So how stupid and shallow have we gotten? Here's the latest inanity in political correctness gone amuck. ENO, the English National Opera, has now banned any new employees from calling each other "darling". If you're old employees and you call each other darling, you can still go on doing so...but from now that old hitherto now inoffense English term of endearment "darling" is considered sexually harrassing rhetoric. This sort of policy doesn't potect "victims" in only encourages a cult of "victimhood".
In my day, if someone insulted you, you either told them to get off your case or insulted them right back. We had balls and didn't let ourselves become victims over "words". "Stick and stones" and all that. "Words will never hurt me." I'm tired of people trying to legislate good manners and common sense. If people breach this sort of etiquette, let the culture and society punish them through the usual ostracization and marginalization, not the law. People should be allowed to be rude, stupid, even improper or inappropriate if they want, without a horde of lawsuits and laws descending on them. If someone's an asshole, just treat them like an asshole and don't get your knickers in a twist. I think everyone knows the difference between real harrassment and just stupidity and rudeness.