Mascot name "Cougar" deemed offensive to middle-aged women

Mine-lol
My school mascot is a cougar(as are many other school's mascot so..you know.)
xD

Screw those middled aged women.

...district officials overrode the student vote after complaints that the word “cougar” is offensive and derogatory towards women.

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I'm sure a few loudmouths complained far and wide enough to have the name stricken from consideration; because as we all know, whenever the word "cougar" is mentioned, all anyone can think of is this:

...In pop culture, the term “cougar” refers to a sexually aggressive middle-aged woman who attracts younger men.

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Kill me now, please, before I ever come across anything that lame again and might consider offing myself instead.

It's a good thing we don't have anything more important to worry about.

:

This is why deeming words offensive is problematic. As long as mean people exist, they're going to keep coming up with new ways to use words offensively.

I read somewhere that the phrase "mentally retarded" was introduced so health professionals could to avoid using words like "moron", which had developed a stigma thanks to the public using those words as insults. And hey ho, now "mentally retarded" is offensive because the public did the same damned thing to it.

On a quasi-related note: When I was a child, my parents had a friend who raced sled dogs. He used the word "bitch", he used it correctly, and he didn't have a problem with saying it in front of children because he was not saying anything offensive.

As you might imagine, my parents had to very delicately explain to us kiddies that we should not add that term to our vocabularies.

I always thought middle-aged women didn't exist. For some reason, every woman I meet, even if they look older, all say they are still in their twenties.

I take them at their word. Why would they lie about their age?

jjdebenedictis said:

I read somewhere that the phrase "mentally retarded" was introduced so health professionals could to avoid using words like "moron", which had developed a stigma thanks to the public using those words as insults. And hey ho, now "mentally retarded" is offensive because the public did the same damned thing to it.

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But how long until a word can come out the other side of the offensive quagmire? My mom (in her late 60's) recently reprimanded my niece for using the word spaz. Neither niece nor any of her cousins or friends (all teens) were even aware that the word once had a medical meaning and could be considered offensive. To them it just means clumsy. I would say spaz is due to be granted patrol from the Bureau of Offensive Words (Mom disagrees). Retarded, OTOH, still has time to serve.

eggs said:

But how long until a word can come out the other side of the offensive quagmire? My mom (in her late 60's) recently reprimanded my niece for using the word spaz. Neither niece nor any of her cousins or friends (all teens) were even aware that the word once had a medical meaning and could be considered offensive. To them it just means clumsy. I would say spaz is due to be granted patrol from the Bureau of Offensive Words (Mom disagrees). Retarded, OTOH, still has time to serve.

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I would say spaz is pretty offensive, and has been for many years. It has different uses in different countries.

This brings me back to 2005, and the "Nogger Black Crisis" that engulfed Sweden.

I bet they weren't really afraid of offending any possible 'cougars'. They just didn't want folks making any jokes about the mascot name. And they chose the name themselves instead of tossing it back to the students? Yeah, they just wanted to pick the name themselves, I think.

It reminds me of how some people can be about choosing baby names. They try to avoid any name that could be made into an offensive nickname, no matter how obscure or ineffective that nickname would be.

It reminds me of how some people can be about choosing baby names. They try to avoid any name that could be made into an offensive nickname, no matter how obscure or ineffective that nickname would be.

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We had a German teaching assistant called Fanny when I was at school.

You can imagine how that went down

As a middle-aged woman, I'm offended by the term "cougar"--but only when it's applied to middle-aged women. When it's referring to the animal, well, that's what it SHOULD refer to.

Unfortunately, no one thinks about that kind of offensive when using such terms.

PorterStarrByrd said:

Screw those middled aged women.

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I saw what you did there.

crunchyblanket said:

We had a German teaching assistant called Fanny when I was at school.

You can imagine how that went down

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That was my grandmother's name, and she always hated it! It'd be worse in the UK All her life she went by her middle name

jjdebenedictis said:

I read somewhere that the phrase "mentally retarded" was introduced so health professionals could to avoid using words like "moron", which had developed a stigma thanks to the public using those words as insults. And hey ho, now "mentally retarded" is offensive because the public did the same damned thing to it.

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Dr. John L. H. Down, who first described Down syndrome, used the term "mongoloid idiot." What is horribly offensive now was at the time (1866) simply medical language.

Language is a living thing. It evolves.

That said, cougar as current slang for middle aged woman on the make should hardly disqualify it from being used by sports teams. The primary meaning of cougar is still a feline animal.

So I should change my team's name, the Milwaukee MILFs?

John Cougar changed his name to back to John Mellancamp. Maybe he foresaw problems ahead.

What I find offensive is that they think "Mascot name for school of "Cougars" deemed offensive to middle-aged women." and should be stricken. That's just stupid.

Priene said:

John Cougar changed his name to back to John Mellancamp. Maybe he foresaw problems ahead.

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Actually, he changed his name first to John Cougar Mellencamp because he was mad at the record company for making him change his last name but still wanted fans to be able to recognize him. Then later he completely dropped the Cougar. So you can find his albums listed under the three names.


Richard

On a related note, I have stopped using the term 'niggardly' because it now offends some people even though they have no idea what the meaning of the word is.

nig·gard·ly

   /ˈnɪg ərd li/ adjective
1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.
2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.




Richard

I don't think "mentally retarded" is an offensive term. I think it's a literal one, which is why I don't understand why the PC movement found it so appalling. Yes, kids (and some adults) I know will use the term "retard" out of context as an insult. That will happen regardless of what term becomes officially accepted.


Per Merriam-Webster:

Retardation: an abnormal slowness of thought or action

or

slowness in development or progress

Yep. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.



I'm a middle-aged woman and I don't understand why a "cougar" mascot would be offensive at all, unless the ones complaining are so dense that they don't understand it's referring to a big cat, not a forty-something woman dating a twenty-something man. It's slang, for Pete's sake! How did these women survive to middle-age with such delicate sensibilities?

Thank you, Fox News, for reporting another non-issue to fill empty heads.

mmm, delicious cougar...

And in other news, four people from the American Rosacea Support Group are petitioning to have the Rose Parade renamed The Parade of Ambiguous Mulit-colored Flowery Things.

quickWit said:

mmm, delicious cougar...

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You're a such a brave bunny.



You're just not very smart.