It wouldn't hurt to use common sense, when writing for Lush. Some words are offensive and have no erotic value.
No doubt we'd turn down a Quentin Tarantino script for use of hateful bigoted words and extreme graphic violence. Why? because it doesn't fit the spirit and intent of what we want on Lushstories.
This is a very thorny and difficult issue.
We live in a world where there's ever greater vigilance and policing of speech by self-appointed vigilantes, and yet offense is actually a deeply subjective thing. As someone who grew up in a council house, I'm offended by the term "social housing", which to me stigmatises people who for various reasons can't afford to or don't want to own their own home, yet the phrase is now a part of official discourse.
Clearly there are words that for reasons of history and common usage are, broadly speaking, offensive to a large proportion of people. There are words that I would never use personally, precisely because they are by virtue of history and their nature almost entirely pejorative.
Yet context is very important. There is a tendency today to ignore this, and to find words offensive (in a story) when they're actually being used to establish character, plot, or in an ironic way. I would go as far as to say that words in themselves are almost never offensive, but the context in which they're used can be. I would love to know if "chav" is on the inofficial censored list, since it's almost entirely used in a hateful way. For that matter, the acronym "WASP" can certainly be used in a pejorative sense, as can "MAWM", for Middle-Aged White Male. (OK, I just made that one up.)
A hundred years ago, almost the entire content of Lush would have had self-appointed moral guardians prophesying the end of civilisaton. I like to think times have changed, and they have, but that doesn't mean that there don't remain plenty of people who find stories containing graphic descriptions of sexual activity offensive. That in itself is reason enough to be wary of curtailing freedom of speech in any way.
I'm not a fundamentalist about this. There are some things that I do consider it unacceptable to say. However, I do believe that the present habit in society of policing offensive words rather than making an informed, sensitive and sophisticated judgement based on context is very worrying.
Besides, it's clear that some words that are allowed on Lush divide opinion. Should the c-word be banned? Clearly some people do find it offensive, yet its removal would decimate the number of stories on the site. Giving the offended party precedence over authorial intent is very problematic indeed.
All of that said, it's completely understandable that Lush seeks to minimize risk through the application of certain rules and guidelines. It's also the case, that if you don't like the rules, you don't have to sign up to be a member; in the same way that you can always change channel if a TV-programme offends you. I don't have a problem with that. Beyond the confines of Lush this is, however, an issue with much broader implications.
Banning any word has draconian overtones. Though to digress I'm always baffled how one word with a specific meaning is offensive but another with exactly the same meaning is not. All words are just sounds - telling somebody to go away sexually is just the same as ''fuck off'' yet the former might get a laugh but the latter cause offense.
Too funny!