Talk:Patsy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The word was used, somewhat unfortunately, in a headline in the Guardian...

Isn't "unfortunately" rather a POV term? I should point out that the Guardian's Readers' Editor, in a column very recently, said that he had rejected complaints about the use of the word "patsy", and would be explaining his reasons in a future column. Incidentally, the term isn't "widely regarded as an ethnic slur" in the UK - actually I've only rarely seen it used at all here - and the Guardian is a UK newspaper. Worth keeping an eye out for the future column mentioned above. 86.136.255.84 10:01, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

The "future column" mentioned - which references this Wikipedia article, actually - is now available online here. 81.158.1.234 17:41, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Ian Mayes. I'm Irish,and I've never heard of this word being used as a racial Irish slur. A straw pool of Irish friends and colleagues didn't produce a single person who regarded this as being racist or offensive.Many of those people have lived outside Ireland at various points in their lives.

I suggest we delete the passage about the Guardian. The point has been raisen, and they've addressed it reasonably. The offensive sense of the term is so archaic as to be irrelevant.