Slang

I wanted to write about the activity I did in my Communications class today because it was not only entertaining, but a little controversial and interesting too.
The teacher wrote a series of words on the board. She told us to come up with slang words or our own synonyms for each word. We split into groups to do so.
This was the result:
1.Butt: ass, badonkadonk, junk in the trunk, cake booty, rear end, hiney, hindquarters
2.Party: rager, fiesta, get together, sausage fest, shindig, gathering kickback (other groups had words like soiree, and chillfest.)
3.Awesome: kickass, cool, badass, legit, bitchin', sweet, boss and sick (that one I'm not a fan of).
4.Handicapped: (this is where we started laughing but also something we discussed afterwards) retarded, dumbass, r-tard, stoopid, mentally deficient, mentally disabled, broken, and my favorites from other groups: short bus rider, window licker.
5.Homosexual: (we all voted not to use the word fag but every other group did) gay, homo, butt pirate, fudge packer, pillow biter, butt bumper, carpet muncher, lesbo, lesbi-gay
6.Drunk/High: slammed, shit faced, stoned, baked, schmammered, hammered, wasted, plastered, smoked out, rolling, face shitted, fucked up
7.Sex: bangin', doing the horizontal mambo, gettin' dirty, humping, getting busy/freaky, bumping uglies, fucking, screwing, making babies, fornicating.
8.Hello: Hola, hey, what's up, how's it going, what's shakin', hi, 'sup.
9.Goodbye: see ya, later, peace/out, adios, ciao (simple enough, and most everyone had the same words for Hello and Goodbye)
10.Girl: chick, bitch, lady, woman, hooker (we were laughing at this point, just saying terrible names), slut, yeti (the marine in my group said this was a military term for a very ugly woman). Other groups had words like chica and queen.
11.Boy: dick, dude, guy, fella, champ tiger, jerk (and bro).
12.Car: ride, whip, vehicle, transportation, P.O.S., grocery getter, family wagon, taxi, sex mobile, shaggin' wagon.
13.Friend: amigo, pal, buddy, bff, homie, partner in crime, buddy, girl friend, man friend, lady friend
13.Old people: hag, granny, wrinkly people, senior citizens, geezer and one group came up with silver fox which I thought was awesome.
14.Bad: no bueno, terrible, shitty, fucked up, sucky, awful, sketchy, horrible, shady, evil.


So, did any of those words offend you? Did you think of other words? The teacher pointed out that we associate negative things with certain words. Many words we chose to attach to girl implied that girls who like sex are bad. And many of us raised our hands when she asked if we would've changed our answers to handicapped if someone in the room was in a wheelchair. Which words would we say to our friends? To someone of authority, or an older family member? Some words people would find offensive other people use casually between each other without meaning to hurt. Why do we choose these words? To be funny? To be ironic?
Some words are meant to hurt. I don't really know a girl that hasn't been called a slut in seriousness, but I find the word difficult to take seriously. Last time someone called me a slut and meant it it was out of blinded anger and jealousy, not because I was actually promiscuous. I had to laugh. Words like that don't mean anything unless you let them.
There were a lot of words other groups put down that I can't remember that I thought were entertaining. There was also an exchange between a black woman and a young black man that I didn't understand. They had slang terms I'd never heard of, and when she used the term "boppin'" for sex the young black guy looked at her like he wasn't sure what she meant, and she gave him a knowing look and said "you know what a boppery is." Apparently he did. I know they don't know each other outside of class. I don't feel like it's terrible of me to assume that other races say things I wouldn't understand.
It was an interesting activity. I actually didn't want to read the words out loud as we went around and made someone else do it. We laughed, but it was also touchy at times. No one announced if they were offended by anything or not. We just tried to focus on what made us laugh, which is probably the best thing we could've done.