Masataka Ohta wrote on 31/07/2020 09:50: > In Japan, whiter women has been considered better for these > 1,000 years, even when there was no broadcast, not even > printing. Humans have been voluntarily changing their appearance since as long as we've been knocking rocks together to make fire. E.g. in some cultures it's fashionable to have a tan, but things may differ in other cultures. But all of that is beside the point. This discussion resolves around whether it's appropriate to use terms which have been historically associated with discrimination based on colour / gender / ethnicity / etc, and where those terms have recently changed to one degree or other to make them less acceptable in common parlance due to the connotations that those terms have. All cultures have skeletons in this particular cupboard, bar none. Words and phrases have subtleties and undertones, and sometimes these connotations can cause offence. It happens the other way too, incidentally: once upon a time, the word "occupy" was considered to be crude and offensive, but over time it lost those connotations and is once again entirely acceptable in polite conversation. Languages change and cultures morph over time to adapt to changing circumstances. The only thing that would be abnormal would be for society not to recognise this and to fail to adapt. Nick
