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When I used insulting words like "yokel" to insult the insult-worthy people of Iowa, I was attempting to be insulting. That's why I chose the insulting words, see? Oorah, on the other hand, was probably not trying to offend anyone when they used the word "lady" in a situation where SWE calls for the word "woman."
Get the difference? I was trying to offend, Oorah was not.
Speakers of yeshivish understand that in that dialect of English "lady" and "woman" are interchangable. Those who do not speak yeshivish, however, are likely to detect an unintended note of irony or condencension when "lady" is used as a synonym for woman.
Should Oorah care? Should Oorah, and other Jewish organizations like it, take care to use SWE, and only SWE, in their publications? I'm not sure. [With the help of God this will be addressed in the next post]
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