titillation in so many males that we have to keep them covered even when feeding our babies, now that is demeaning to women. The fact that I can't go for a walk in my neighborhood alone at night for fear of being raped. Now that is demeaning to me as a woman.

I could make a long list of things that are demeaning to women, and the "c" word would be far from the most important on it. I think the fuss about what we are called is a distraction from the real insults to us as women. That good pre-school childcare is so expensive and that women who work and have children have it so rough, those are things women should be upset about and screaming about, but the "c" word. Really????? Is it all that important? Not to me.