Over on Liberal Conspiracy I have been willingly drawn in to an argument regarding sexism and sexist language. In specific the article originally refers to quite frankly unacceptable behaviour by people in America and their media when it comes to the standards they expect and welcome in men compared to women, especially when running for the highest office in the land. What made the debate spark off, however, was the suggestion that too much focus was being spent on the use of the term "bitch" that is frequently levelled at Hillary Clinton.

It frustrates me that time and time again this issue comes up in different clothing from different areas of society. This time it is the anti-sexism groups wishing for us to simultaneously accept that the word "Bitch" should always be a heinous sexist word and that it should therefore at the same time never be used again, in the past it has been anti-homophobia groups, or groups for equality in disabled people. Time will no doubt soon come when the same occurs again for people being perceivably "ageist" in their use of insults too.

It is of course a completely valid opinion to believe these multitudes of words; "bitch", "gay", "retard", "fogey", or whatever, should be taken by the whole public to be terrible words that shouldn't be uttered because of their anti-equality origins and should always be remembered as such. Unfortunately this is the same type of thinking that leads to people calling for "white people" of the modern day to apologise, and in America also pay, for the acts of their great-great-great grandfathers and beyond (or should that be grand-parents in the modern non-sexist society?) and because of this I can't agree with it in the slightest. To try and artificially keep a subject, in this case a swear word, as poignant and terrible as it was in inception because of that inception is, to me, against the natural tides of language evolution and counter productive to the movements involved.

When words such as Gay started getting used as truly nasty insults towards sections of our society they were done so in the worst possible manner and for the most horrible of reasons. Some people wanted to put down others for their lifestyle and came up with terms that would be recognised by wider society as truly derogatory in order to do that. No doubt before political machines and national media got hold of it a few people were using it on a much smaller level, but it wasn't until it reached the "mass market" that it truly became horrid. This is because the people using it only had one intent for it, and the people hearing it could only take one thing from it.

Over a surprisingly fast period of time however the word has fallen into a grey area in our language, due in no small part to the large successes of the gay rights movements across the world and their adoption of the very words supposed to insult them. This grey area now means that far from the masses of people using the word for one context only, it is now used by far less for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately when you accidentally state that your toaster is "being gay", while most will take it as it is intended...a non-homophobic generic sign of frustration...some will get their knickers in a twist (I wonder if that's another sexist faux pas?) about it because despite how and why the word gay was used it's "origin" as an insult is in the degradation of the homosexual community. My only answer to that is that such people need to move on.

The rest of modern society has gone a long way to forgetting its ties with words like gay and queer as insults against lifestyle, much like it has forgotten countless other insults over centuries no doubt. Generation after generation has picked up foul words from their parents and used them in a whole new way. The word "fuck" was once impolite to use in any circumstance, yet now is perfectly acceptable as an adjective in almost all non-formal social situations, the word "gay" is now almost unspecific when used. The later I feel has taken such a sharp maturation because of the complete understanding of the topic that spawned it. While it is impossible to stop children eventually learning you insults, it is entirely possible and indeed likely that what they are picking up as the meaning and veracity will change.

Ultimately when someone calls a woman a "bitch" because they are frustrated at them, or tells another person to "stop being gay" despite not at all believing that being gay is a "lesser lifestyle" we have to respect that such words came from bad places. But to turn that respect into a crusade to keep them from being uttered is counter productive when compared to using that respect to ensure everyone understands why the words we use more and more without context once were less acceptable in modern language. Rather than wishing no-one would ever say the word "bitch" again we should let language progress and evolve as it always has, and rather than tell people never to use the word we should be making sure everyone knows that words like "bitch" came about of a chauvinistic mindset that was counter productive and offensive to women who should have every right that men do.

Following the form of those that wish to conservatively ban all these bad words only goes to further highlight segregations (you must not say that to me, etc, etc), whereas following the natural way of changes in vocabulary while not forgetting it's origins only goes to highlight progressions (we're all happy together using the word now, as long as you respect the changes we've built from its lessons, etc, etc). It's time for us to stop getting hung up on words, and to start listening to meaning, and this really goes much deeper than just insults. Rather than drawing up lines and barriers for people in what they say we should just let them say what they need to how they need to, and try to understand the thinking behind the actual vocabulary used.

I for one will be continuing to use language such as described above as I am part of a generation and society that no longer holds many of the original meanings of these words with them, and instead uses them in ways that are more mundane and without context. If individuals are offended when I use them in their presence they are perfectly within their rights to tell me so and I shall apologise for the harm not intended but caused. What I will not do however is start travelling down the road of self censorship to appease those that may hold a certain ill feeling towards a particular mannerism, for that is the start of a long road towards silence.