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Originally Posted by Musenik
Obviously, it's not a very good debate since the writer's intent continues to be defended, when the complaint is concerned only with the writer's choice of words.
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You can't just separate intent out like that. It's true that bullies use humour to create torment, but they INTEND to cause hurt. In the case of the article this is clearly not Emily's intention.
As I said before, (and Emily confirmed) I saw that opening line as a dig at the very prejudices you are accusing her of reinforcing (intentionally or accidentally) Humour has been used in this fashioon for decades.
To take your Canadian example, "South Park - The Movie" represented Canadians as all having wobbly heads and funny accents. Thiis serves as a perfect example of a stereotype showing a group of people as "different" allowing justification for war (when the real problems are clearly closer to home) Similarly, an episode had a new flag for the town depicting a black figure being hung by a group of white figures. The town-wide argument about racism is halted in it's tracks when it's discovered the boy's haven't noticed the difference in skin colour.
And who exactly are you saying is going to be oppressed anyway. It's already been made clear that most casual gamers won't even recognise the label (it only has meaning within the game community) so they can't be offended if they don't think it applies to them. Do you perceive a future in which more serious gamers (like the members of this site) will dominate and belittle less committed players?
I'm not sure what you're aiming for. You've already said you don't want an apology. You've been keen to stress you don't think one group should be considered superior to another but no-one appears to be disagreeing with you on that (just that this was not Emily's intention, her being a games reviewer with an arguably poor sense of humour rather than a bully) Are you saying writers have to carefully scrutinise everything they say for possible offence? (Can't call the good guys white hats and the bad guys black hats. Could be viewed as racist) If so, then I must stand firmly against you. Not allowing a light, self-mocking remark which can't offend any group (since the group doesn't even know it exists per se) is a severe curtailment of freedom of speech and I kind of value that.
