Whore?

Yes, I said, "whore"!

OK, to get to the point - While pondering the work woes that I had (and still have, to some extent), I realized that I have a whole new question to ponder. Am I a whore? Wait! Let me clarify - I don't mean a woman who provides sexual services in exchange for money. I mean someone who does something for someone in the hope that she will get something in return that she wants.

I guess nowadays, "whore" is used as a term of endearment. For e.g. you're such a pizza whore, which means that someone will do anything for a pizza. Well, I wish I were just talking about pizza. See, I realized that I sank to a new level at work by sharing some of my concerns regarding a project with people who had the power to change the direction of the project. Which, by the way, is what I wanted. And, which was against my Project Manager's wishes. So, I acted like it was in their best interest to question some things, which they did, and voila! I got my project direction changed.

So, is that selling some of myself and principles out or is that just being savvy in the workplace? Before you say that's bargaining or negotiating or whatever, one of the key folks who helped me out asked that I help him out in return with dealing with another difficult team member. So, I did because I felt like I owed it to him. However, the sad part is that I thought the team member was right and he was taking advantage of the situation - not a lot, but a little bit.

Ok, so maybe that isn't as bad as I think it is. Can you tell that I'm trying to make myself feel better about my approach and decision?

Another interesting question and observation that struck me this afternoon deals with language and how it changes. With some of my friends, it is acceptable to call someone a whore. I mean, it's not like you can just launch into, Hey whore, lovely day, isn't it? But several of my friends and I joke about people being whores for something they really like, etc. However, when I joked around and called another friend a chocloate whore, she had quite a different reaction. You know the saying, "if looks could kill"? Well, she wanted to kill me, or so it seems.

And I quote, "how the f*ck you gonna call me a whore? When I explained that it was a term of endearment, she said that just because it's acceptable among the common young street folks these days, it didn't mean that it was not an offensive word. She equated it to the *n* word in that although it is used as a form of affection between friends, it is still a highly offensive word. Was it disrespectful to be flattered that she put me in the "young" category while chewing me a new one??

Ok well I apologized and reiterated that I didn't mean to insult her. Anyway, our conversation ended quite awkwardly and we parted ways.

So people, seriously, when and who can I call a whore?? It's not as if I'm going to go around calling people names or anything (well, no more than usual!), but at times I wish there were some rules about when I can use certain terms and not have it taken out of context or received badly, y'know? Sheesh. Can't we all just lighten up and not be so stick-in-the-muddish??