In our society, homophobic words have become the one-size-fits-all put-down for teens. For example gay, which used to mean happy, is now not only a derogative term for homosexuals but also the equivalent of stupid. I’m sure that you all can think of plenty of other words like this one. As a student in a public high school, I hear this word, as well as plenty of others, used over and over and over again each day.
As a friend of several people who are gay, bisexual or lesbian, I take offense when these words are used in ways that make my friends seem like bad people. It is just another way that we, as a society, are allowing people to be being stereotyped and hate to be spread, as I spoke of in my “The Pressure Effect: Why?” blog.
I plan on keeping track of all of the homophobic terms that I hear throughout my day for the next 7 days. I will then post my findings for each day here on ProgressiveU, with one or two example of the context and maybe why I found it offensive. I know that this experiment has been done before, but I have never seen the results be analyzed and posted anywhere where they are easily accessible.
In the end, I hope to show how rude and disgusting these types of phrases are and hopefully help in the effort to eliminate them from the modern vocabulary.
Please comment and tell me what you think.
-H.S.R.
Really, I think that when you cause a fuss over someone using "gay" in a derogatory and otherwise non-homophobic manner, you just draw more negative attention to homosexuality. "Lame," a previously-used description for basically the same thing you're discussing, used to mean crippled, and it basically worked itself out of the general lexicon, as "gay" most likely will as well.
I definitely understand where you are coming from. I would like to have addressed more than just homophobic terms, but I felt that that would just have been too general. Also, I feel more passionate about combating homophobic terms.
And, though these types of words usually do act as fads, I don’t think we should simply wait for them to go out of style so-to-speak. There must be something that can be done to get rid of them. By posting my findings, I’m hoping to get people to think about what can be done and hopefully come up with some solutions.
I for one don't call things gay. Yes I do have gay friends, but it isn't because of that. It is because objects and ideas don't have a sexual orientation. When you call something gay you just don't seem that intelligent, come up with something original.
Kudos. I totally agree.