The amount of downvotes you received for your comment is enough to address that not everyone is on the same page. Indeed, this is an indication that a non-negligible number of people do not uphold your point of view. In my opinion, the original poster was being overly polite to promptly accommodate the taste of a portion of the American audience and, by extension, that of some international community influenced by it. It is your opinion and that of someone else that the use of the word rape is not appropriate to describe - albeit metaphorically - an unpleasant color combination for a computer program. In my country and in much of the rest of Europe where such ideas are not yet widespread, the use of a word that carry a terrible meaning to it is not enough to elicit such horrifying memories even to those who suffered from that experience.
You are assuming things to a certain degree of confidence that may or may not hold true to an international audience.
It’s generally better to use words that don’t bring with them the same issues.
If he feels that this particular word does fit the frustration of his experience - albeit not as traumatic as sexual assault - who are you to finger wag his choice? You think it is generally better to avoid it. To someone else, this word may be fit for the purpose.
It normalizes a word and desensitizes it, making it less likely for victims to stand up.
Stretching things to such dramatic consequences is your personal point of view. It is not a fact that the use of a word to describe sexual assault in an unrelated context will lead to under-reporting.
The fact is that using words that bring up topics of SA despite that being an extremely sensitive subject is a bad thing.
Again, this is not a fact: it is your opinion that this is a “bad thing”. You are taking for granted that this is a bad thing.
There is nothing to be gained at best, and at worst you’ve resurfaced horrifying memories for others.
There is to be gained that he fully conveyed his frustration using the word he saw fit. In a democracy, a society at large should be free to use the word they prefer, even for artistic license, if they wish to do so. What if a victim of sexual assault happens to hear this same word in a work of fiction when zapping on television? It is my opinion that if someone is triggered up to this point for reading a word, even if it was a victim, it is a problem that the person should bring up with a therapist. In a democracy, I think that such personal issues should not trample upon freedom of expression.
wesker