Happenstance
Cautious Pessimist
Acronyms.
You've all seen them. Perhaps you've even used them. These vermin have inflitrated every aspect of this messageboard, and their use is only expanding. However, I believe that acronyms are undermining our language, our relatability, and the cause of fat acceptance itself.
The example I like to use for demonstrating the evils of acronyms is AC. As in, 'Jeeves, be a dear and put on the AC.' The phrase AC stands for, 'Air Conditioning', has no substance whatsoever when you take the words individually. There is nothing about the phrase that indicates that such a thing will make the air colder, yet it has become somehow understood. This phantom communication is the sort of thing turning the English language into internet jargon.
In a situation such as our little Dimensions community, acronyms can be excluding. They're cool if you're part of a secret society, and can make you feel important when you know what it means to meet the HP by the AF with FCO.* It's like you're 'in' on something that the rest of the world isn't. But that's not what we're about, is it? Unless I'm mistaken, we don't want to be the only ones accepting people of all sizes, we would rather have everyone accepting people of all sizes. And all the acronyms put me on edge a bit. And not only because I fear that outsiders see 'BBW FA BHM FFA FA LA LA LOL SSBBQ!' and come away from it all thinking that we're a version of LOLCATS, only instead of cats, we use pictures of fat people.
Acronyms are labels. And, if some fat admirer is browsing pornography, yes, it can be convenient to simply type 'BBW' or 'BHM' into the search engine. But, often times, there are people behind those labels. On the spectrum of human interactions, at one end, you have people disrespecting fat people because media pressure and conditioning has taught them to react with derision. On the other end, you have people disrepecting fat people by treating them as sex objects, including the 'chaser' contingent that finds low self-esteem attractive, and I suspect these types overuse the acronyms to depersonalize their victims. The ideal seems to be the middle of the two ends, (though I am not surprised to have seen cases of people choosing to be disrespected as a sex object because it isn't disrepsect because of their weight.) Perhaps by reducing acronym usage, the middle might more effectively distance itself from the ends.
This isn't just about 'Pensta having a pet peeve with acronyms. (I do, however, have a pet peeve with the term 'pet peeve', as well as acronyms.) No... this is more than that. I haven't found the right letters to describe me - I don't know where I fit here, only that I do.
I realize that I may be treading upon prickly ground here, as some members of this board have gone so far as to use these acronyms in their usernames, and to those people, this is not a personal attack on you. As I see it, such people have had to add adjectives next to the acronyms because the acronyms alone were insufficient descriptors - I will not have a problem with an individual because of this. Besides, these names may mean as little to them as 'Happenstance' does to me - Happenstance tells you nothing about me, so I've tried to convey myself more thoroughly through words, for the possibly up to two people who have remembered anything I've posted here.
I don't expect anything to change around here. In general, people like acronyms, and a look at www.acronymfinder.com will show that the trend is toward more, rather than fewer of them. It's just been bothering me lately, and I decided to share my opinion. Anyone in agreement?
(*the Hippopotamus Poacher by the Abandoned Factory with Four Cold Ones)
You've all seen them. Perhaps you've even used them. These vermin have inflitrated every aspect of this messageboard, and their use is only expanding. However, I believe that acronyms are undermining our language, our relatability, and the cause of fat acceptance itself.
The example I like to use for demonstrating the evils of acronyms is AC. As in, 'Jeeves, be a dear and put on the AC.' The phrase AC stands for, 'Air Conditioning', has no substance whatsoever when you take the words individually. There is nothing about the phrase that indicates that such a thing will make the air colder, yet it has become somehow understood. This phantom communication is the sort of thing turning the English language into internet jargon.
In a situation such as our little Dimensions community, acronyms can be excluding. They're cool if you're part of a secret society, and can make you feel important when you know what it means to meet the HP by the AF with FCO.* It's like you're 'in' on something that the rest of the world isn't. But that's not what we're about, is it? Unless I'm mistaken, we don't want to be the only ones accepting people of all sizes, we would rather have everyone accepting people of all sizes. And all the acronyms put me on edge a bit. And not only because I fear that outsiders see 'BBW FA BHM FFA FA LA LA LOL SSBBQ!' and come away from it all thinking that we're a version of LOLCATS, only instead of cats, we use pictures of fat people.
Acronyms are labels. And, if some fat admirer is browsing pornography, yes, it can be convenient to simply type 'BBW' or 'BHM' into the search engine. But, often times, there are people behind those labels. On the spectrum of human interactions, at one end, you have people disrespecting fat people because media pressure and conditioning has taught them to react with derision. On the other end, you have people disrepecting fat people by treating them as sex objects, including the 'chaser' contingent that finds low self-esteem attractive, and I suspect these types overuse the acronyms to depersonalize their victims. The ideal seems to be the middle of the two ends, (though I am not surprised to have seen cases of people choosing to be disrespected as a sex object because it isn't disrepsect because of their weight.) Perhaps by reducing acronym usage, the middle might more effectively distance itself from the ends.
This isn't just about 'Pensta having a pet peeve with acronyms. (I do, however, have a pet peeve with the term 'pet peeve', as well as acronyms.) No... this is more than that. I haven't found the right letters to describe me - I don't know where I fit here, only that I do.
I realize that I may be treading upon prickly ground here, as some members of this board have gone so far as to use these acronyms in their usernames, and to those people, this is not a personal attack on you. As I see it, such people have had to add adjectives next to the acronyms because the acronyms alone were insufficient descriptors - I will not have a problem with an individual because of this. Besides, these names may mean as little to them as 'Happenstance' does to me - Happenstance tells you nothing about me, so I've tried to convey myself more thoroughly through words, for the possibly up to two people who have remembered anything I've posted here.
I don't expect anything to change around here. In general, people like acronyms, and a look at www.acronymfinder.com will show that the trend is toward more, rather than fewer of them. It's just been bothering me lately, and I decided to share my opinion. Anyone in agreement?
(*the Hippopotamus Poacher by the Abandoned Factory with Four Cold Ones)
