That's so...gay? A blog for my English class

[Demon Wolf Kyra]

My English class had to do a "How To Guide" blog as an assignment so I decided to do a smartass/sarcastic "How Not To" guide about the use of the phrase "That's so gay" since I can't stand when people use it. I wish I could have gone on but we had a limit to how long it could be otherwise I could have provided better examples and explanations then again the people in my class are not the brightest either so I think this simplified version could work amazingly for them xD

That’s so…gay?

We have many different phrases these days. Some of them are cool; others are just plain stupid.
“That’s so gay” would be one of the stupid ones.
Why? you may ask, well…
First off whenever you say this you could be offending someone around you. When you use the word “gay” in place of a word like “stupid” or “lame” you are taking WHO someone IS (something they also can’t even help) and using it as an insult.
Now how would you feel if your name or any other part of your identity was used the same way?
Would it feel good?
Why would you want to make someone feel that who they are is bad or wrong?
So don’t get surprised or mad if someone stands up and tells you to knock it off.
The other reason it is a very horrible and foolish idea to use this phrase is because you are using the word completely WRONG.
Seriously!
Let’s refresh our memories here.
Gay has two meanings now. Happy and homosexual.
So I hope you all realize that when you say “That’s so gay” you are calling something or someone happy or homosexual.
Now think back to a time when you used this phrase and insert these words instead. You will realize that when considering the actual meaning of the word it does not make any sense what so ever.
If you still don’t understand this then here is an example:
Let’s use an imaginary guy named Max.
Max decides to go against our society’s expectation of how a man should be and does something that others see as more feminine (completely going against society’s definition of masculinity) and buys a pink bike because he likes it better.
Realistically there is nothing wrong with this.
However his “friend” (not so much now) says to him “Jeeze man, that bike is so gay”.
FREEZE!
Now Max’s feeling are hurt and his so-called friend just made a complete idiot of himself by using the word so incorrectly.
Now let’s go back here and replace the word.
Max’s friend really said “Jeeze man, that bike is so happy” or “Jeeze man that bike is so homosexual”.
However a bike can’t be happy or have a sexual preference as it is an inanimate object.
So when calling an inanimate object or action “gay” or using this phrase directed at one, does it make any sense?
No, no it does not.
As far as directing this phrase at people it will also never make sense because, again, you are saying that person is happy or homosexual. Neither of which are bad things therefore do not work as insults.
So stop making a fool of yourself and any further butchering of the English language.
When you dislike something use “stupid” or “boring”, you know, something that will actually make sense.
So is it ever a good, smart idea to say “That’s so gay”?
No.
Is there ever a time when you could use it and have it make sense?
No.
Still have questions? Still don’t get it? We need to talk then.
Now enjoy Condescending Wonka
““That’s so gay”? Tell me more about how inanimate object have sexual preferences”.

-shrugs- I was pretty pleased with how it came out.  

[wingardium leviosah]

I like this
^^  

[Chris ex Machina]

Love it and it sets the record straight.  

[Brieyxo123]

theres some i cant deal with that is one of them ... i also cant deal with thats retarted like seriously people people cant help who they are they were born that way and you cant do anything to change that but you can help them  

[Katana left the site]

Witty and powerful. I HATE it when people say that.
"But dude, that's, like, SO straight."
Question: would you find that more favorable? I would not.  

[Taeryyn]

Brieyxo123

theres some i cant deal with that is one of them ... i also cant deal with thats retarted like seriously people people cant help who they are they were born that way and you cant do anything to change that but you can help them

You know, using the word "retarded" like that isn't any better than calling things "gay". I know that a lot of people use it habitually, without really thinking about it, but it's definitely a habit worth breaking. 3nodding  

[Keakealani]

You know, I know you mean well, but people in the non-neurotypical and disabilities community are not usually thrilled about words like "lame", either. The original meaning is something closer to "crippled" (which is also a pretty problematic word), and both can be just as offensive with regards to Ableism in the community and value judgements about people who have disabilities. I would rather support people using neutral insults like "ridiculous", "silly", or "bogus" than loaded words that are designed to discriminate against certain groups of people, whether that's a result of disability or sexual orientation.

Edit: and here is a good compilation of words to use that are less loaded and problematic.  

[Sea Thrift]

Demon Wolf Kyra

The other reason it is a very horrible and foolish idea to use this phrase is because you are using the word completely WRONG.

I disagree, and I'll begin to explain why I disagree with you, and where I think your logic contradicts you.

Quote:

Seriously!
Let’s refresh our memories here.
Gay has two meanings now. Happy and homosexual.
So I hope you all realize that when you say “That’s so gay” you are calling something or someone happy or homosexual.

Gay has three meanings now, according to different dictionaries: happy, homosexual, and stupid. But get this: the original meaning of gay, many centuries ago, meant fast, or sudden. And at one point, gay defined someone who was promiscuous, or a prostitute. Gay was also used to call brothels gay houses. It didn't mean the house was full of homosexuals, but that it was full of prostitutes who were more than likely not having a lot of lesbian sex for money, you know? Gay meaning homosexual didn't pop up until the early twentieth century.

Quote:

You will realize that when considering the actual meaning of the word it does not make any sense what so ever.

Well, in a world where usage didn't dictate the meaning of words, then yes. Unfortunately, as long as there is language, gay will most likely always have that slang definition of meaning stupid. In fact, gay was at one time a slang for homosexual and wasn't "correct" usage. In many ways, it still is. There's nothing inherently wrong with slang words, though. What makes a word offensive is its context, and also prejudice by which the word is being used to express.

Quote:

Now Max’s feeling are hurt and his so-called friend just made a complete idiot of himself by using the word so incorrectly.

I have to address this. Deviating a bit from usage and slang, I have to tell you how condescending you're being here. How can you expect to overcome prejudice against the LGBT community when you're being condescending towards those that you're hoping to educate with this assignment? I think you're defeating your own good intentions by making yourself the enemy. Worse yet, you're claiming the definition of a word doesn't exist, when it clearly does on the grounds of general usage in English and for the fact that this definition is in some dictionaries. This doesn't work to your benefit.

Quote:

because, again, you are saying that person is happy or homosexual. Neither of which are bad things therefore do not work as insults.

That's if you alone dictate English, when you don't. In a better world, yes—gay wouldn't be an insult.

But you are condoning the truth that gay IS being used as slang for stupid by millions of people, and that this slang definition has been implemented into our dictionaries as a part of standard English. I don't think you did research on this topic, and it's transparent that you're coming from a very personal perspective. By condoning truth, you are missing the point of how English functions, and you are focusing on the wrong mark within your assignment. Your goal is to end prejudice against homosexuals, but you're not going to do that that by claiming that the definition of a word has never existed, when it blatantly does, and has for some time now.

Quote:

So stop making a fool of yourself and any further butchering of the English language.

Ah, you kind of backed yourself into a corner here and contradicted your own logic. Your logic leaned on using correct definitions, but then you think that adopting new definitions for words is the butchering of the English language. You would be extremely incorrect. English has changed and grown for many, many years through the different usages of words. Some of the words that you use in everyday language did not have the same definition or connotation they did centuries ago. In fact, you wouldn't be able to write or speak the version of English you do now if it weren't for the "butchering" of Germanic language. Wouldn't that make you an idiot because you don't use gay for its original meaning? No! You use gay correctly, because frequent and wide usage for many decades has dictated so! And who knows: in the far off future, gay may not be used to define a homosexual person anymore. It's absolutely possible.

You know who really butchered the English language? Shakespeare. He actually made new connotations of words for us. He even made up words—insults actually. Profanity. He was very good at it.

It was him who gave you the positive connotation of angel when you wanted to let someone know how benevolent you thought they were, or how beautiful you think they are. Thank him for butchering and bending English! And many others before and after him!

Quote:

When you dislike something use “stupid” or “boring”, you know, something that will actually make sense.

Context, more than often, dictates the usage of a word that has several meanings. Take the word f**. You go to the UK and ask someone for a f**, they may either say "No, I'm out," or "Yeah, here you go," and hand you a cigarette. If you call someone a f** in the UK, they will easily realize you are calling them a homosexual in a very insulting manner. Or, a stupid person in a very insulting manner. Yes, f** can also mean stupid.

Interestingly enough, there are a lot of gay people who use f** within their own communities, like it's an endearing label. Much like many black people now use n****r within their own community. Why, when it had, and still does, carried such negative connotation? How can it have both a negative AND positive connotation after hundreds of years of slavery and hatred? Usage and context.

It's a more complicated issue than you may think it is.

Quote:

So is it ever a good, smart idea to say “That’s so gay”?
No.

Well, if something is stupid, I'll probably say so. But the real question is this: is it a smart idea to use a word that in our progressive society, still hasn't exactly separated its connotation of homosexual and stupid within certain usages? Probably not. How is this eliminated? By speaking out against the REAL cause: prejudice. Once you accomplish that, people will begin to become more aware of how they use the word gay. At least those who care will be more aware. *shrug*

Quote:

Is there ever a time when you could use it and have it make sense?
No.

Yes! However, it doesn't put one in a very good light.

Quote:

Now enjoy Condescending Wonka
““That’s so gay”? Tell me more about how inanimate object have sexual preferences”.

I guess that would be your tl;dr part of the assignment. wink Which I'm not going to put in my post; you're either going to read it or not.

Don't get me wrong, though—I understand your intentions with this, and I made it clear that I did. I just think the way you went about it was good for one specific kind of audience, and not a larger, more diverse one—the audience that you should be going for, but that means you need to be more aware of how you word things, and you need to increase your own understanding of the concept you're trying to present.

I don't like it when people say things like "you're so gay, dude." I don't like it one bit, because like I had said, for many people, the separation between homosexual and stupid is still muddled. That's due to prejudice. But I digress, lest I repeat myself. This is my opinion, and you're free to take it all with a grain of salt. yum_bacon Or bacon.

I hope that you can see that fluidity of language is natural, not inherently bad (lest driven by malevolent intentions), and can actually be quite fascinating. And in this case, with your intentions, you are in essence asking that we butcher a part of the English language by getting people to stop using gay with such negative connotations, by removing one of its current definitions. Progress and fluidity!  

[Keakealani]

s o a p n u t

Agree completely. I got siderailed by the ableism in the original post, and neglected to make a critical reading of the whole post, but I think this is an important point.

The argument isn't whether or not the word is the right word to use in the situation - the argument is whether or not that enforces social discrimination. It's a correct use of the word, because native speakers use it in that sense. The reason it's problematic is because it reinforces inappropriate and offensive beliefs that being homosexual (and by extension, any sort of non-cishet, in many cases) is wrong, lesser, mentally deficient, etc. The problem is that it reinforces prejudice, not that it's the wrong word to use. If people can't develop enough empathy to see that language should not enforce a narrow view of privilege and disprivilege based on sexual orientation (or other differences in people like race, gender, etc.) then that is their problem.

I also agree wholeheartedly that being condescending (especially when you're wrong) is not a helpful way of framing the argument. It's easy to get frustrated, but nobody who participates in problematic is going to be convinced just by you being frustrated - they will hopefully be convinced when they understand that the way they use language reinforces negative social tropes that actively harm people. The reason we should or shouldn't do anything honestly boils down to how harmful it is, not how much it hurts someone else's sensibilities (after all, being gay hurts plenty of people's sensibilities, and I don't give a s**t about them because they aren't being harmed by someone else being gay).

Anyway, yeah. I would encourage OP to rethink their arguments because there are plenty of very valid arguments that don't boil down to linguistic prescriptivism for why to avoid slurs and problematic language usage.  

[Demon Wolf Kyra]

This was a fun project we did a long time ago in my class.
The point was to show mostly how calling someone or something gay isn't even an insult.
It was meant to be sarcastic and condescending because it was more entertaining for me to write it that way, if I really wanted to debate this with someone I would never address it this way. And we were supposed to use rhetorical devices and logical fallacies since we were reviewing them during this time. You actually got points knocked off for not having them.
And now the essay we are working on right now cannot have any of them what so ever.  

[Sea Thrift]

Demon Wolf Kyra

Ah, that's interesting. However, I still would have to heavily disagree with you on your general argument there for all the reasons I gave above.

I suppose I should be relieved, though; the arguments you gave happen all too often, IRL and on these forum sites. Good luck on your upcoming assignment!  

[Demon Wolf Kyra]

s o a p n u t

Demon Wolf Kyra

Ah, that's interesting. However, I still would have to heavily disagree with you on your general argument there for all the reasons I gave above.

I suppose I should be relieved, though; the arguments you gave happen all too often, IRL and on these forum sites. Good luck on your upcoming assignment!

Oh thank you, and sorry, I forgot to add that...guess it was kind of important..><" I just posted this for entertainment but thank you I do agree with what you have said. I was actually going to do research on the word gay and include the history but I didn't have time and we were limited with the length of the blog to half a page xp it was actually extremely hard to keep it that length without going over too much  

[Sea Thrift]

Demon Wolf Kyra

It was certainly entertaining... though for me, probably in a much more vexing manner, lol. (I can be a bit earnest at times.) But you did succeed in making it sound like you were being a smartass. Sarcastic... not so much. I didn't detect any kind of irony in it, lest I missed something—a good possibility.

I think playing with arguments like this is good practice for when you have to defend what you actually believe. I'm just glad it wasn't serious. x3  

[Demon Wolf Kyra]

s o a p n u t

Demon Wolf Kyra

It was certainly entertaining... though for me, probably in a much more vexing manner, lol. (I can be a bit earnest at times.) But you did succeed in making it sound like you were being a smartass. Sarcastic... not so much. I didn't detect any kind of irony in it, lest I missed something—a good possibility.

I think playing with arguments like this is good practice for when you have to defend what you actually believe. I'm just glad it wasn't serious. x3

Thank you ^^
*btw I love your avi emotion_kirakira
sorry that was random ><  

[Sea Thrift]

Demon Wolf Kyra

Thank you ^^
*btw I love your avi emotion_kirakira
sorry that was random ><

You are very welcome. And thanks. ♥