Is this offensive or not? South Island girl

[BastetsWhiskers]

I was trying to run a comb through my hair very gingerly yesterday (knots) when I was told I looked like a South island girl. From someone in their 70s.

Is this an offensive phrase? I don't even know which south island they were referring to.

This isn't entirely serious, I wondered if it was something which shouldn't be said. And where the island is.

South Pacific Islander maybe, if you have long dark hair?

Was he from New Zealand?

I’d take that as a compliment. Why does everyone feel irrationally compelled to look for something offensive in every single word in order to pretend to be upset for the purpose of seeking attention these days?

So you weren’t offended. But thought you should have been even though you had no idea why.
Oh my lord what a world we live in.

Agree fully with @Colourfingers2 and @Tomatoblush

But what if it was a racial slur that the OP had never heard of?
Maybe she's asking so that she doesn't accidentally use racist terms herself?
Very reasonable to ask.
Why are you bothered by people checking?

Dunno - they are probably referring to a song or a film or something that you reminded them of. Forget about it.

I think you misheard, OP. The phrase was South Sea Islander, meaning someone with the woolly hair of that region.
My parent’s’ generation would also say “you look like the wild woman of Borneo”, if you came in windswept with tangled hair.
Neither were intended to be offensive, merely an amused comment on your dishevelment!
I also worked with an orthopaedic surgeon who tied a rolled green surgical drape round his head like an alice band to keep his hair out of his eyes. One elderly patient laughed and told him he looked like a Tuareg - again, no insult intended to the inhabitants of the Sahara.

I've heard it before as "hair like a Fiji islander". It's racist.

Is there anything anyone can say these days that doesn’t come under the umbrella of the race obsession?

Yes

Yes plenty of words

Yes, most things.

Oh right, so you need something to be offended about?

Have you ever watched the film South Pacific? It has dated badly but shows the portrayal of South Sea islanders this expression comes from. I can understand why if someone says something like this to you you would wonder if it was positive or negative. I told my children their rooms looked like Beirut and they had no idea what I meant so looked it up.

Immediately thought of the film South Pacific - and washing that man right out of your hair!

No idea why she'd be referring to this unless your very blonde 🤷‍♀️

Erm wild women, isn't that a bit like a native. Sounds offensive

If you feel like most of the words you say are racist, then you're the issue and you might not want to open your mouth.

Well this is it really, it's things like the words uppity or thug which you normally wouldn't associate with anything to do with racism and then apparently it does.

It doesn't matter much but I wondered if it was something I'd not heard of before.

My hair is very nondescript BTW I was taking the combing very slowly in case it tore out a chunk. I'll ask the person what they meant next time I see them.

When you think about it, it is hard to understand where the line is. I'm surprised words like pyjamas and wearing mufti for school are allowed. Similarly describing English as the Lingua Franca seems like one great Micky take.

how can saying you look like someone from the fiji islands be rascist?

you look french?
is that ok?

I'll settle for French 😁

Debate over.

But English is the world's lingua franca. What's the issue.

To be honest with you Phoebe I’m half a century old so I’ve long grown too old to give a monkeys about things that don’t pay my bills or support my children especially this pathetic modern obsession in striving to find something to pretend to be upset by in everything. Some things just don’t matter anymore as you become older and closer to death. Wether the mollycoddled younger generations will experience that I don’t know but mine is as did every generation before me that knew what fascism and division was and fought or campaigned against it all throughout the last century.