Is the term "douchebag" offensive?

[MaineDem]

I find it so. Is it just me?

Talk me off this ledge. Should I just let it go?

[BlueIris]

1. I find it to be pretty vulgar and I avoid using it.

However, I don't necessarily find it to be offensive if people are using it pejoratively (those things are, in fact, awful, bad for health, etc.) And if they're not directing it at a female. Still, I can see how some would consider it inherently misogynist, as it began its life as a misogynist slur.

[redqueen]

2. Same as Blue Iris...

It doesn't have the same sting as so many other misogynist spurs IMO.

[MaineDem]

3. Thanks. It just annoys me

The guys use it in the Sports Forum all the time. DU doesn't treat it as a slur. I guess I'm being overly sensitive.

Thanks for the feedback!

[redqueen]

4. No you're not...

you just have a different opinion, that's all. Unfortunately society has deemed douchebag to be acceptable, so most of us are just desensitized to it. Most women also wouldn't probably find rule of thumb to be sexist but that doesn't mean anyone who doesn't like hearing it is overly sensitive.

It's not that you're overly sensitive, its that others are desensitized, which is sad, really.

Also, I meant slur and not spur before. Oops.

[libodem]

5. my friend

Uses the term lorknozzle. God knows what it means, but I'm all most worn to a nub being offended by what it could mean. Ewwwww. So gross.

[Bunny]

6. I don't find it offensive, but I understand why others would.

I think language evolves over time. In my field, the terms idiot, imbecile, and moron used to be the clinical words to categorize people with mental retardation. But that was 75 years or more ago, and nowadays those words have become ways to describe people who are dumbasses in general, and not those who have a disability. Currently, I find the word retard to be offensive, but I expect that in 50 years it will change and no longer be considered a slur against disabled people.

I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't be offended by douchebag. If you're offended, you're offended, and you don't need to let it go.

[Deep13]

7. Well, I don't like being called one...

although I would be more amused than offended since I lack the musculature of the douchebag stereotype.

[MaineDem]

8. Thanks, everyone.

I just wish the guys in the sports forum - liberal DUers - could learn that this word, and others, can be taken as offensive. They laugh if I bring it up.

I appreciate your feedback.

[redqueen]

9. That forum always seemed to me to be one of the worse ones

where sexism is concerned, which only stands to reason, really. Sports culture is drenched in misogyny.

[MaineDem]

10. Indeed.

It's a slap on the back good ol' boys type of place. But I enjoy many sports and I feel like I'm wandering into a boys' locker room in high school sometimes. (Or so I assume. I went to an all-girls HS.)

[seabeyond]

11. yes. i noticed they use it excessively, to say the least, in the sports forum.

i guess it is the place for them to grab their crotch and make sure their dick is still there. or so i assumed with the amount of use that word gets.

boo... yah.

[redqueen]

12. Yeah, I enjoy some sports...

but you couldn't pay me to visit a sports forum. I cannot and will not tolerate the stupidity anymore. As for me I've had way more than enough of that idiocy.