According to the little oxford dictionary, the word "respect" means:
- 1 a feeling of admiration for someone because of their qualities or achievements
- 2 consideration for feelings or rights of others
- 3 (respects) polite greetings and right behaviour.
- 4 a particular aspect, point, or detail
VERB:
- 1 have respect for
- 2 avoid harming or interfering with
- 3 agree to observe a law, principle
Some people tend to misuse this word, and a whole misunderstanding would then take place. When this particular word is used at people like these in telling them that they are so disrespectful, the defence always heard would be," what makes you think you are not disrespectful?" Only a handful of people would except this critical comment and move into silence accepting it.
Now I am not trying to insult those who misuse this word, but I blog today on this topic to show you my opinion that respect is a strong word with a very strong meaning. In the situation above, the defence was not relevant as no evidence was shown that he/she (who commented) had shown disrespect. A Greek Mythologist once said that in order to the use a word, you must first have respect for that word, only then use the word without violating its true meaning.
I choose a clear and disturbing example of disrespect, where a guy goes around touching a girl all over jokingly without her consent, this in law is defined as assault. Here the guy has clearly no respect for the girl. Yes he may be assaulting her, but the only reason for doing so here was simply due to disrespect.
No offence to men, but looking at the actual meaning of this word (the bold ones), it looks like very few men know how to respect a woman. Yes, it takes alot, but the effort you put in is what we girls notice. Every woman would love to be treated with some respect.
This blog is just my opinion to the word "respect" and how it should be used. Therefore i hope I have not offended anyone in anyway. So the next time you use the word "respect", think about my opinion or open the dictionary.
