Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT: 2201-2205 (4-8 June 2012) Weekly Comic Discussion Thread
Wimblesaurus:
The new characters are Miss Frizzle, Sakaki, and... Are there any heavyset Indian ladies in the media? I can't think of any, I feel like such a cad.
Throg:
Okay okay I meant EAST ASIAN.
--- Quote from: SomeCanadianWeirdo on 06 Jun 2012, 07:11 ---In North American English Asian usually refers to someone from China, Japan, Korea, and immediate neighbours with similiar looking people like Vietnam, Thailand etc. South Asian has become an increasingly common term in Canada to refer to people from India, Pakistan, and ttheir related neighbours.
Add me to the list of readers who figured Tai was in some way Asian. She definitely falls into the "ambiguously brown" category.(I will not be cruel and link to TV Tropes.) Giving her a last name doesn't clarify things.
--- End quote ---
As a Korean-American from NYC, this is a pretty good summary...hadn't heard the South Asian bit, but it makes sense: better than calling a Pakistani "Indian", and sure beats calling an Indian person "Paki". Amir is Middle-Eastern; Padma is obviously Indian; and as for Tai, I always thought she was either a halfie or Filipino, a Pinoy; although, depending on where you're standing, that's the same thing anyway (ducks, j/k!!)
In one of the QC dumps, Jeph did detail how tall Marten is -- does anyone remember? B/c tall asian girl looks TALL.
Just realized that's one of the things I like about QC: race just doesn't matter. Not a peep about an Indian girlfriend or whatever.
Throg:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 06 Jun 2012, 08:47 ---Oh, and I've always found the term "co-ed" to refer to a female to be odd.
--- End quote ---
Co-ed was still in use in the 1980's, but I think since the 90's that it has become rapidly antiquated. As in, "I called up a hot co-ed on my rotary phone to meet at the Automat."
jmucchiello:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 06 Jun 2012, 07:19 ---Edit: I now see the use of coed to mean (principally) a female student in US slang, which I've not come across before. Presumably this is applied to women because most places would have been men-only before they went co-ed; it strikes me as a demeaning usage (with implications of the "token minority" figure).
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 06 Jun 2012, 07:29 ---It's the latter usage I'm querying, and yes, I also have got the impression that it is used to refer to women, which is rather ironic since I'm a woman and I decidedly do not attend a co-ed college. Am I a co-ed?
--- End quote ---
Odd, the usage in the US dates back to the 1950s at least. That's when a lot of the men's college became co-ed, women's colleges tended to go co-ed in the late 60s and 70s if the went co-ed at all. And somehow women attending a former all-male college became known as coeds. The usage then spread to women attending any co-ed college. I don't think you can be a co-ed at an all-female school though. Likewise, if the school was original all-female, I don't think the term co-ed referring to a student occurred at all.
Since the first women stepping onto a formerly all-make college were definitely in the minority, there wasn't anything "token" about it. I don't think co-eds found being called co-eds demeaning though. That attitude sounds like the reaction of someone from the 80s, not someone from the 50s.
And as someone else pointed out, the usage is becoming archaic since there is no longer a bunch of colleges "going co-ed" any more. The majority have changed and the idea of a co-ed college is no longer "new and exciting".
Murphoid:
Why is Nani from Lilo and Stitch asking to get high as hell? Is nothing sacred? :angel:
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version