Posted by Ian on November 19, 2005 at 09:02:51:

In Reply to: Political correctness posted by Bob on November 19, 2005 at 08:40:46:

The name caused a few problems at the beginning but, when we first thought of it, it made us laugh and we hoped it would get the same response from others (which it now does).

By calling ourselves Poofs, it can no longer be thrown at us as a term of abuse - it's all about reclaiming the language.

We've also (indirectly) removed it from the bad word vocabulary of thousands of people. Everywhere we go we are now referred to as 'The Poofs' as easily and as inoffensively as if they were referring to us as 'The Boys' or 'The Group'.

We still can't register the name with Companies House as 'Poof' is on their list of offensive names (although they won't let us see the list). I also notice it was censored in my entry on Friends Reunited.

May be you could try explaining to your work colleagues that words can only be offensive if the recipient allows them to be. If we choose to call ourselves Poofs and consequently give everyone permission to call us that, the power of the word is diminished and surely that can only be a good thing.

I hope that makes sense.

Ian
(Blonde Poof)

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