There is currently a bit of an "uproar" in Australia following the 5-game suspension of a football player (Australian Rules - AFL) for calling another player a "faggot" on the field. The incident was reported to the authorities by the receiving team to force a trial and the subsequent ban, putting the player out of contention for the rest of the year. For those that don't know anything about AFL, here is a clip of a few of the recent hits.
The players can take a hit.
But they can't take an insult apparently.
However, the league administration has a bit of a problem on their hands, as while they are punishing players and destroying seasons for homophobic insults, Snoop Dogg is booked to perform the half-time show for the Grand Final. And well, Snoop Dogg hasn't exactly been keeping the homophobic slurs out of his career.
Awkward.
While I am sure that many people will disagree with someone calling another person a faggot as an insult, as well as a host of other words, I am of the mind that words are just words. It could be because I have been called just about everything negative under the sun when I was a child and I realised that none of what is said about me by others, has to define me as a person. Nor do I have to react to what is said to me, or be hurt by it.
Words are just words.
All words are just words.
And I am also of the mind that since words are just words, anyone can use any kind of words they want to use, when they want to use them. However, I also believe that there are consequences to behaviour, and our speech is part of our behaviour. I don't think people should be punished for swearing or insults, but I do think that it can show what kind of a person someone is who insults in that kind of way and for athletes, it might cost them sponsorships.
My biggest issue with all of this kind of thing, is that in the attempt to stop people using these kinds of terms, they are actually empowering them further, and applying more significance to them, not less. It is the opposite of what they say they want to do, and what it leads to is the need for a ramping up of monitoring and continual growing of "banned words" that can't be used, because someone or some group will get offended. And I will let you in on a little secret, groups don't get offended. Individuals in the group might get offended though.
So, if you can't insult with faggot, where does the list of words stop? Perhaps it would be easier to give a list of words that don't insult someone. Maybe people could just talk in articles and prepositions, as they tend to have no emotive weight.
A on the to for over an.
However, there is probably someone who is offended by meaningless and poor grammatical sentences, so I would be fined and have my season ended too, if I dared to use such a contentious phrase.
If you are deeply offended by certain words, rather than try to stop people saying them, disempower them in your own mind and heart. Disconnect from them, rather than handing everyone a trigger that could hurt you anytime someone opens their mouth. And if you are insulted by words on behalf of someone else or a group of people, you are even worse, because you are insulting their intelligence and their ability to process, assuming that they are too weak and fragile to hear a word.
You aren't protecting them, you are diminishing them.
The interesting thing about insults is, they only work when the person hearing it reacts negatively to it. If the same player had called the other a faggot in Portuguese or Cantonese or some Inuit dialect, the same meaning would have been said, with the same intention, but without any understanding. The disconnect would disempower the word.
We should all disconnect from insults.
And we are able to disconnect and still understand what is being said. We just don't have to react to it. emotionally. We needn't be hurt by a grouping of sounds. We needn't change our mood or behaviour based on the words of others - unless we choose.
And choosing our behaviour is vital.
Just like the person who chooses to insult another is broadcasting their message to the world, so to are the people choosing to react to the insult. They are bullets, and the trigger gives them no choice but to fire. Disconnect the trigger, take the primer out of the bullet and choose the reaction with intention, rather than on emotion.
I've been called things that would make a soldier blush, and still I don't insult people with anything close to that, because I don't find it clever. A good insult is subtle and filled with wit, not harsh and full of force. Insults should be clever and a good insult could completely change the mindset of a player on the field. And that is the intention of an insult, isn't it?
Dibber Dobber Cindy, you go to Kindy...
A "Dibber Dobber" is an Australian slang term for a tattletale, someone who tells the teacher or the parents for what others have done. And the rhyme implies that the telltale is a kindergartner, a child, immature and too weak to deal with it themselves. But it is a rhyme for kids. I wonder if it will see a resurgence on the football field, with adults, grown men who are getting paid a lot of money to kick a ball around.
It is a funny world of words in culture now. The words of power are the insults.
While LOVE has been degraded so far, it is now meaningless.
Taraz
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