Great piece, and great food for thought. But let's look at "perspective" for a moment. If a word is offensive to someone for any reason, but was not intended to be offensive by the person speaking or writing it, then the onus is on the receiver, not the sayer. We all carry around a book of rules, invisible to others and kept secret from them. Our rules form the basis of how we judge others or feel judged by them. If I am unaware of the rules in your book, how can you blame me for "being offensive"? The offense only happens on one side of this equation, on the receiving side, based on the receiver's rules. Instead of trying to make everyone's writing and/or speech so fucking vanilla, let's send the sensitive ones to sensitivity training instead of sending us writers all to offenders' jail. I know people who can be offended when they hear, "Have a nice day!" because they're thinking, "So, do they think I'm not having a nice day?" Yes, I do try to take care with my words, but it's not all on me to make sure overly-sensitive people don't take me wrong.