General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If you are the member of a privileged group AND call yourself progressive [View all]white_wolf
(6,238 posts)The one about women being synonymous with being cowards or weak I completely agree with you on, but light being good and darkness being evil is an ancient concept that has been used in myths in nearly every culture. Darkness is connoted with evil because of the fear of the unknown. You can't see what's hiding in the dark and a thousands of years ago going alone into the night could have killed you. The Bible for instance uses it and it is a text from the Middle-East, not Europe. I don't think anyone uses it in the mindset of light=white and dark=black, or Arab or whatever. However, I get really pissed when I hear "girls" being used as an insult. That is sexist and harmful.
All of that being said if terms such as "light and dark" offend a large segment of the population or disempower them then perhaps we do need to consider changing them.