'Tranny' means transvestite. These men are transvestites. What do you not understand about that?

By all means, be offended by everything or anything you choose. This is, after all, the internet.

Its really not. 'Tranny' has always been shorthand for 'transvestite'. Do you honestly think that even in the present day, let alone in the 70s and 80s when drag was emerging into popular culture, someone who would throw the word 'tranny' around as an insult is even capable of comprehending the difference between a…

A considerable group of people think the n-word is problematic, hurtful or just plain unwanted, and it isn't in my own vocabulary, but I would never be audacious enough to demand that a black man stop referring to himself or his friends with that word if they so choose.

I guess it probably depends on the size of the school. I'm not sure what that is in this particular case, but my graduation class was 350-some students. Which is a fair amount of chairs to set-up, along with the podium and sound system. The outdoor lights cost a fair amount of money to run, as well as the cost of…

I'll go you one better.. Literally every single name in the course of human history is a "made up name." In fact, every single name we have for everything is made up. Language is not an intrinsic universality, and if it was, it sure as shit wouldn't be English. Suck it, Ashleys and Amandas and all you boring ass…

I call "Ol' Batch of Collard Greens".

Again, I don't disagree with anything you're saying in particular, but I think the conversation on trigger warnings has already expanded beyond what you're proposing. At Oberlin, the debate over TWs has already progressed to include ableism and heteronormativity. So should a Deaf student be warned that all the…

No, as I mention in my other replies, I understand the need to address potentially traumatic subjects like rape sensitively and humanely. The problem arises because the exact same arguments for allowing students to totally exempt themselves from triggering discussions about rape are equally applicable to any other…

Yeah, I understand its an imperfect comparison, and personally I'm on board with at least generalized warnings about common triggers, but it will be twisted around and used unscrupulously. I've interacted with religious fundamentalists whose beliefs are so strongly-ingrained that learning anything that counters their…

Yeah, I have an entire living room wall shelved floor to ceiling with records, so I totally understand songs becoming ingrained with memory. Scents too. Both of which are nearly impossible to prepare yourself for beforehand. Direct sensory recall.

Maybe no reasonable person cares, but they will dictate the conversation. Buzzfeed just had a post recently about trigger warnings, and nearly all the links were to tumblr sites, including ones arguing that "trigger warning" was in itself a trigger for people who suffered from gun violence. And these outliers will…

But if everyone bases their education solely around topics that make them comfortable, we're going to run into problems real quick. I think its legitimate to engage with a traumatic topic cautiously, but once you allow students to dictate the parameters of their own education you get things like white students…

Unfortunately that professor just proves that something which would be actually useful, like "Trigger Warnings for Assholes", don't exist.

But the problem is that trigger warnings have become so open ended that they cant be reasonably addressed. A good friend of mine who was sexually assaulted can no longer here the music that was playing at the time without being triggered, but you can't really warn people about specific things like that. But to the…

Just dress like a Mormon missionary. That way you can avoid the obvious attention a dress like this would draw, while simultaneously ensuring every single person on the planet avoids contact with you.

Seriously. Just a month or two ago, a handful of people on this very site were arguing that anyone under the age of TWENTY-FIVE should be unable to GIVE LEGAL CONSENT TO SEX. But we're supposed to happily allow them to write laws for us?

Unfortunately, nearly all of the pictures I had from my teens/early 20s were lost due to a flooded basement. That bygone era when pictures weren't intangible digital information, but easily destroyable physical objects. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure how many pics of old art I had from that time to begin…

See how Solange's head keeps moving back and to the left? Back and to the left. Back. And to the left. We're through the looking-glass here, people!

In tenth grade I made a painting of a fully nude, supine woman holding a coathanger being vaginally penetrated by a crucifix while demons clambered over a Venus symbol floating in the background. It was on display at the beginning of the school day, censored with painter's tape 20 minutes later, and completely…