Use of demographic groups as insults

In the past two days, some online trolls, in the context of a discussion, referred to me as a "pretty girl" and "transgender". Okay, some jerks showed off their immaturity by resorting to childish name calling to try to win. Yep, but the name calling is not the issue here.

No, my problem is the use of "pretty girl" and "transgender" as insults. By doing this, the trolls were demeaning women and transpeople and insinuating that falling into one or both of those categories is shameful. The goal of the trolls was to try to trivialise me by comparing me to demographic groups that they perceived to be weaker than men.

The trolls failed in their goal, of course, as I don't consider women and transpeople to be weaker than me. Instead, the trolls only exposed their hatred for people who aren't like them (the trolls were men). Educating them on their ignorance wasn't possible, as they refused to listen to any reason.

Don't use demographic groups as insults. Actually, I'll go one step further: don't resort to insults as a method of winning an argument. In the end, if people disagree with you and your response is to demean others, you'll be the one viewed in a negative light by society.

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Note: This article was initially incorrectly titled as "Use demographic groups as insults"; this has been rectified.