Are you offended by the usage of "gay" as a synonym for "stupid"?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

WHAT

[Sewer]

Yes, people who do that are retarded.

Seriously though? Not really.

[Gustaf]

Yes, a lot. I'm surprised so much people still find it cool to talk that way.

Though it's norwhere as bas as refering to heterosexuals as "straight". This is outright unacceptable.

Really? I hear gay people use the word straight all the time.

Still, the idea behind such a word is pretty clear.

I'm actually really confused by this. I use 'straight' all the time. It actually has a negative connotation?

I guess the non-straights are crooked or twisted or something? I don't think etymology is all that important in determining whether words are offensive or not.

Yeah, that was the point. But no, it's not an etymological issue considering the word straight is AFAIK still used in english with its original meaning.

No, it's not. It's used to mean heterosexual, not implying that gay people are weird. Otherwise, gay people obviously wouldn't use it.

A word can change meaning even when referring to the same thing - that's how slurs usually work. A word like negroe is offensive not because of its etymological roots but because of how it ended up being used.

Can "straight" not be used anymore in contemporary English to mean what it's supposed to mean ?

There isn't really such a thing as "supposed to mean" in language. But many words have more than one meaning. That doesn't really say much.

Ernest, then that's a difference between Swedish and English. The basic point still stands. You could apply it to the n-word as far as I know as well.

[angus]

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It means that I voted no.

Although, to be honest, I usually hear the word gay used as a synonym for homosexual, and not as a synonym for stupid.  Or I hear it as a synonym for happy.  In my mind, "Don we now our gay apparel" puts me in mind of wearing festive, bright colors.  Santa Claus hats.  Not dunce caps.  But maybe you and I listen to different songs.

Still, I can't say that the use of the word "gay" to mean things other than "happy" strikes me as particularly offensive.  Chacun a son langue, n'est-ce pas?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

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WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THESE GIFS FROM OMFG

[angus]

Oh, I've discovered animated Hitler gifs.  How cool is that?

Yeah, I'm probably going to be very annoying for the next few days.




(there are some that I was tempted to post in the masturbation thread, but those would surely yield infraction points--a huge wad of them, if you know what I mean.  I'll leave you to search for yourself.)

[MaxQue]

Sa langue, angus, not son langue.

Apparently, someone decided than a tongue was female.

[Mechaman]

Not at all, since it's very effective at identifying people who are hopeless idiots. It does me a favor.

Quote of the day.

[Mechaman]

I don't lose sleep over it, but I can see how somebody could be offended by it.  It would be like saying the pawn store guys "Jewed" you out of money or something like that.  Or saying that somebody "goes Irish" on illegal substances.

So yeah, on a rhetorical level I understand how some people could find that offensive.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I tend to use ethnicities as verbs and adjectives, but in a stereotyped sense. I know it's wrong, but it's funny every once and a while. For instance, when I need a ride somewhere and I have to ask a friend, I say "Can I Jew a ride out of you?" or when I see someone treating someone else unfairly, I say that they're going American on them. Or when someone is just completely irrelevant to anything I do, I call them Canadian.

OH GOD PLEASE DON'T INFRACT ME PLEASE I AM BUT A MERE TEENAGER

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes, a lot. I'm surprised so much people still find it cool to talk that way.

Though it's norwhere as bas as refering to heterosexuals as "straight". This is outright unacceptable.

Really? I hear gay people use the word straight all the time.

Still, the idea behind such a word is pretty clear.

I'm actually really confused by this. I use 'straight' all the time. It actually has a negative connotation?

I guess the non-straights are crooked or twisted or something? I don't think etymology is all that important in determining whether words are offensive or not.

Yeah, that was the point. But no, it's not an etymological issue considering the word straight is AFAIK still used in english with its original meaning.

No, it's not. It's used to mean heterosexual, not implying that gay people are weird. Otherwise, gay people obviously wouldn't use it.

A word can change meaning even when referring to the same thing - that's how slurs usually work. A word like negroe is offensive not because of its etymological roots but because of how it ended up being used.

Can "straight" not be used anymore in contemporary English to mean what it's supposed to mean ?

There isn't really such a thing as "supposed to mean" in language. But many words have more than one meaning. That doesn't really say much.

*yawn* OK, I'll reformulate.

Can you say, in English, in 2012, "a straight line" ?

If the answer is yes, your point doesn't stand.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

[Antonio the Sixth]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

I meant that I find the use of a word like "straight" to qualify heterosexuals to be pretty disparaging toward homosexuals, by suggesting that heterosexuality is the straight practice and that others are deviant.

[angus]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

"straight" has definitely changed in my lifetime.  Well, it has always meant the shortest distance between two ordered pairs on a Cartesian co-ordinate system grid, technically, but in the vernacular it always meant "doesn't get high" or "isn't cool about it" back in the 80s.  Like, oh, dude, there's my brother, he's straight.  Put out that spliff and open a window quick!  Nowadays, straight more often means heterosexual. 

Gay, on the other hand, has always meant either happy (as in "Don we now our gay apparel") or homosexual (as in, my brother's gay, so stop trying to set him up with your sister.)  It can also mean effeminate (as in, dude, that French press is so gay, why don't you just buy a coffee maker?)  Maybe that's the way the kids are using the term nowadays to mean stupid.  Then again, what does stupid really mean?  Either way, I wouldn't worry too much if the word gay is being used to mean homosexual or stupid.  This is slang.  You know, the Brits objected to Curious George back in the 1940s, when H. A. Rey first published it in New York, so he didn't catch on in the UK the way he did in the US.  Why?  Because, of course, the word "curious" was 1940s UK slang for homosexual (or effeminate).  These slang phrases are just what they are.  Don't loose too much sleep over it.

[MaxQue]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

I meant that I find the use of a word like "straight" to qualify heterosexuals to be pretty disparaging toward homosexuals, by suggesting that heterosexuality is the straight practice and that others are deviant.

I think you are being "more catholic than the Pope" here. No gay person seems to be annoyed by that use of straight, yet, you seem outraged by it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

I meant that I find the use of a word like "straight" to qualify heterosexuals to be pretty disparaging toward homosexuals, by suggesting that heterosexuality is the straight practice and that others are deviant.

I think you are being "more catholic than the Pope" here. No gay person seems to be annoyed by that use of straight, yet, you seem outraged by it.

Maybe that's because I'm not a native English speaker... Anyways, if "droit" were used that way in French I'd be pretty outraged by such a word, I think.

[angus]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

I meant that I find the use of a word like "straight" to qualify heterosexuals to be pretty disparaging toward homosexuals, by suggesting that heterosexuality is the straight practice and that others are deviant.

I think you are being "more catholic than the Pope" here. No gay person seems to be annoyed by that use of straight, yet, you seem outraged by it.

Maybe that's because I'm not a native English speaker... Anyways, if "droit" were used that way in French I'd be pretty outraged by such a word, I think.

How surprising, given that it's opposite, gauche, has always been used as a synonym for general awkwardness. 

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

I think Antonio was trying to say that gay people don't use "straight" the way straight people use "gay"--as a synonym for stupid. I personally have never heard a gay person say "Ugh I hate work...it's so straight!" or "it's so hetero!"

(because we all know gay people have more class than straight people, fact.)

I meant that I find the use of a word like "straight" to qualify heterosexuals to be pretty disparaging toward homosexuals, by suggesting that heterosexuality is the straight practice and that others are deviant.

I think you are being "more catholic than the Pope" here. No gay person seems to be annoyed by that use of straight, yet, you seem outraged by it.

Maybe that's because I'm not a native English speaker... Anyways, if "droit" were used that way in French I'd be pretty outraged by such a word, I think.

How surprising, given that it's opposite, gauche, has always been used as a synonym for general awkwardness. 

That's right, but the sense of droit can vary according to the context, and here it's indeed used like 'straight', not like 'right', as in right/left hands, the contrary would be tordu (twisted) here.

I understand Antonio's meaning, and as a French speaker it always sounded odd to me too, and made me wonder about some eventual underlying things, but well, I wouldn't know enough about the culture that produced it to bring a judgment. In France you mainly have hétéro, hétérosexuel, and, homo-homosexuels, the world 'gay' is more and more taking over here too though, which I find annoying.

That wouldn't be an isolated case, and not reserved to the English language, on the same line than Antonio's reasoning, one can also wonder why the direction of the 'not left hand' has been called droit, which also mean right, Right, or straight, would mean left-handed people are twisted?! Discrimination (or well, jealousy) toward us!

[Antonio the Sixth]

the world 'gay' is more and more taking over here too though, which I find annoying.

Ditto. Especially because it's causing the rapid exctinction of the very nice word "gai" (cheerful, joyful).

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It's even made worse when you think in political terms.

[Hash]

I'm sadly guilty of using the word gay in such a sense, though largely on a natural, off-the-cuff expression of anger or frustration. I can't restrain it, like I can't restrain a lot of things I say in such cases. I know it's bad, but I'm a bad person when I'm angry and I use lots of words which I shouldn't use. Thankfully, I'm correcting my bad habits by preferring the use of 'Christophe Colomb' in those contexts. There certainly is no moral issue in using that genocidal maniac's name in fits of rage or anger.

Using the word 'gay' is that context is still bad and all, but I find people who go on a crusade about it to be annoying. My high school did that, and it was self-defeating (the associated crusade against `f****t`was understandable, though). I doubt that most people who use 'gay' in that context mean intentional harm or express homophobia. I know I don't gay. Gay people are great people, and are in most cases nicer and more classy than heteros.