Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Monkeyleg on June 25, 2014, 09:23:44 PM
-
I've been wondering for quite some time about the use of the word "gay" in pop culture. I see it often used as a pejorative---"Twilight is so gay-- without repercussions. Isn't that use offensive to the LGBT community?
-
Well Twilight is gay, so I can't see how that's offensive.
-
There were some commercials out a year or so ago that really denigrated those that used "gay" in that fashion.
My understanding(based on the comments I've read in local news articles) is that gays don't like to be called gay.Or at the very least,it's like the word "ni66er",O.K. for use amongst those that would be the intended "victims",but not o.k. for those outside the group to use.I don't get it either.Either it's offensive or it's not.
I don't recall,in my lifetime,being able to use the word as a synonym for happy.Though I have read it that way in older books.
-
I don't typically like it in it's slang meaning or it being used habitually to discribe stuff in a derogatory fashion.
I rarely use it unless I'm actually talking about someone who is gay.
As a discriptor for behavior or items I tend to use the word "fruity", which is probably just as bad.
-
Queer was the pejorative of choice when I was young. Gay meant happy, though it was rarely used as it was an "old" word even then in the 50's to 70's. Fey was another word for queer if you were trying to be "inclusive". :P
-
Queer was the pejorative of choice when I was young. Gay meant happy, though it was rarely used as it was an "old" word even then in the 50's to 70's. Fey was another word for queer if you were trying to be "inclusive". :P
So 'foppish' might have been before your time?
-
The word "queer" wasn't much used by the early 70's in the areas I knew. "Gay" had become the acceptable term for homosexuals (who were pretty much only called "homosexuals" by sociologists or Billy Graham). I didn't know the word "gay" had been dropped from popular use as a term for homosexuals. Why, then, the phrases "gay marriage" or the abbreviation "LGBT"?
"Foppish" in the strictest sense meant overly concerned with clothes and appearance. I heard it used primarily by Brits to describe someone as effeminate.
-
"Foppish" in the strictest sense meant overly concerned with clothes and appearance. I heard it used primarily by Brits to describe someone as effeminate.
^^^ This. I've never considered "foppish" as an alternate for "gay.'
-
So 'foppish' might have been before your time?
Foppish was never gay or fey or queer or even fairy. It was a self-absorbed clotheshouse.
As for the OP's interogotory - it has pretty much always been that whatever we called "them" (regardless of which "them" it was) seemed to piss "them" off which then resulted in "them" picking a term supposedly not derogotory and wanting to be called that term. Between the 1940s and the 1980s it seemed that there was a race to come up with a new descriptive as soon as the then-current one was accepted and picked up in general use. I think that stopped mostly because they ran out of terms/names.
What amazes and amuses me is how the LBGTxxxxxx (I can't remember all the rest of the initials) community has forced inclusiveness on groups that used to not want anything to do with each other - to the point of fights that put Sharks vs. Jets look like tiddlywinks contests.
Until one of "them" tells me which term they prefer I pick one based on their overall behavior. Unless they want to be called LBGTxxxxxx - mostly because they cannot be all of those so they either pick one or I will.
stay safe.
-
I think that the word "gay" has evolved into two words, sort of like how it use to mean happy, then as a way to describe a homosexual. But unlike before where the new word took over the old word now it has split into to separate words. Now it is a word to describe a homosexual, and as a way to say that something is bad. When people started using it as a way to say something is bad they were using it like, 'being gay is bad so by calling this gay I'm showing how bad it is.', but now it has separated from that to just calling something bad. It's sort of like how the word "*expletive deleted*ck" has so many meanings. It seems that today if people want to insult a homosexual they call them a "fag", and to put emphasis "fagget"
-
Actually, the spelling is "*Not nice word for gay men*". I think a fagget is a female fag. ;)
-
Growing up (70's and 80's) the term used was '*Not nice word for gay men*'. I never heard 'gay' until college.
-
Usage differences could be both geographical and time related. As far as derogatory use, "queer" and "homo" were used extensively when I was growing up in the 70s. In Junior High and High School, they were pretty much tossed around among the guys the same way as you would say "dummy" or "dufus". "*Not nice word for gay men*" was the more derogatory term, I guess when you really wanted to cut somebody down. I remember in High School , one guy used to think he was clever by calling people a "bundle of sticks" when in the classroom to avoid getting in trouble.
If "gay" was used at all, I recall it being what homosexual people wanted to be called (not that I recall any big gay movement stuff, at least in my neck of the woods, during that time). I never remember it being perceived as derogatory at the time, unlike its apparent place now. As a kid I certainly remember some of the older adults using "gay" in its original meaning, but very rarely. I also hear "that's so gay" thrown out a lot by younger people, even by inclusive progressives, and have no idea why it seems to be okay sometimes and not okay at other times.
-
What's with all the tinfoil hat smiley faces?
-
What's with all the tinfoil hat smiley faces?
Protection from the "gay-rays".
-
What's with all the tinfoil hat smiley faces?
My guess is someone is playing with the swear filter to filter out the word "f a g g o t" Because that's what I'm spelling here: [tinfoil]
-
My guess is someone is playing with the swear filter to filter out the word "f a g g o t" Because that's what I'm spelling here: [tinfoil]
Yeah, we have some odd words on the naughty language filter. Like *expletive deleted*it. As in a variant transliteration of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam
that has no "a" and an added "i" and "t" and "e."
I guess someone gets a wild hair and adds some word to the list. Maybe we can have an all-inclusive list of words that might offend someone, somewhere? We can pretty much just stick with "a," "the," "some," and "and."
-
Pelosi...
Yep. Wildly inadequate list. =|
-
^^ :laugh:
Weird. Never seen it use the tinfoil hat smiley, always as *expletive deleted* for naughty words.
-
^^ :laugh:
Weird. Never seen it use the tinfoil hat smiley, always as *expletive deleted* for naughty words.
I think you can customize it.
-
Hmmm, that's rather odd.
The code for Mr. Reynolds Wrap is [ tinfoil ] (minus the spaces).
But if one types f a g g o t as one word you get *Not nice word for gay men*. <---- I actually typed it with the spaces removed.
However, if you type one of the 7+ dirty words you can't say on APS you get *expletive deleted*ck. <----actual dirty word typed in post.
I shall have to deleve deeper into the depths of APS to see with the issue is.
-
I was thinking that in the 80's "Gay" wasn't really considered offensive, it just was. As dirty mouth kids, queer, fag, and homo were the words of choice. I don't recall gay being considered bad anymore than actually being homosexual was to us. The homosexual activists are a very brittle bunch and seem to take offense to just about anything.
-
Ahhh, it was in the list of 34 dirty words you can't say on APS. So it's been changed to something else.
-
Ahhh, it was in the list of 34 dirty words you can't say on APS. So it's been changed to something else.
You can't post them in the open, so how do we know what we can't say?
-
A foot note reminder on the eighties?
Remember GRID?Gay Related Immune Deficiancy?
My teenage wanker self used homo and faget.In retrospect,I believe that gay meant someone dangerously deviant at the time.
My sister dated a kid my age whose older brother was a stewardess that died of AIDS related whatever before 1985."Gay" certainly was a corrupt happy back then.
Great,now I'm going to think on just how shitty the eighties/high school was. =(
-
“Gay” as a pejorative seems to be more of a teen/high school thing, which is seeping more into the mainstream. “Dude, that is so gay…” Although, online, I have seen this particular usage spelled as “ghey” with the appropriate shift in pronunciation. “Ghe..”
I inadvertently caused much gleeful hilarity in class when I suggested that my students needed to “ratchet up” their efforts…
Oooops…
“Ratchet” or “ratchet girl” seems to connote “ghetto” or “ho” or Miley Cyrus’ new twerking persona.
Sigh…
I shouldn’t complain. When I was in high school, students dissolved into fits of adolescent giggles when the chemistry teacher said that if we didn’t follow his instructions, he would “whack off” points.
Hee hee hee hee hee…
-
I shouldn’t complain. When I was in high school, students dissolved into fits of adolescent giggles when the chemistry teacher said that if we didn’t follow his instructions, he would “whack off” points.
Hee hee hee hee hee…
Once in high school we got the debate teacher to admit she was a "Master Debater" :rofl:
-
IIRC, *Not nice word for gay men* used to be a slang term for cigarette in the UK. I wonder if that has changed?
-
It's also possible to throw another *Not nice word for gay men* on the fire . . . .
-
*Not nice word for gay men*
I liked the tinfoil hat guy better. [tinfoil]
-
I wonder how the word became a derogatory term in the first place.
From thefreedictionary.com:
*Not nice word for gay men* (ˈfæɡət) or fagot
n
1. a bundle of sticks or twigs, esp when bound together and used as fuel
2. (Metallurgy) a bundle of iron bars, esp a box formed by four pieces of wrought iron and filled with scrap to be forged into wrought iron
3. (Cookery) a ball of chopped meat, usually pork liver, bound with herbs and bread and eaten fried
4. a bundle of anything
vb (tr)
5. to collect into a bundle or bundles
6. (Knitting & Sewing) needlework to do faggoting on (a garment, piece of cloth, etc)
[C14: from Old French, perhaps from Greek phakelos bundle]
-
I think the word "gay" for homosexuals started to come into common use sometime in the late 60's - at least, that's when I remember some columnists debating the use of a word meaning "happy" for a group that seemed singularly unhappy at the time. (An alternate suggestion to the word "gay" was "morose.")
The most "polite" term was used by Johnny Carson . . . "A little light in the loafers." ;)
-
^^^ I buy my loafer lightener and mincing gel by the barrel!
-
Here's (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2112/how-did-*Not nice word for gay men*-get-to-mean-male-homosexual) an interesting article on the etymology of the word that can't be said.
-
Here's (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2112/how-did-*Not nice word for gay men*-get-to-mean-male-homosexual) an interesting article on the etymology of the word that can't be said.
The URI you submitted has disallowed characters.
The posted link took me here.^^
-
The URI you submitted has disallowed characters.
The posted link took me here.^^
New link, http://tinyurl.com/yjcv87w
It's because the original had the word *Not nice word for gay men* in it so it changed the url.
-
A foot note reminder on the eighties?
Remember GRID?Gay Related Immune Deficiancy?
I don't remember it being called that. I do remember reading articles in Science News about this new disease that seemed oddly prevalent in male homosexuals, involving immune system problems. Early '80s.
-
I wonder how the word became a derogatory term in the first place.
From thefreedictionary.com:
*Not nice word for gay men* (ˈfæɡət) or fagot
n
1. a bundle of sticks or twigs, esp when bound together and used as fuel
2. (Metallurgy) a bundle of iron bars, esp a box formed by four pieces of wrought iron and filled with scrap to be forged into wrought iron
3. (Cookery) a ball of chopped meat, usually pork liver, bound with herbs and bread and eaten fried
4. a bundle of anything
vb (tr)
5. to collect into a bundle or bundles
6. (Knitting & Sewing) needlework to do faggoting on (a garment, piece of cloth, etc)
[C14: from Old French, perhaps from Greek phakelos bundle]
It's simple: people used to burn homosexuals because they are made out of wood.