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March 19, 2008
The de-gaying of 'gay'
Posted by: Chris
Me thinks the bullies of the world are protesting too much when they claim the word "gay" has been transformed into an innocuous insult that means "lame" or "stupid." On its face, it doesn't excuse using a word that describes a group of people as an insult. Would it be OK to use the names of other groups that way?: "That shirt is so Jewish!"
A new survey of schoolteachers in the U.K. confirms that "gay" is only one in a series of homophobic words that top the list of student insults. Here's the list of insults, according to the British Association of Teachers and Lecturers; the percentages indicate what proportion of teachers heard the particular word on a regular basis:
- Gay (83%)
- Bitch (59%)
- Slag (45%)
- Poof (29%)
- Batty boy (29%)
- Slut (26%)
- Queer (26%)
- Lezzie (24.8%)
- Homo (22%)
- Faggot (11%)
- Sissy (5%)
Of the top 11 insults, eight words (including Brit slang like poof and batty boy) are explicitly homophobic, and three words (bitch, slag and slut) suggest promiscuity and are usually used against girls.
And yet somehow the adult "experts" are buying into the claim by kids that gay has been 'de-gayed' and isn't anti-gay when hurled as an insult:
One reason for this increase in use could be because "gay" has partly lost its sexual connotations among young people, says slang lexicographer Tony Thorne. While still pejorative, for the majority of youngsters it has replaced words such as "lame".
"I have interviewed scores of school kids about this and they are always emphatic that it has nothing at all to do with hostility to homosexuals," says Mr Thorne, compiler of the Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. "It is nearly always used in contexts where sexual orientation and sexuality are completely irrelevant."
Whether or not the teens who use "gay" intend it to be homophobic, it's place at the top of a list of other popular insults -- almost all explicitly anti-gay -- suggests otherwise. So does the history of how it became an insult:
"In the early 19th Century it was used to refer to women who lived off immoral earnings," says Clive Upton, professor of Modern English Language at Leeds University. Around the 1970s it was claimed by the homosexual community as a descriptive term for their sexual orientation, now its most popular meaning. By the 1980s it was finding its way into schools as a playground insult.
"Every generation grows up with a whole lexicon of homosexual insults, in my day it was 'poofter' or 'bender'," adds Thorne. "They were used much more because they were considered more offensive than 'gay', which is more neutral."
I've noticed how the use of "gay" as an insult has come out of the playground and crept into pop culture, including films and TV shows. I hope our friends at Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, who've done a bang-up job the last several years consigning "fag" to the dustbin of unacceptable slurs, can reclaim the word gay from being further cheapened as an insult that is somehow not homophobic.
(Photo of bullying via BBC)
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Comments
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You got this one completely right, Chris. They are making excuses. Gay means gay.
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Do words possess power? Hell, yes! Look at the words in the Bible, all utter myth, but powerful myth nonetheless.
Social constructionism, at least the "weak" version, illustrates not only how we use words, but how words use us.
I note that gays have flaunted many of these words, including "faggot" (Larry Kramer) and "queer" (the academic theorists), but then become inflamed if others use them. Sort of the double standard that the "N" word generates.
In more sophisticated discourse, new terms are evolving into linguistic use: Homophilia (affinity for the same sex), androphilia (affinity for the same male sex), and gynophilia (affinity for the same female sex), all based on Greek roots and couplings (and appropriate endings).
No language is "neutral," but few words used by the gay community are "accurate." The above terms will ultimately correct the linguistic abuse.
The comments to this entry are closed.
Double T on Mar 19, 2008 2:29:40 PM:
Words. Sounds leaving your mouth, letters craved in stone.
Do "words" really possess power?
Words are no more the “vehicles” of communication. And yes, sometimes these “vehicles” are instruments of terror designed to hurt a target. No different than a car bomb. But can this bomb be disarmed? Can we shield ourselves from these “explosions”?
Yes we can. Perhaps not all of the time, but even some of the time is a victory.
I confess I hated the word QUEER. It used to make my skin crawl. Then the TV show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I was completely floored that they would use THAT WORD in the title of a TV Show. Shocked, Shocked, Shocked.
And now the word doesn’t bother me as much. I’ve even heard some straight people complain that the word is becoming “useless” because it is losing it’s affect.
Oh, what a pity.