Golly Dolls.

[JBR]

Just a matter of interest.  Is it now illegal to use the word 'golliwog' and necessary to call them 'golly dolls'?
If so, I wonder how many words presently found in a dictionary will soon become illegal to write or even say.

[dextrous63]

Am surprised that the BBC have a building called Wogan House

[GrannyMac]

Just a matter of interest.  Is it now illegal to use the word 'golliwog' and necessary to call them 'golly dolls'?
If so, I wonder how many words presently found in a dictionary will soon become illegal to write or even say.

Not illegal.  But would anyone really want to use the term w*g? 

[JBR]

I wonder whether the word 'woggle' has been deleted from use.
And 'polliwog', 'wogbox', 'WOG' (abbreviation of 'without glaucoma'), and probably many more.

[dextrous63]

If one Google's the word "wog", the vast majority of things that pop up refer to it as unpleasant, or racial slur etc.  The question I have is....who decides it is a bad word with negative connotations?  I'm pretty sure that for a fair old while, it wasn't considered as being unpleasant.  So who, and on who's authority, changed the intent of the word?

There are no doubt other words that were harmless for a long time until someone decided they weren't.

[JBR]

Deleted

[klondike]

Lots of the words that were in common usage in my younger days have been deemed offensive. As they were all used as slurs I'd find it hard to argue against that. 

[1955vintage]

'Hard work ' being one of them, please and thank you as well.

[GrannyMac]

Lots of the words that were in common usage in my younger days have been deemed offensive. As they were all used as slurs I'd find it hard to argue against that.

I'm with you on this.  

[Scrumpy]

Am surprised that the BBC have a building called Wogan House

What a carry on.. 
We have charcoal face masks which, when applied, makes one look black.. 
How long before THEY find this offensive...
Remember a while back when the fashion was to have an afro perm.. Even the men went for it.. !!  Can you imagine that today.. !!

[klondike]

A white bloke I knew as a teenager had a natural afro and as the fashion then was for long hair he looked like a traditional golly for sure apart from his face colour. I lost touch with him and have no idea what he looks like now or even if he survived his experiments with recreational chemicals.

[morty]

I used to love them little gollies on the marmalade jar watching me across the breakfast table ... first thing in the morning, half asleep, chewing on toast, slurping scalding coffee, trying to wake up to go to school.

My mum was a big fan of the Black & Minstrel Show ... (can you say 'white' anymore?)

[dextrous63]

Teddy Bears.  Now, they're an example of animal cruelty if ever I saw one.  They need to be banned, presto pronto!!

[morty]

You're thinking of Prince Andrew's aren't you? Held in bondage and living on his bed.

[dextrous63]

Nope.  I'm talking about bear baiting from yesteryear, and the culling of large numbers of grizzly bears from North America.  If that isn't an allegory of what's going on nowadays then I don't know what is.

Also, books/stories by the brothers Grimm.  Absolutely outrageous.

And as for Aesops fables, don't get me going on those.  The hare and the tortoise!!!  We all know what that glorifies.