I voted yes. I found the phrase offensive, though I was not upset and I did reply in the thread.
I see several problems with the phrase in general.
First, it seems to imply that if a man chooses to spend time with a woman rather than his existing male friends, it must be because she is sexually promiscuous and they are having sex. It seems to dismiss the possibility that a man might want to spend time with a woman because he enjoys her company, or for any reason other than sex. It seems to me to reduce women to less than human status.
The two terms are not equal. Brother is a general positive way to refer to a man, and implies equality; whore is a generally negative way to refer to a woman and implies inferiority.
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"Bros before hos", whether locally or nationally, is used by teens alike, and I've even heard it perpetuated by quality media like MTV. It would be nearly impossible for me to say "Man.. bros before hos" to a male compatriot in my age demographic and have it misunderstood. So the argument was seemingly that it only gained popularity and thus maintained meaning because it is a popular "catchy" phrase. Removing the rhyming scheme and saying a more PC phrase, like Longterm friends before the sexually-permiscuous girl that you are with would be both inconvenient and unncessary.
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Context makes all the difference in the world. The phrase wasn't used in the context of a boy talking casually to his peers, it was used in the context of a thread title on a general discussion message board frequented by both more mature men and a large number of women. In that context, it was offensive. Using the bolded form, or some other less offensive description, in this context, would have worked equally well.
A problem occurs when people take the slang of their subculture and use it outside the context of that subculture. Part of the problem is that the word may have a completely different meaning or connotation outside that subculture that is more offensive. For example, I have to stamp out the casual use of "gay" and "retarded" in my classes at the beginning of each year. How they talk with each other when they are in casual conversation doesn't concern me. How they use language in my classroom and in my presense does, particularly since many of them seem to genuinely not know that "retarded" does not actually mean "a person or thing of which I disapprove" ourside of their subculture. Indeed, many seem not to understand that language has different meaning depending upon context, and that one needs to adjust one's diction as appropriate for a given context. In other words, the way to talk to your friends, especially if your language uses a lot of group specific slang, is often inappropriate when talking to others outside your social group.
Using a more polite phrasing could easily have communicated the same message without the offense.