Was it something I said?

I know that I sometimes say things in my blog that may cause offence but I don’t go out to do so, I am simply being true to myself.  My blog is my personal view on the world, on the events of my life and on my depression and sometimes that view will come with a healthy dose of bad language, crude comments and offensive.  I make no apologies for such content because the fact is that offence is not given, it is taken, and I can’t be held to account for someone’s decision to take offence at anything I write.

In a recent posting I used the term “bisexual cum-guzzling sluts” in a humorous attempt to throw some much needed attention on the debate into internet and communication surveillance by the NSA and GCHQ.  No one has complained but I know that some of my regular readers are women and I can assume that at least some of them were offended by such crude language.  Some may have viewed such a term as deeply misogynistic and potentially male chauvinistic but this just goes to show how easy it is for someone to take offence at and misinterpret the usage of a term.

I picked this example because it could be viewed as anti-female but, if you look closely at the term I used, it is genderless.  The term ‘sluts’ is seen as a pejorative term associated with women but it can also be associated with the homosexual male group known as ‘bottoms’ and frequently is.  Using the word ‘bisexual’ as part of the term can therefore apply to bisexual women and bisexual male ‘bottoms’ rendering the term equally offensive to males and females if they have a mind to take offence.

Yes, the term was still rather crude but I stand by my use of it because it was meant to poke fun at the type of people who could be spying on us on a daily basis and the type of stuff they’ll be looking through.

I hope that you didn’t take offence at the term if you read the posting it appeared in but, if you did take offence, that’s your choice.  I can only write what I write and if it causes a situation in which you may feel obliged to take offence, I cannot stop you from doing so.  I cannot and will not allow other’s hang-ups to affect what I say.