My nephew is married to a lovely lady from Ghana. On one occasion when she came to our house she spotted one of my children's golliwogs. She wanted to borrow it and make a pattern so that she could make some for her children. She also suggested that she could make them to sell in the shop. She couldn't see what was the problem with putting them in a shop window in Hertfordshire.
In some way it seems more of a problem for sportspeople, footballers in particular, they perhaps dontt understand that it is tribal not racist, when you fear an opposition player you jeer him to try and intimidate him to stop him playing well
I am sure 99.99% of people do not intend to cause offence to others with what they say or do. It is the 0.01% that have set themselves up to either cause offence or be offended as a perceived proxy on behalf of others that are the real problem.
Cambridge University are removing a still life 17th century still life painting called the fowl market by a Flemish artist from the dining hall because it offends vegans, some even felt unable to eat in it's presence.
Villagers in Pembury Kent have been banned from putting up Christmas lights as they are too heavy for the lampposts and posed an 'elf and dafty' (my words) risk. The lights weigh 8kg but the limit is seemingly 4kg. They have been putting up the same lights for years apparently and whoever heard of 8kg of Christmas lights making a lamppost to fall over!
In fairness, I wouldn’t fancy 8kg of lights falling on my bonce, followed by a lamppost. I might end up voting Tory.
10 years ago you probably found it funny to make fun of gay people in public. You probably still do now. Gender identification that doesn't conform to the usual norms might seen strange to you, but educated open-minded young people are fine with it. Deal with change rather than mocking/hating people
True say. I was looking for the twisting of meaning there first, but I agree that we need to be sensitive to how people identify. My once nephew has recently decided to identify as a woman. The reality is if we are not sensitive to this sort of thing, many people will top themselves because they don’t fit into ‘our’ kind of ‘normal’. And that has to be wrong. Besides, **** normal. Normal is normally dull.
I am not making fun of gay people (and that sign has nothing to do with sexual orientation), nor do I have a problem with gender orientation and don't mock or hate people for it, in fact I am aware it is traumatic for many people. I feel that unless we have unisex toilets a person should use the convenience best suited to their equipment. If for example I am feeling my feminine side and waltz into a ladies toilet, I think the ladies would be a bit annoyed.
I actually find the use of toilets as described here rather funny. It is not uncommon to find that one or the other is being cleaned and the two sexes mix quite happily in one out here. It is also not unknown to be standing breathing more comfortably and find a mop being pushed between your feet by a delightful young lady. The Brits are very odd over such perfectly normal events.