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.

It seems from my perspective- in my sixties - that a lot of people nowadays like to virtue signal by taking offence at virtually everything.
It must be very tedious to monitor everything you say in case it might be misconstrued as cultural appropriation, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. And however much you self censor, there will always be someone woker than thou, who will get you eventually. That’s how purity spirals work, they end up eating themselves.

A reference to the plot, cast and appearance of folks in musical South Pacific?

The film itself was a bit before my time (I'm 63) but the record was in my parent's collection and my sister and I loved most of the songs.

Was an explanation sought at the time?

Oh FFS

I think, for someone in their 70s, it must be difficult to keep up with what you're not supposed to say now. I'm in my 50s and can't keep up. Offensive phrases will naturally go out of usage as time goes on and younger people don't know them, like the Beirut reference.

All these people complaining about not being able to use racist words anymore 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Perhaps you were both confused and they meant to say you looked like you came from
Southend on sea, in which case you should be very upset.

100% this. There are too many people looking with the strongest fucking magnifying glass these days, to find offence in ANYthing and EVERYthing. 🙄 And when anyone says they are sick of people getting offended at the slightest most innocuous thing, you get the woke judgies coming out saying 'ooh complaining about not being able to say racist stuff eh?' hahahahaha!!!! 😂

Grow up.

And as for THIS

@TreadLight

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.

You can't say PYJAMAS now? Oh my fucking days!

And as for MUFTI day. I have never heard a single Asian person complain about this. Only ever Caucasian wokies. Funny that.

@BastetsWhiskers Get a grip. Seriously.

@EbonyRaven I didn't take offense at the term and don't need to get a grip :)

I only asked if it was considered to be offensive in today's world as I'd never heard it before. That'll learn me to comb my hair in front of other people, such a deviant activity!

I still use the words thug and uppity, they convey a different meaning.

...And using being 50+ as an excuse. My 60 year old parents manage fine... because they simply aren't racist. 😂
The posters you refer to are the same ones who would call the suffragettes woke for trying to improve things, as if language and culture don't evolve. I bet they'd have a different reaction if someone called them a "Karen" or similar, I imagine it's only okay when someone else is the target.

In our family if you come in all windswept with knots in your hair, we say "you look like a wild woman of wongo" but it refers to the film.

The Wild Women of Wongo. They were all white and on a tropical island. To be fair it's a bizarre/shit film 🤣 but no racial connotations.

I'll ask the person what they meant next time I see them.

Well there you go! Solved.

Although I can't imagine why you wouldn't ask there and then in an equally amused way what he means/what is a South Islander just to understand the humour reference, before you'll know if you can take offence or not.

What a great post - I applaud you (from one "oldie" to another).

I imagine they were a bit confused themselves.
I don't think you need to be offended. I think it was probably a compliment but still one most people these days would see as a bit of a stereotype
Do you have long dark hair and were combing it over your shoulder

Oh OP I'm so sorry but my 80 year old nan has just cracked me up. I'm sat with her because she's feeling a bit poorly and wanted some company.

So I said to her "what does looking like a south Island girl mean" she just shrugged and went "sounds like a nice way of saying prostitute"

😂😂😂 in her defence she's grumpy tonight.

So umm OP, any chance you could have looked like a "lady of the night" 😳

@HereComesMaleficent

😂

But is it even racist?! No one even knows what it means!

That'll 'teach' you, not 'learn' you. And another fucking thing, not you OP but others, it's not CHESTER DRAWS, or DRAWS. It's chest if drawers and drawers!! Ffs how do people down south (sorry not tagging everyone of you in this, just some) get through school not knowing this!!!

Stop looking for shit to be offended by. Did you think to yourself "ooh I'll be using this horse very often in the future, I must find out if it's racist/offensive". No you didn't, you just posted on here to get a reaction.

*chest OF drawers
Horse?! I hate autocorrect!! PHRASE!

Ffs op really

ive never heard of this phrase op, but yes it’s definitely racist.

How so?

Even tho' no race is actually mentioned??????

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

Lots of things. But no, you can’t say offensive things.

You do seem to struggle though, you saw nothing wrong with pressuring a woman into having sex, whilst camping, when on her period, when she didn’t want to. You went on and on. So yeah, you obviously have quite a bit to learn about what’s appropriate and what isn’t to say and do.

The South Island is nowhere near Fiji etc. It's the bottom half of New Zealand and covered with farms run by farmers who probably don't brush their hair as much as other people.

It also has some hot springs and some parts get snow in winter.

It also has lots of sheep. Not sure if that's relevant.