"That's So Gay"- What you are really saying (generations, gay people)

[2nd trick op]

Originally Posted by weltschmerz

My son and his friends hang out at my house quite a bit. "That's so gay" means nothing more than it's lame.
There's no homophobia involved. My kid grew up surrounded by gays and his best friend's dad was a transsexual. The kids used to hand him his makeup while he taught them about jet engines.
He wouldn't dream of using it in the derogatory sense. Languages change over time.
Word.

Yep! When i was an adolescent (and a late-blooming one at that) in the early Sixties, "q-u-e-e-r" was a word applied to those who didn't buy into the Junior High School equivalent of "pop wisdom"; now some segments of the gay community identify with its frankness.

So the "angle" is mostly semantic; but there is, I suspect, a desire to allow he totally-irreconcilable (primitive Fundamentalists and the like) to trip over their own ignorance -- just as the Politically Correct term for people of color seems to change every decade or so.

[nurider2002]

Originally Posted by Mack Knife

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.

Guess what? You can still use the word "gay" to describe someone who is happy, jovial, etc. Perhaps you are unaware but, in the English language, there are plenty of words that have multiple meanings. I believe the context on the sentence dictates the meaning of the word. In other words, get over it.

[Tilt11]

Originally Posted by nurider2002

Guess what? You can still use the word "gay" to describe someone who is happy, jovial, etc. Perhaps you are unaware but, in the English language, there are plenty of words that have multiple meanings. I believe the context on the sentence dictates the meaning of the word. In other words, get over it.

I dont think anyone has used gay to describe happy or jovial, in a serious manner anyways, since the Flinstones. At one time or another, when homosexuals thought it best to use it to describe themselves, is probably when it turned to mean some of its more negative un-written definitions.

[livefreenow]

Reading this thread has made me feel quite gay.

[OhioRules]

What I wanna know is why being offended gives someone special rights?

You're offended? So what? Tell your mama, 'cause I don't care.

I give up my right to speech because you don't like the vocabulary I use? lols.

Being offended does not make one special or protected. It makes one emotionally immature.

People are offended all the time. Grow up and be a man about it. If I'm offended then so be it. Doesn't mean I need to make a federal case out of it.

America needs to man up.

Stop acting like fruitcakes.

P.S. This doesn't mean I go around offending people on purpose. Nor should I. That is inappropo. But I aint gonna watch every little thing I do and say becasue someone else is a cry baby.

[LauraC]

I saw the ad on TV. They said, "That's so gay" means whatever they are talking about (teen girls) think it's bad. As a really out-of-it old person I thought the expression meant colorful/outrageous. In other words, you would say, "That's so gay," for a hot pink dress but not for a baby pink dress.

[Okipower120190]

I bet all the people who are saying " deal with it" or " grow some thick skin" and "man up" wouldn't say the same thing if who they were was used as an insult

[Roaddog]

people need to grow up and stop being offended so easily

[Manuel de Vol]

Originally Posted by geoking66

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.

Nor should you have to.

But then again, if you can hijack a word and give it an alternative meaning (or rather if you can go along with the previous hijacking) you can hardly complain if somebody else comes along and hijacks the same word again.

Teenage vocabulary (and it seems it's mostly teenagers who use the phrase "that's so gay!" is often markedly different from that of the previous generation. Learn to live with it.

I once had a student tell me: "I won't be in class this afternoon. I'm going home. I'm well ill."
Well ill? Which?

[elan]

My Carmen Miranda costume is really gay and I'm darn proud of it (especially the headpiece).