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Facebook apologises for flagging Plymouth Hoe as offensive term (theguardian.com)
12 points by samizdis on Jan 27, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


Hoe shouldn't be an offensive term, since prostitute shouldn't be either. Like gay or yankee, it should be reclaimed as at least neutral if not a mark of pride. But to the extent that it can't be spoken it can't be rehabilitated.

Of course there are a lot of people who disagree and believe that prostitution is just wrong, and that calling someone a whore should be pejorative, like calling someone a thug. While I disagree with this, those people should be able to express themselves freely too.


The real point is that a "hoe" is a garden implement, and you should actually be able to talk about both the tool and the process of using it without censorship.

It shows how fruitless censorship is, regardless of what one thinks of the deliberate mispronunciation of a pejorative, or the related profession it refers to.





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