[HPforGrownups] Re: Appropriate terminology

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 89468

Kneasy

>
> I  refuse to be censored in the use of a manufactured word for a type
> of imaginary fantasy person. IMO your attitude shows an unfortunate
> tendency for confusing fiction and reality and is exactly the sort of
> obsessive PC thought control and lack of a sense of proportion that
> my original post was intended to hold up to ridicule.
> If you go searching for something to be offended by, you are certain
> to find it; to the suspicious everything is suspect and paranoia sets the
> standards.
>
> I'm also amused by your implication that it is more acceptable when
> used for people you don't like. Self-imposed double standards, or what?
>
>
K

Kneasy could you *please* actually read my messages before replying to them.
My point was not that the term was offensive - since we don't live in JKR's
world there is nobody here who could be offended by it. My point was that
the term is supposed to have an impact when we hear it used by Draco or
whoever because it is a rare and vile insult in that world and if we throw
it around as nothing more than a synonym for muggleborn then it won't have
that impact when we read it because it will not have those connotations for
us. That is why it is especially important for me that we don't use it for
characters we like. If we are using it to describe people we like then it
loses all the insulting connotations for us. Personally I want to be able to
feel the same sense of outrage while reading Draco's insults to Hermione
that Ron does - not because it offends me in any way but because that is how
JKR intends me to react - if the word mudblood is downgraded in my mind to
simply another term for a muggleborn wizard then Ron's actions will seem
more like a gross over-reaction and it will be harder to sympathise with
him. And until or unless the Admin team declare the word a breach of the
list rules then it's not an attempt to censor you, no one is forbidding you
to use the word, we are simply saying why we think it would be wiser not to
use it. If you really want to keep using it then go right ahead. I can't
force you not to and I wouldn't want to try, but I still think the word
should be used sparingly in order to preserve the impression JKR is trying
to convey when she uses it.

And frankly the only thing about this discussion that is likely to offend me
is the way you seem to have decided what the people you are arguing with
think and mean and are arguing against that instead of what we actually say.

K