NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/talk/abortion/36266

Internet Message Format | 1992-09-13 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!Germany.EU.net!news.netmbx.de!zrz.tu-berlin.de!math.fu-berlin.de!Sirius.dfn.de!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!olivea!sgigate!rutgers!cmcl2!wissel!smezias
From: [e-mail] (Stephen J. Mezias)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Re: The use of fat black ass to describe Chaney is unsupported
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 13 Sep 92 14:52:21 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: NYU Stern School of Business
Lines: 24

In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] writes:

>I think it's about both.  There's a definite semantic difference; in the
>first case, a portion of anatomy is being referred to by a slang expression,
>while in the second, the person is being referred to by that expression.
>I see the second as being worse than the first.  The fact that I interpret
>one as being worse than the other is why I point out that the rephrasing
>is incorrect, and makes it sound worse than it was.

Agreed.  I read your first response to the incorrect characterization
of the actual exchange in my first post to say that the former did not
reflect on the speaker.  I do not agree with this.  I agree it
reflects less negatively than the latter, but I think both are
inappropriate.  I believe a line is crossed when one brings up
demographic characteristics of an individual to insult them.  Whether
they are delimited to particular parts of the anatomy or not, they
characterize the entire person and, more importantly to my judgment of
their inappropriateness, they characterize a whole class of persons.
I have a problem with this.  I bring this up with respect to
statements about Chaney just as I have brought it up with respect to
statements by Chaney.

SJM