"accuser" = 'victim'

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Mar 17 16:19:50 UTC 2013


"Victim" is passive and therefore "demeaning" - or so I've heard. She's not
a victim: she's an "accuser" and a "survivor."

I notice that your post even uses the passive voice.  Wake up and smell the
Kool-Aid!

JL

On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "accuser" = 'victim'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! News's top story (of some past instant):
>
> Judge finds two Ohio teens guilty of raping girl
>
> [At the end:]
>
> "Under its policy of keeping the names of
> accusers in rape cases confidential, Reuters has not identified the girl."
>
> My guess is that, although the accused were
> convicted, because the article observes that the
> "girl"s story was questioned by the defense, she
> can only be described as an "accuser", not as an actual "victim".
>
> *By*Drew Singer | Reuters – 24 mins ago
> [But]
> (*Writing* by James B. Kelleher and David Bailey;
> editing by Steve Gorman, Xavier Briand and Bill Trott)
> [ Emphasis added.]
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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