The end of innocence

** WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE & ADULT THEMES **
*** FURTHER READING MAY OFFEND ***

My guildies know I have a bit of a filthy mind.  But, some slang terms are still new to me, and reading blogs tends to .. ah... broaden that knowledge.  I never REALLY thought reading WoW blogs would be enlightening me in THAT way.

And so, I was innocently reading Altacylsmic's post: Big Log, which was about Blizz's failure to police some of the more offensive names.  He had a list.  I looked at that list and didn't understand why some names were offensive.  Naturally once I pronounced them out loud (like Mike Hunt) I realised that they were actually rather rude.  But one stumped me.  So I decided to ask in guild.

"Hey," I said.  "I don't understand this name.  It's supposed to be rude, but I don't get it."
"What is it?" asked someone in guild chat.
"Beefcurtains?"
There was a slight pause, and Nath and Jazz were laughing.  I think Aza was too?  And Dragon and Lom as well.
I was still bewildered.  OK, so it is something rude.
Dragonray took pity on me and whispered to me that it was a rude way of talking about unattractive labia. OHHH.  I get it now.  Gee, the weird names people come up with.

I also noticed that Pillock was on the bad list.  I thought that just meant an idiot.  I even looked it up in the dictionary.  But it apparently is a variant on penis, I guess penises are stupid people.

Anyway, so bewildered was I by this Beef curtains thing that I went to work and told the surgeon I work with about it.  Now you may find this rather odd, but it stems from his cultural background that Western slang terms are often lost upon him.  And rude words too.  For example, the C word which I find highly offensive, he had been USING it because he thought it was just another word for vagina.  And I was horrified because he just dropped the C bomb in conversation whilst we were doing an operation on that part of the body and I told him he couldn't say that an dhe asked why and when I told him he was embarrassed because nobody had ever told him that it was that offensive, he thought it was like saying willy or some other colloquial word.  So when I told him about this Beef curtains he was like "REALLY? People talk about that?"  and my nurses who were middle aged were equally surprised.  Anyway, you learn something new every day I suppose.

However, I disagreed with Altaclysmic about the kinds of people using these names.  Sabrehawk, for example, who is a working professional (well I think bank managers are professional people!) with a wife and teenage kids who NEVER speaks any kind of sexist language or acts misogynistic in any way, has pets with the most dreadful names. I just thought it was because he's a man and he likes women private parts, like most males do.  And probably because it was funny to name his big cats after female genitalia because of the irony of the name.

I think people find genitalia and sex fascinating because it's a bit taboo.  Not many people get to see naked parts of others except in pornography or their partners. And probably because I see MANY naked people every day, that genitalia does not offend, nor does it fascinate me.  BUT WHY is it taboo.  You have to have genitalia to reproduce.  That's how we all got here.  That's how every animal on the earth gets here.

But I digress.  I think I actually don't want these people to get banned or forced to hange their name.  You can kind of tell by people who name their toons stupid names like that, that they are people you don't want to associate with anyway.  As one of the commenters on Altaclysmic's post said (which was a quote by Mark Cuban) "I'm the one guy who says don't force the stupid people to be quiet.  I want to know who the morons are."  And I think that is a very good way of looking at it.  If the morons were hiding behind normal names, how am I supposed to know who I don't want to play with?

Comments

  1. Okay, "beefcurtains" was a new on on me too, and I swear like a sailor. (My Grandfather the WW2 vet would be so proud.)

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    1. I swear dreadfully when I pvp and arena which is why I never pvp when the kids are up. And I am not sure why but you swearing like a sailor does not surprise me. Perhaps its coz your avatar is a pirate...

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    2. You know, I never thought that ol' Redbeard referenced my swearing.

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  2. I'm beginning to think every single innocuous word has another meaning if I looked it up at urban dictionary. I'm getting scared to say ANYTHING, lol. I puzzled and puzzled over Mike Hunt and as you say didn't get it until I said it out loud. THEN I got it. I'll have to go look at this list.

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    1. Urban dictionary scares me at times for that very reason!

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  3. When I was in basic training, all the other guys tried teaching me all the guy stuff, I don't know what else to call it. I grew up in a very sheltered environment, and it showed, primarily in my ignorance of sexual slang.

    Anyway, one day while we're in line for some obstacle course, they're giving me the supposed low-down of "If it tastes like chicken, keep on licking, if it tastes like fish, leave the dish." I replied (very un-ironically, thinking of sandwiches) "What about roast beef?" They caused such a ruckus laughing it up that we were doing pushups for at least 30 minutes for it.

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    1. As soon as I read that last bit... after knowing that beef thing now, I did giggle a bit. A week ago I would have gone HUH?? wha?

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    1. Wow. That is a herculean effort nothing embarrasses you!

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  5. I am very much aware of the effect on women of the C*** word and I always found it odd that similar words are deemed ok. I have rarely use the word as a consequence and only as a term of abuse. Sometimes you meet someone (always a man) who fits the word perfectly and then you get full effect.

    Wiki states that in the UK it means "an unpleasant or stupid person" but Australians "a contemptible person." I would say it is reserved for "Unpleasant and contemptible men".

    The earliest citation of this usage in the Oxford English Dictionary, c 1230, refers to the London street known as Gropec*** Lane. This was a infamous hangout for prostitutes.

    This was supposed to be educational and now I am starting to sound like a right perv.

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    1. Alta/Bob, I don't think you're a perv. Though it is interesting about the origin of the see you next Tuesday word. Very educational!

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  6. Oh Navi, you dear sweet child :D :D :P Never change, please!

    I think I'm more balanced on the forced name changes thing. I find it pretty offensive and think it says volumes about the person when they name their character those kinds of terms (especially mains!), so I'd support forcing them to change it and/or suspending or banning them for it. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't think less of someone like Sabre who only names pets those kinds of things, maybe because I don't notice pet names very often? Same with battle pets, I'm not sure how I'd react to battling a player whose pets all had rude names - I guess it would depend on how clever they are.

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    1. I tend to find racist things more offensive and those seem to get banned more readily. I am not sure ifi find these particular names that offensive but insult is in the eye of the beholder.

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  7. I was shocked to see that Boneswins is not on the banned list...

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    1. Lucky I didn't make her name bonerswins...

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I hope these comments work! Not sure why people can't comment lately, it makes me sad :(