Benedict Cumberbatch race row: 9 offensive words we need to ditch - Telegraph
1) Gay
Once, this word meant 'happy' - think Victorian children dancing prettily around a maypole.
Now, the common word for 'homosexual' can also be used to mean 'pathetic'. Many young people (this is often a millennial thing) still have a hangover from the playground and utter sentences such as 'that's so gay' - meaning 'that's lame'.
Use this instead: C**p
2) Retarded
‘Retard’ as a verb originally meant to ‘delay or hold back in terms of progress or development’.
But the noun is used as an offensive term used to describe a person with a mental disability, or to suggest that someone is being stupid.
Use this instead: Twit.
3) Rapey
It’s OK to use the words ‘rape’ or ‘rapist’ in context. But the invented adjective ‘rapey’ is an unwelcome knock-on effect. Typically it's used by people to describe someone who might look like a rapist (Myth buster: rapists look like anyone and everyone), is acting in a lecherous way, or a potentially sinister situation ("that alley is really rapey").
It might sound harmless, but it can trivialise a serious crime.
Use this instead: Creepy.
4) Spastic
As with ‘retard’ this term is often used to describe people with disabilities, in a derogatory way.
It was in the 1990s that it started to be employed as an insult, mostly to describe someone clumsy: such as ‘you spaz’ or ‘you’re so spastic.’
Such was the impact of this, that charity The Spastics Society changed its name to Scope in 1994, in an attempt say something more positive about disability.
Use this instead: Clumsy
5) Paedo
‘Paedo’ is a shortened term for a ‘paedophile’ – but it’s also often used as a joke. For example, if a guy has a younger girlfriend. Or if someone takes their young nieces and nephews to the park.
Making light of such a horrendous offence is something that needs to stop.
Use this instead: Just don’t - unless you’re describing a real child sex offender.
6) Half-caste
This term was traditionally used to describe people who of mixed heritage, but its literal meaning is ‘half-pure’. That's not cool. Avoid it, so you don't come across as racially ignorant.
Use this instead: Mixed race.
7) Cretin
This one might seem a bit outdated - hence safer. But it's true meaning is little known. The seemingly harmless word for 'idiot' actually refers to someone with ‘cretinism’ – a congenital disease.
Use this instead: Stupid.
8) Dyke
While ‘lesbian’ refers to a homosexual women, the word ‘dyke’ has crept up as an offensive synonym. It's a way for people to describe someone, or something, that seems quite masculine. Think androgynous fashion choices and haircuts -‘dyke chic’.
Use this instead: If you want to comment that something seems to have masculine traits, just say that.
If you're talking about a homosexual woman, she's a lesbian.
9) Special
Jose Mourinho calls himself the ‘special one’ and means it quite literally. But other people use the term, not to suggest that someone is extraordinary, but that they’ve done something so silly they seem to have special needs.
As with cretin, spastic and retard this is just another word that’s offensive to people with disabilities.
Use this instead: Anything that doesn’t have any relation to any kind of disability or mental illness.
So now we can't talk about anything on CUK?
1) Gay
Once, this word meant 'happy' - think Victorian children dancing prettily around a maypole.
Now, the common word for 'homosexual' can also be used to mean 'pathetic'. Many young people (this is often a millennial thing) still have a hangover from the playground and utter sentences such as 'that's so gay' - meaning 'that's lame'.
Use this instead: C**p
2) Retarded
‘Retard’ as a verb originally meant to ‘delay or hold back in terms of progress or development’.
But the noun is used as an offensive term used to describe a person with a mental disability, or to suggest that someone is being stupid.
Use this instead: Twit.
3) Rapey
It’s OK to use the words ‘rape’ or ‘rapist’ in context. But the invented adjective ‘rapey’ is an unwelcome knock-on effect. Typically it's used by people to describe someone who might look like a rapist (Myth buster: rapists look like anyone and everyone), is acting in a lecherous way, or a potentially sinister situation ("that alley is really rapey").
It might sound harmless, but it can trivialise a serious crime.
Use this instead: Creepy.
4) Spastic
As with ‘retard’ this term is often used to describe people with disabilities, in a derogatory way.
It was in the 1990s that it started to be employed as an insult, mostly to describe someone clumsy: such as ‘you spaz’ or ‘you’re so spastic.’
Such was the impact of this, that charity The Spastics Society changed its name to Scope in 1994, in an attempt say something more positive about disability.
Use this instead: Clumsy
5) Paedo
‘Paedo’ is a shortened term for a ‘paedophile’ – but it’s also often used as a joke. For example, if a guy has a younger girlfriend. Or if someone takes their young nieces and nephews to the park.
Making light of such a horrendous offence is something that needs to stop.
Use this instead: Just don’t - unless you’re describing a real child sex offender.
6) Half-caste
This term was traditionally used to describe people who of mixed heritage, but its literal meaning is ‘half-pure’. That's not cool. Avoid it, so you don't come across as racially ignorant.
Use this instead: Mixed race.
7) Cretin
This one might seem a bit outdated - hence safer. But it's true meaning is little known. The seemingly harmless word for 'idiot' actually refers to someone with ‘cretinism’ – a congenital disease.
Use this instead: Stupid.
8) Dyke
While ‘lesbian’ refers to a homosexual women, the word ‘dyke’ has crept up as an offensive synonym. It's a way for people to describe someone, or something, that seems quite masculine. Think androgynous fashion choices and haircuts -‘dyke chic’.
Use this instead: If you want to comment that something seems to have masculine traits, just say that.
If you're talking about a homosexual woman, she's a lesbian.
9) Special
Jose Mourinho calls himself the ‘special one’ and means it quite literally. But other people use the term, not to suggest that someone is extraordinary, but that they’ve done something so silly they seem to have special needs.
As with cretin, spastic and retard this is just another word that’s offensive to people with disabilities.
Use this instead: Anything that doesn’t have any relation to any kind of disability or mental illness.
So now we can't talk about anything on CUK?
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