Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Some stuff really is gay and so what? Who would go to an Erasure concert or the Pet Shop Boys and not say that it was gay? Have you seen the Kylie Minogue 3d concert on Comcast on-demand? It's really gay, even though I'm pretty sure that she is straight.
I'm sure the PC police have a list of terms that they would want you to use.
Other things, like Taco Bell or going to the beach are not gay, so I wouldn't understand why someone would refer to them like that.
You mean I can't say "I'm going to Taco Bell" anymore ?
Never heard of this woman before but she makes some really valid points. We need to educate our kids as well as our communities how offensive some words can be.
A lot of kids are mean. Telling them not to say something because it is offensive is a sure-fire way to get them to do it. Some kids are going to have a harder time in school than others because of differences and the fact that kids are vicious about noticing differences and mocking them. As much as the gay community wants everyone to believe that being gay is normal (it would probably be better if they emphasized the word "natural" instead), the fact that only an estimated 3% of the population is gay means that being gay is always going to be a variation from the norm.
If someone said "that's so straight" (or insert something else like caucasian, suburban, etc.) as a way to say "that's so boring", the extent of my reaction would be a shrug. The reason I wouldn't be offended is because I consider those things to be positives or not have positive or negative values attached to them at all. If gays TRULY think being gay is positive or something to be proud of, then something some dumb pimply-faced teenager says shouldn't offend them since they know otherwise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cat1116
You mean I can't say "I'm going to Taco Bell" anymore ?
You can't say that either. A Mexican could become offended that you are insinuating that all Mexicans eat tacos and burritos.
And that was more insulting than "that's so gay" could ever be used in the sense of something being stupid. What would you like gay guys like me to do, then? See what I did there? I'm not going to stop "hijacking" a word that's been used in that sense since before I was born.
So using your logic, anyone can use any word to describe anything starting with the date of their birth right? That follows in the foot steps of if it feels good do it. Isn't that rather self centered, to use the date of your birth as a justification? Is the intelligence and creativity of the homosexual population such that it can't define a new term to describe themselves? What is wrong with "homosexual"? If the word is too long to say in conversations, then shorten it, or as I offered, define a new word. Language hasn't ceased to evolve you know, just some people's ability to do more than try to change what exists.
As for what you as a homosexual male are supposed to do, why are you asking me and not yourself? I could figure it out for you but then in typical fashion, the accusations would fly that somehow there is a prejudice in the word when in fact, I am neither for nor against homosexuals, you do what you want so long as you don't force it upon me, try to use it for gain where none should exist and basically live and let live.
My objection is to the in your face hijacking of a word so many people once used to describe something that belonged to all people, not just homosexuals. Get it? Everyone.
I find it rather amazing that the homosexual population, as vocal as it is about rights, equality for all and so on, then finds it necessary to deny others the use of the word "gay" to the extent that anyone uttering the word is automatically assumed to be referencing homosexuals or if not, somehow disparaging them. That is the epitome of what homosexuals complain about most often. In that respect, homosexuals wish to deny what they demand of others.
"Gay" meaning ridiculous or idiotic has been part of the slang dictionary since I was in college, and that was 35 years ago.
Some words have multiple meanings. Deal with it.
Funny thing, I was going to comment to geoking that he could simply use the word "idiot" to describe homosexuals since his concept of the proper use of words starts with the date of his birth. As I indicated, a prejudice would be implied by others even if the use was to only to make a point. Thanks for doing it for me.
As for the "slang dictionary" yet another excuse to do something, I see a pattern developing, something along the lines others would say was ridiculous or idiotic.
Since you insist however; why is the homosexual community so up in arms about younger people using the term "thats so gay"? Suddenly that statement you made about some words having multiple meanings doesn't apply, right? There we have it yet again, a self centered view that wishes to deny others the rights sought. The more you try to explain it, the worse it gets because it is wrong.
So in your own words and in reference to the original topic, when someone says "thats so gay" how about if you:
Never heard of this woman before but she makes some really valid points. We need to educate our kids as well as our communities how offensive some words can be.
She is a good speaker. The word is now used as an insult, it's use is often intended to offend. My problem with the use of the word as a slur is that the intimation is that being gay is a bad thing, and that I object to personally. The use of "gay", "retard", and "retarded" as insults shouldn't be tolerated in civilized society IMO, and my children know that.
When I hear that use of the word, I hear: "Gay people are inferior/less than nothing/pathetic" and "I'm not Gay. REALLY! See? I'm loudly proclaiming my contempt for them, so how could I be one?"
First time I heard that usage was by a guy in the opposite wing of our building, over whom the women in my office had their hearts aflutter. He was tall and blond from California, and came off as ever-so-innocent. He had a beautiful blonde girlfriend. His package was practically brushing his kneecap. I all but had to drag certain data entry personnel from the windows.
Slowly, though, it emerged that he was a psychopath (finally, his subtle destruction of his coworkers got him fired from the firm where he worked). He had worked as a prostitute in London. He cruised men's rooms and stole wallets. He loved telling the 'funny story' about the elderly nanny whom he and his siblings deliberately drove out of her mind and sent to a mental institution. And he was extremely homosexual (just not 'Gay'), but playing heterosexual, in order to get ahead in his profession. Playing the 'Young and in love' act ad nauseam. Last I heard, he'd moved to the South American country of his ancestors. I pity the poor peasants under him. Anyway, at parties, he'd say "Oh, that's so Gay...".
But what's even more disturbing is the extreme narcissism evident when someone feels entitled to control reality - to control the way others speak - to assert 'ownership', not just of speech, but of the narrative which belongs to us all. I know several crazy, controlling old women, who feel it is their prerogative to control what is said about anything which has ever happened within their families. And they like to control the sort of language used, and the topics of conversation.
I'm so sorry 'Mack Knife' cannot use 'Gay' in the way he once did (when was this, exactly? How old ARE you?). I'm so sorry it was hijacked from him. So sorry that a fifth (or a tenth) of English speakers feel entitled to apply an adjective to themselves without first consulting 'Mack Knife'.
But you know something? The word 'gay' has been around for a long time, and has ALWAYS referred to a mindset/manner/mood which effeminate homosexuals associate with their community. That mindset has been their defense, in the same way that certain self-parodying/ironic ways of dealing with the world have been the defense of other persecuted groups.
You know, there were Gay men in Elizabethan times. Shakespeare was probably one. It is my impression that within the range of usage for the word 'Gay', there has always been the oblique allusion to moods/manners/milieus one associates with effeminate homosexuals.
In describing themselves as 'Gay', effeminate homosexuals, were being accurate. 'Mack Knife', dear... does that not tell you a little something? Why, exactly, are you feeling deprived?
In first grade, rummaging through the garbage on my way home from school, I found, in front of the School Superintendent's house, a tattered book of fairytales, illustrated by Adrienne Segur. It's still my most prized possession: virtually all I took, of my old life, with me in my little suitcase, when I went off to college. As a kid, I'd sit in the woods and absorb those illustrations. The protagonists seemed always to be surrounded by little gnome-like helper creatures - holding mirrors, combing hair... Oh, here: I'll just link to an illustration of 'Dawn, the Golden Haired'. dawn the golden haired | Flickr - Photo Sharing! That, to me, is 'Gay'. I see no contradiction in effeminate homosexuals' fitting themselves within such a meaning. They could be the forest creatures holding up the hem of Dawn's gown. They could be Dawn, herself.
I don't think the word 'Gay' is misused by Gay People. And as someone with a sizable retinue of Gay helpers(my Ad Man and his minions, my Decorator and his minions, my Colorist, my Gardener, the Landscape Architect and his minions, the Rose Garden Man, the Chandelier Polisher, the Arborist...), I'm glad they have such a nice word. It's always been theirs, in my humble opinion.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 03-07-2013 at 11:51 AM..
never heard of this woman before but she makes some really valid points. We need to educate our kids as well as our communities how offensive some words can be.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
