and you can add me to those who "knew" privilege. It amazes me that you don't see that words DO hurt. And it confirms that many here live is a world where words aren't really denigrating them.
It didn't take me long to learn just how lucky I was. White, male, educated, physically healthy. Worst I was called referred to my German ancestry and that was well after the two world wars. During those conflicts my family gave up the trappings of the German past to try and avoid the remarks. Easy enough. White. However, there were others during taht time whose appearance couldn't blend. And where did they go? Relocation camps. Lack of privilege. But those who don't learn from history...
If you all had been anything but upper middle class and white and male, there would have been "words that will never harm you" except when you couldn't get a job, or get into a school, or move into a neighborhood...have a partner...adopt children. Words carry a lot of power. Using a word as simple as "girl" in a professional office setting implies less mature. The same with using any word that has "boy" in it. Stock boy, mail boy..all imply that you don't have the skill or education to be above. Yes, you can earn that. And you may not hate that label...until you are still a stock boy at 50 years old with less and less chance of rising (and thus one privilege goes away, youth...try and get a job as an older person, even if you have the other criteria).
Maybe your perspective is different because where you reside almost everyone looks and acts the same. But stop and think. If an ethnic person walks into someplace you are at, watch to see how the body language of those around you changes. Purses get moved to the opposite side. Backs get turned but the glances over the shoulder increase. You can deny that words don't hurt but try and live the life of someone who is tagged with those words. This thread was about the use of the word "Genetic girl" and in the context of these forums we do use that to clarify things. In the real world that can hurt. Why? Because first the person being spoken about will wonder why you have to be sure to say "genetic"? is there something they present that would in any way make anyone nearby think that they were not born female? And then to add the word "girl". They could be 60 years old, well past the girl stage (often in western society marked by puberty) but the word itself, outside a circle of peers, would be diminutive. Have you noticed how many men call their female partners "My girl" but women take an opposite view and refer to the male partner as "my MAN"? If she called her male partner "My boy" he would take offense (yeah, yeah, I know it wouldn't bother you guys because after all, words don't hurt...until the situation changes...like being intimate and suddenly you have to prove you aren't a boy but a man..)
We don't allow certain words in this forum because they DO hurt and their sole purpose is to hurt. They have no other function. I am so happy so many here have never been in a situation where words could wound your pride or your feelings. I knew that world. And unintentionally I used one of those words in a context I thought was academic. The hurt and the anger in the woman's eyes, who wasn't even part of the conversation, will never leave my mind. What I said wasn't meant to hurt anyone...and yet.
Deny privilege all you want...but it is becoming more and more obvious everyday.
