[Callers] Advice about "gypsy"

[janet via Callers]

Aside from the fact that I feel that "political correctness" has gotten out of hand in society in general, I would like to point out that words change their intentions over time as well as within different communities.  While it may be true that gypsy was originally meant as a derogatory term against a certain group of people, in the contra community it is quite the opposite.  Gypsy in Contra actually has two meanings, the first is the dance move and in fact other moves where you are facing another person (i.e. gypsy star, gypsy heys) and there are dance gypsies who travel frequently to other dances outside their home community.  Neither one is at all derogatory.  Gypsy moves are fun and moSt people really like them.  Dance gypsies are very proud of being one.  In no way whatsoever is the term meant to be derogatory in our community.  There are many examples of this in society, but I will just point out one .. troll. Troll has an original meaning as a mean mythical creature, who, somewhere along the lines became associated with living under a bridge.  In today's society a troll came to mean someone who reads computer forums, usually with malicious intentions. But even that has shifted so people refer to trolling the Internet as reading forums or posts without any intent to post at all. But you know what troll means to me, as someone who grew up in Michigan?  I lived in the southern peninsula, or "under the bridge" - referring to the Mackinaw bridge).  It is not derogatory, it is funny.  I don't think we need to change any term that used to be derogatory, I would encourage people to recognize that in our society, it has a different meaning, and a very positive one at that.  Language changes over ten and terms take on all new meanings.  If I were to respond to this woman, I would explain to her that while we recognize that gypsy was originally a derogatory term, gypsies are highly regarded in our community and explain why.
Janet




Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone


In response to this person from your dance I would personally reply with something like:

"I'm sorry that you were offended and take your input seriously. The "gypsy" move in Contra dancing is shared from English Country Dance, and is a standardized term in this context. As a result of your input I've raised this issue with a group of dance leaders I participate in and there may be an opportunity to rename this move over time. Thanks for coming to our dance and I hope you'll join us again."

On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 3:12 AM, Amy Wimmer via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
In teaching it I wanted to convey that it is a flirty, eye contact sort of move. This person was obviously offended. I am at a loss for how to respond, except to apologize for offending. 
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