I get it, it is evolving like the way a group of oppressed people have their terminology co-opted by the hegemonic culture as a term of derision! No sweat then.

‘Gay’ nor ‘ghey’ = bad as such, but ‘ghey’ most definitely = lame. As popularised by South Park, which kinda indicates to me that it’s not going away in a hurry, regardless of anyone’s sensitivities. At least the intertron has forked the word with a different spelling, I figure.

And speaking of nuance, IMO aside from the main lineage of the term there’s a connotation harking back to gay = happy, a usage which rings somewhat twee and hence lame to modern ears.

I much prefer to avoid offending anyone on the basis of their sexuality, but I’m not going to bend over backwards or ignore which way the wind blows to escape the undiscerning ire of passive-aggressive types.

The sad thing is scientifically accurate could still have been just as funny, just differently so!  

I happen to think political correctness is a fine notion, but we shouldn’t abandon all nuance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcU4t6zRAKg

Ignoring the “can’t every teenager throw together a super-scientific device in his spare time?” aspect of it,  that made webslinging and -swinging much more reasonable.

Not too clear on what you mean here. Do you mean that the mechanical/man-made aspect of the original web slinging device made it implausible?  Or do you mean it made it more plausible that someone else could make one?

I like the non-biological web slinging.  It shows Peter Parker was smart & resourceful!

The webcomic _Spinnerette_  riffed on some of these issues, especially back when she was first acquiring her powers — specifically, the questions of where the silk is extruded from and the fact that one has to eat enough of the right stuff to feed the glands. She also has to deal with extra legs — well, arms — which complicates maintaining a non-hero identity.

I must point out that before Hollywood got their paws on him, Peter Parker’s webslinging was a clever invention — a wrist-worn device that sprayed a chemical mixture which polymerized on contact with air. Ignoring the “can’t every teenager throw together a super-scientific device in his spare time?” aspect of it,  that made webslinging and -swinging much more reasonable. (It also gave an opportunity for complicating plots by having the cartridge run dry at a particularly inconvenient moment.)