That’s right. It’s gay. This chair is gay. This song is gay. This cup of water is gay. The fact I’m tired is gay. This blog post will probably be gay. You’re gay. Gay gay gay.
Gay, g-gay. Gay. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.
The point of this post is to express my opinion, prompted by a tweet I received from a person who presents his or her self as @betterwords,
This all started when I made a remark that still being awake at 4:30 in the morning was “gay”. Minutes later, I noticed I had a tweet in my “replies” tab, but not the friends tab (this happens very rarely). I looked, and was confronted with a tweet a fair few other twits will recognize if they’d used the dreaded word this morning:
| @Zombie_Plan gay is not a synonym for shitty |
Which prompted a small giggle fit (Yes, I giggle.) at the idea that someone would say that. So I tweeted informing that I, indeed, “lol’d”. Which brought on more replies, which led to a discussion. Because it’s so hard to hold in depth conversations through the micro-blogging website that is
Twitter, I felt the need to bring my opinion on the matter onto the blog. Here is a disjointed post of my argument, rewritten poorly for your to poke holes in. I suggest starting with all the letter o’s; they already have holes in them, just ASKING to be poked out. I advise printing out the post on paper before any hole-poking commences; poking holes in your screen may cause it to stop working.
*cough* As I was saying…
The concept that someone would find the word in the context it is used nowadays as derogatory towards homosexuals is to me, silly. The word has in modern culture adopted a third meaning, even if it isn’t “official” and pretty much just slang at the present time.
The word has evolved a lot over time, first having the meaning of being “happy” or “jolly”, and later being used to reference homosexuals and homosexuality. And just as the word did back then, it is evolving now to take on the new meaning of being, for lack of a better word, “shit”. But I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, nor do I believe it to really be, as @betterwords said, “hate speech”, even if to begin with it was intended as such.
For example, lets look at the picture to the right; the internet-famous photo of an American(?) man at a protest holding up a sign which reads “Homosexuals are GAY”. Everyone who sees this photo laughs, because it’s a reference to how uneducated some people can be. However, at the same time, it serves as proof that the word has indeed, moved on from simply meaning “homosexual”, or being used negatively against homosexuality. Well, maybe not in the photo, but if I say something is gay, I, much like a vast majority of the population who use the word, simply mean it as a descriptive word for “shit”. We make no connection to homosexuality in our minds when we use it, much the same as no-one makes a connection to “happy” when they say the word. If I said “faggot”, I don’t hear anyone say “a bunch of sticks tied together”, unless they’re trying to be an annoying dick. Mainly because that meaning has essentially, died, but also because of the context I used the word in. If I said to someone, “That man over there, is gay.” They would know I meant the man batted for the home team. However, if I said to that same person, “I hate waiting in lines, it’s gay.” The person would instantly recognize I simply meant it was crap and would rather have a brick thrown at my groin while someone slammed a shot-put into my left kidney repeatedly. While we recognize that the word also means homosexuality, the context in which it is used delegates how it is taken.
But James, that doesn’t mean that the word isn’t offensive to gays!
Well, as I said to @betterwords, I know plenty of gay people, and most are either okay with the use of the word (as in, don’t get offended), or even use it themselves.
Do people make the connection between the two other meanings of the word, and argue that the word suggests that all happy people are gay (or vice versa)? I don’t believe so.
As the definition becomes more popular and is adopted by more and more people, I can’t see it dying. Like stated, I don’t feel that it is offensive because it is used in a way that has grown almost completely seperate from the definition of homosexuality, as much as the meaning of “joy” has.
I do understand that, much like most of my opinions, it is exceptionally flawed, and lacking. As such I encourage any and all comments you have as a reader; I want to discuss this with anyone who will take the time to. I would do it on Twitter, but like both myself and @betterwords have discovered, the 140 character limit has its flaws.
