Sexist language

If I had to respond to this discussion I would say that I agree with the last post by sixpounder. I personally don’t see a big issue with the word ‘girl’, and I certainly think it is more respectful than words like h*, or b****, or sl**. Now if these were the words in use I might have a problem but most sites like myspace and facebook (I don’t know much about Flikr) censor derogatory words. It seems like the woman that started this post is making a mountain out of a molehill because I guess her class has made her more aware and now she is trying to use the new knowledge to assert herself. Kudos to her for trying to make a difference but in our textbook Coopman says that we should try to use non sexist or gender neutral terms to tackle that problem. Her idea for flikr to discourage sexist language by educating is commendable however; I doubt it is high on their list of priorities because it is not their issue. It is an issue of American culture, which is unfortunately also filled with sexism in the media.