for my heart to sink every time I read the following phrases:

[EvilEyeButterPie]

"I'm not racist but..." (bound to be followed by outrageous racism)

"Political correctness gone mad!" (will be followed by either something totally made up or exaggerated, or totally reasonable, eg selling Eid cards in shops)

Any mention of human rights in any kind of rightwing outlet. As if rights for humans is some kind of controversy.

"The university of life" this is only ever used by people too thick to go to university.

Any more for any more? :o

I had that argument with my DH just the other night, elephant. I had been at a health and safety talk by a police officer directed at some international students I was teaching. He told the girls not to go out at night in short skirts as they might be attacked! I was . My DH thought that was quite sensible advice!

"I did it for myself" in the context of a 17 year old having a boob job to become 24 GG.

To prove she's a strong, independant woman, kerala?

Best way to avoid these phrases is to un-friend any daily mail readers;-)

Stealth - yes I tried to phrase that carefully because I'm sure some of the people there do actually quite like it shoved in their face :o

Chaya - aaaaargggghhhh. When I got together with DP and he got a fast initiation into the "feminist girlfriend" thing, that was the first example I used to show him how fucked up things still are. I pointed out that if I walked myself home from town that night, and was attacked, the first question that would be asked would either be "what was she doing there anyway?" or "what was she wearing?"

i didn't mean same sex couples of course, I meant...errm, whatever the opposite is. Mixed sex? Sounds wrong

(opposite sex, Stealth? Heterosexual weirdos?)

Oooooh yes there's more: anyone pretending that [non-oppressed group] is now oppressed. E.g. "it's all about racism against white people now", "this country discriminates against married people now", "men are the ones who are being oppressed these days".

No, no it isn't/it doesn't/they aren't.

SPB- that's theb thing, isn't it? The double standards, etc. One time a man told me that it would qualify as shoving sexuality in another's face if a gay man said "I'm gay" in response to being asked why he wasn't married. And if you're a gay man in a civil partnership, and someone sees your ring and asks about your wife, you still mustn't correct them, apparently. Some people...

"Well, he's a man" to excuse a man who's messed up/was a bastard/can't wash-up.

But what about men......

when discussing feminist issues.

Yes, or Christians are oppressed when local councils try to include other religions fesitivities. Um, well given that 1) The Church of England is an Established Church; 2) Bishops gets to sit on the House of Lords; 3) The Church's law is actually the law of England; and 4) Christians get their holidays as official public holidays amongst many many other things NOT TO MENTION that noone is actually persecuting anyone for being Christian...it is hard to see that as oppression.

Ah, I could go on and on

Actually I do think Christians are treated pretty poorly and scornfully laughed at actually. (Atheist here)

"Working mothers"

Because I just know that whatever follows this phrase won't be particularly positive, and won't say anything at all about working fathers.

God yeah - the whole having representatives of their religon in the legislature as part of the law thing is a real bitch for Christians.

Not to mention having large numbers of state schools which favour Christians in their admissions criteria. That must be a bummer too.

TFP - sometimes they/some of them are laughed at/ridiculed/slagged off. But they're not oppressed are they? Or discriminated against? Prevented from practising their religion? Or holding public office? etc etc etc

What is also about the "oh, it's us being discriminated against now!" crowd, is that the clear implication is that it was fine and natural when it was the other way round.

Also it implies that all the originally oppressed group's battles have been won - in fact, it's gone too far. So if e.g. Christians are being discriminated against by being forced to allow gay couples to use their business, it implies that homophobia over/gay rights a battle that has been won.

'I call a spade a spade'

Usually uttered by people who confuse honesty with rudeness.

'I'm not being funny, but...'

No, that's right, you're not being funny. So shut up.

'While you're down there....'

Usually uttered by DH's knobhead mate who, at 39, has never had a long-term relationship. Can't think why.

"At the end of the day..." The cliche of all cliches, makes me so embarrassed for the utterer whenever I hear it.

And for some inexplicable reason, the phrase "used in anger". We get this in IT a lot, it means when something is used for real and not just practice (e.g. when the new MN site is used in anger). It makes my skin crawl as I imagine lots of angry people bashing away at their computers.

"So i turned around and said..." "Then he turned around and said..." "I turned around and said..."

JUST STAY STILL!

"and it was like..."

oh clairefromsteps (loved 5678 btw :o) "while you're down there" is just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. Some women seem to laugh at that as well. Why is this?

Actually on reflection the idea that any woman might want to suck your rancid knob IS quite funny. Just not in the way you thought.

I use 'at the end of the day' as an affectionate homage to my grandad (RIP) after whom DS1 is named. My grandad was a really ovely bloke.

"I hate fake people I keep it real" AKA I have no diplomacy skills and like to offend!

oh yes "what about the menz"

you just know it's going to be some whiney bloke who hasn't a clue what feminism is and why on earth women would need to 'fight' for equality.

I hate:
"Health & Safety...it's all just common sense." - Well, there's obviously a huge lack of common sense then...
"Charity begins at hom.".....usually said by someone who means literally 'their home' and is too stingy to part with their cash to anyone else no matter how deserving
"do-gooders" said sneeringly about someone who actually cares about something. As if being a "do-badder" is something to be proud of.
Also hate how hte adjective 'naive' is often used as a put down for someone who's views they disagree with.

A friend of mine once went for a job interview in which the interviewer said "I'm not a racialist but..." She grabbed her coat without further ado.

I am not keen on "I don't see why my taxes should pay for..." as this is almost always followed by some tripe about asylum seekers/jobseekers/people who believe in some kind of state-funded nursery schooling, and so on.

Mosey on over to the "AIBU to-think-that-people-who-feed-their-kids-junk-to-the-point-they-are-obese-should-be-visited-by-social-services" thread where all the very best qualities of humanity come out whilst some posters snigger about waddling fat kids. Absolutely lovely.