As I've said in another thread, I came up with a saying:
Offense can never be given, it can only be taken.
Essentially, no matter what someone says to you, it is YOUR CHOICE whether to be offended. There are people in my life who have the power to offend me. I for years had a very thin skin with my father, and he knew how to get under it. If my wife said something really mean and hurtful to me, I would be truly and deeply hurt, because I am emotionally open to her.
For just about everyone else in the world, I think it would be ludicrous to allow anything they say to affect my mental state. If someone says something "offensive" to me, that's their choice. I don't have to let them offend me, though. I don't have to let their negativity make me negative. I don't give them the power to determine how I feel.
I don't understand people who wield themselves being offended as a weapon, given they have entirely the power within their own mind to control it.