On Taking Offence

Emily McTernan argues that taking offence is often morally appropriate and socially valuable in unequal societies. It can resist the day-to-day patterning of social hierarchies, express and reinforce social norms, and renegotiate the shared social norms around what counts as respectful treatment. It can also be a direct act of insubordination against a social hierarchy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 14 July 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

When someone fails to shake your outstretched hand, puts you down in front of others, or makes a joke in poor taste, should you take offense? Wouldn't it be better if you didn't? In the face of popular criticism of people taking offense too easily, and the social problems that creates, Emily McTernan defends taking offense as often morally appropriate and socially valuable. Within societies marred by inequality, taking offense can resist the day-to-day patterning of social hierarchies. This book defends the significance of the details of our social interactions. Cumulatively, small acts, and the social norms underlying these, can express and reinforce social hierarchies. But by taking offense, we mark an act as an affront to our social standing. We also often communicate our rejection of that affront to others. At times, taking offense can be a way to renegotiate the shared social norms around what counts as respectful treatment. Rather than a mere expression of hurt feelings, then, to take offense can be to stand up for one's standing. When taken by those deemed to have less social standing, to take offense can be a direct act of insubordination against a social hierarchy. Taking offense can resist everyday inequalities. In unequal societies, the inclination to take offense at the right things, and to the right degree, may even be a civic virtue. These right things at which to take offense include many of the very instances that the opponents of a culture of taking offense find most objectionable: apparently trivial and small-scale details of our social interactions.

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197613108