He used a lot of words, like nouns, and verbs.
I’ve been thinking about a post Tyler made a few days ago - On “Homophobia” - about the word “homophobia” not meaning what it actually says. It was a nice little post, and I don’t think it was particularly intended to provoke thought, however that didn’t stop me. English is a very fluid language: We have plenty of phrases that don’t mean what they actually say. “Bathroom” for instance. Bathrooms rarely contain baths anymore (even more rarely with the prominence of showers). Actually, when people ask “Where’s the bathroom?”, more often than not they’re referring to the toilet. Obviously this is a matter of irrational shame, something I could write paragraphs about another time.
With this in mind, doesn’t that make it hypocritical of me to be so adamantly against this shift towards “fag” as a synonym for “idiot”? To deny the linguistic fluidity that I just tried to champion? I don’t think so. The other day I linked “faggot” and “nigger”, a tie I believe is highly appropriate. The two phrases are steeped in similar history, and while gays may never have been enslaved (just stoned or gassed to death), they face the second-class citizenry that black people do as well (though we have yet to see an openly gay President). The people who use “fag” or “gay” interchangeably with “idiot” or “shit” but gasp when others call black people “niggers” are filthy hypocrites, and disgust me. Sure, “gay” used to mean happy. This is not an adequate defence. In fact, I find it amusing that a term that originally meant “happy” is not used as a pejorative. That’s where linguistic fluidity has gotten us.
The sooner we come to agreement that Gay Is Not A Synonym For Shit and “nigger” isn’t a synonym for someone who got “hella tanned” on the weekend, the better off we’ll be as a society. Hey, maybe we can even move on to solving far more important issues, like allowing gays the basic right to choose to marry.
(Photo stolen via Flickr)
