GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
#237808 - 11/01/10 06:33 PM
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Seriously... language evolves... and this word has moved on. Get over it.
It started with 'happy', and so every Christmas ♪ Now we don our gay apparal ♪ ... which means what exactly?
True, for a short while in the late 1900's the word meant homosexual, that's true, but that's a very short period of time compared to the millenium during which the word referred to 'happy'.
But face it, nowadays, the word has moved on past it's late-1900's conotation... This is the 2000's baby! Now it is more synonymous with 'lame'. Bart Simpson got teased for being 'gay' because he was holding hands with a girl... remember?
If Vince Vaughn calls an electric car 'gay', I hardly think the car has amorous tendancies one way or another... it's an inanimate object... which apparently Vince's character thinks is gay, er, lame. Why the outrage? Are homosexuals that fond of electric cars they don't want to see the cars dissed?
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: GatKong]
#237810 - 11/01/10 08:01 PM
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Too late, South Park already had an episode about it.
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| Andrew |
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Girl Watcher
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1955 [nt] not that there's anything wrong with that
[Re: GatKong]
#237814 - 11/01/10 08:31 PM
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| Fever |
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Reformed Sk3n3 Quitter
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Reged: 09/21/03
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: GatKong]
#237815 - 11/01/10 09:16 PM
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> Seriously... language evolves... and this word has moved on. Get over it.
>
> It started with 'happy', and so every Christmas ♪ Now we don our gay apparal
> ♪ ... which means what exactly?
>
And don't forget that with the Flintstones:
"you'll have a yabba dabba doo time. A dabba doo time. You'll have a gay old time"
Apparently, according to the opening theme...
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| Pi |
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Allergic to life
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: GatKong]
#237818 - 11/01/10 10:12 PM
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> Seriously... language evolves... and this word has moved on. Get over it.
Exactly, language evolves, but not in ways we can expect, approve, or want. It just happens, sometimes because it's politically correct, other times because it's politically incorrect, lots of times due to ignorance, and a few ones due to certain facts "conspiracy theories" that I will not tell because I would have to kill all of you.
Wikipedia has a good article on the usage of the term and the several meanings and uses of it in the anglosphere. But, the point IMHO is not how do you use a particular word, but the meaning you want it to transmit. So the word itself is pretty much avoidable, exchangeable. I would worry much more about changing prejudices in people than how a particular word is used. Here in Jupiter we always laugh when some feminist association wants words which only have a male version to have both, or to even change them into a new, neutral form. Wow, what a milestone movement towards equality. I wouldn't make a feminist or anti-sexist association just for crap like that.
So it doesn't matter what word do you use for what. Homophobes will still use terms to refer to homosexuals as a despective word. Yes, the language is important for perception of reality, e.g. anyone who has read 1984 remembers the Ministry of Love, Ministry of Peace, and Ministry of Truth. And all that. But words don't change people. People change people. Meanings change people. Words are just transitional symbols for those meanings. So go to the end of the road. If you can climb hills, you can do more things!
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Wound up, can't sleep, can't do anything right, little honey / Oh, since I set my eyes on you. / I tell you the truth.
I can't get it right / Get it right / Since I met you...
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Re: 1955 [nt] not that there's anything wrong with that
[Re: Andrew]
#237820 - 11/01/10 10:27 PM
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"Hanna storm looking...."
Who? And you don't get see her close-up, nor very much of her. AND, goddamn, that wouldn't even be a fuckin snack for me.
Anyways, on topic: this is the same phenomenon as 'science fiction' (though you'd think maybe those folk would've been smarter and avoided it....).
People are fickle, and language is subject to whimsy. Use language however you want - just be prepared to back it up if you need....although, arguably, you probably have little physical harm to worry about from homosexual folk.
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Consider it high comedy....sincere tragedy....whatever...don't take it personally.
The Culture
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: GatKong]
#237821 - 11/01/10 11:04 PM
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Replace gay with awkward, perhaps. Anyway, relatively pointless discussion.
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| Moose |
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Don't make me assume my ultimate form!
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Reged: 05/03/04
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: Fever]
#237829 - 11/02/10 02:25 AM
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> > Seriously... language evolves... and this word has moved on. Get over it.
> >
> > It started with 'happy', and so every Christmas ♪ Now we don our gay apparal
> > ♪ ... which means what exactly?
> >
>
> And don't forget that with the Flintstones:
> "you'll have a yabba dabba doo time. A dabba doo time. You'll have a gay old time"
> Apparently, according to the opening theme...
A motel near where I lived was called the "Gay Vacationer". It was build in the 1950's / 60's when "gay" was another word for "happy". In the mid-late 1990's (IIRC), they changed the name to "Bay Vacationer" because "gay" had changed meaning (well over a decade before the name change).
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Moose
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: GatKong]
#237831 - 11/02/10 02:38 AM
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But it had another meaning before it meant happy. After the colonisation of the New World, tobacco came to England and smoking clubs opened. Men who spent their leisure time in these institutions, prefering the company of other men to that of their families became known as "gay men". They may or may not have actually been homosexuals, but the word gay was been associated with sausage fests from the beginning.
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| Tomu Breidah |
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No Problems, Only Solutions
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Re: Since when does the word 'Gay' refer to homosexuals?
[Re: Matty_]
#237845 - 11/02/10 02:55 PM
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