By: Blakely Greenwell

The vocabulary of teenagers, and even adults across the globe, consist of profanities left and right.  The most interesting part is that each profanity seems to have multiple meanings. It is mind-blowing that a word that would be the deepest insult coming out of one person’s mouth can also be taken a friendly gesture out of anothers.

Take one derogatory term originally referring to a female dog; this slang word now ranges from a way to describe a disliked person, or friendly gesture to greet a best friend.

When, or better yet who, decided that such an offensive word could have a positive synonym?

Other examples are the racial slurs that are bounced back and forth harmlessly between friends, but can trigger violence if said across races or cultures.

Why is it okay for one person to say it, but not another?

The thing that doesn’t make sense is that society allows it.  We allow our friends to call us offensive things, but in reality we should be offended.

Society as a whole needs to distinguish the meaning one way or another, they cannot be both. With the way these derogatory terms are used now, it is too open ended. Either each term needs to be viewed as offensive by everyone, or accepted when received between genders, races, and cultures of all kinds.

The line between offensive language and casual slang is a jagged and faded line nowadays, and is only getting worse.  The line needs to be bold and straight so there is no double standards or hidden meanings.