The 4-minute post

[dotinthesky]

I'm unprepared for today's cold spell, my lips are chapped, and I'm wondering why perfectly intelligent breeders straight people insist on using the word gay in a derogatory form:

Did you see her outfit last night? She looked sooooo gay!

Oh my God! Backstreet Boys are soooo gay!

I was, like, on the phone to my friend Chad and he said the gayest thing!


We are not amused. By "we", I mean gay people who have grown up knowing that something was slightly different about them, who had effeminate voices (like myself) and had to put up with other kids calling them names. Why do you want to squash us like that? In any case, "gay" means happy - so why try to bastardize the word and make it negative?

Are you one of those people that reads Vice magazine because you are soooo cool, and you feel soooooo post-modern and above caring? The people who I've seen using the word "gay" in a pejorative form are people who have gay friends. Maybe everyone is so sophisticated and beyond caring. Maybe I'm guilty too because I've made mix tapes for my friends with Patti Smith's song "Rock and Roll Nigger".

Should you and I not care about words anymore?

Comments

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. But going back to my original point, using the word "gay" for a negative meaning - then turning around and using it to describe a friend - seems to be very contradictory and juvenile. It's perhaps not even offensive, but just plain lame. Perhaps it's just too easy a word to use for putting down others or things. If someone calls you a slut, they aren't being ambiguous about it - same if they call you a bastard, a whore. I guess I'm not really upset with people using the word gay like that because most of my livejournal friends, for example, do so. I was merely curious because I wanted to know if it was a conscious decision to link the word gay (which represents homosexuals) with being negative... and by the looks of it, I think people do it without much thought on that.

[4q.livejournal.com]

:( well that sucks, but don't be hurt by it. It's unintended I suppose. I am sorry

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

No! Don't worry... I guess my post sounds a bit huffy-and-puffy, but I'm really not that much concerned about it. It irritates me a bit because when I read the word gay I think "oh that's me!" then I'm slightly let down if I notice that the word is being used to describe J-Lo's latest movie.

:)

[4q.livejournal.com]

awwww that's so cute! I totally understand what you are saying. I think this is something that is personal, and peoples feelings and the way they percieve things is going to factor into it.

I dont' know I feel that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.

I just feel the need to state again that I love you Ollie

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Aww.. I ♥ you too.

:)