Is "Weird" a Bad Word?


Photo: Inspiritus [Flickr]

A few days ago, I posted about a group of cross-dressing cosplayers in China, in which I used the word "weird." A few Neatoramanauts took umbrage at my choice of words (both in the title and the post) - and the comment thread explored the issues of rudeness, homophobia, and "exotification" (that's a new one for me).

While I'll leave that up to you whether you see a valid complaint, I'd like to ask you about the use of the word "weird." Is it a bad word to use? I mean - if someone says, "you're weird," would you be offended? Is "Keep Portland Weird" an evil demand?


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Newest 5 Comments

@ted

Not the big words again! Ahhhh! It burns!

@Fin

I've never been called Guildar before. Interesting. If this whole argument is about forcing compassion onto people, that I disagree with quoting from a book based on the old testament which involved child abuse, incest, rape, and murder. Not only is this an argument about semantics, it's one about perception and intention. You have the strict belief that Alex's goal was to make fun of a group of people, but chances are, that title was the best thing he could come up with, and I'm sure it wasn't (and I'm just paraphrasing here) "Let’s think of a crafty way to make fun of these people".
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I was only using the Bible as a source for my quote. I actually read it in a sci-fi book, and not from the Bible itself. Sorry if you missed my point. You're being a hypocrite, no matter whose spelling you're choosing to condemn.

The entire debate stems from Alex's choice of words, and you continued to defend the use of words not normally seen in common parlance. Ergo, the discussion is about semantics. You do your thesis a disservice if you opt to vacillate so disingenuously.
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ted,

The word choice conversation was not to Guildar. It was to OhYes.

The debate is actually more about compassion toward our fellow human beings. Not about word choice. Something the Bible has several verses about. Read it again.
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Wow, Fin.

I'm glad you have more time for other things than to pick apart variant spellings of words. Many people spell judgment with that extra e. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's not a valid word, with its own hopes, aspirations, and emotions. Quit othering alternative spellings.

I'm told the debate is entirely about word choice. It was about Alex's choice of words. Now, you're denying Gauldar the right to question your word choice. You object to belittling a whole group of people, and then proceed to try and personally belittle Gauldar (and a whole group of people who don't spell a real word the way you do) based on spelling.

There's a verse in the Bible about seeing the mote in someone else's eye, but you can't see the log that's in your own.
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