"Thats so gay" commercial. Discuss.

[jsn0x]

For those of you who haven't seen it on TV- http://youtu.be/sWS0GVOQPs0

How do you feel about this? Personally, I find it ridiculous that people take offense to it, and the commercial actually made me upset. My own mother is a lesbian and we both use the word jokingly.

A word's meanings is defined by the person who interpret it, right? If that's so, then why can't people wrap their head around the fact that people use this word jokingly with no malicious intent.

I don't go around saying "dang, that's so gay" because I hate gay people and think they are just as lame/bad as the thing I'm describing as gay.

I'm interested in seeing what fellow INTP's think about this type of thing.

 

[psion]

I'm gay and I think the commercial is funny. The slang doesn't particularly bother me either, it is just a minor annoyance.

I guess I'm neutral, I couldn't care less.

 

[Dapper Dan]

Words have various meanings based on context. Most people can see the intent behind the words and judge them accordingly. Also, meanings change over time. It's not the kind of thing you can just change with a PSA.

 

[snafupants]

There's something low class about overusing words like "gay" and "retarded" and the like. Often the users tend to be bigoted and rather crude.

Psion, just because you're actually homosexual doesn't necessarily mean that your opinion is more valid than any heterosexual counterpart's. Would everyone employ the word "nigger" provided a black man condoned the use of the word? Perhaps not.

And to Dapper Dan, where does the PSA indicate that its intent is to totally eradicate colloquial use of that slang word? The message seemed more above awareness.

I dislike the righteousness of the correctors in the PSAs but, since the use of the word offends/hurts some people, its use should perhaps be put out to pasture.

The term definitely has a negative connotation. If something was awesome, you'd be less apt to hear some bloke calling that particular thing gay, right?

 

[Agent Intellect]

Calling people gay is a really nigger thing to do. I wish those crybaby kikes would just shut their spic mouths.

 

[shoeless]

shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?

but really though, i can't contribute much, because i do use the term "gay" in the way described (probably as a result of growing up with three asshole brothers) and have yet to run into somebody actually offended by it. especially not a gay person. i find most gay people i know like to use the word ironically.

it's no big deal, words are words and everyone is always gonna call you names so you might as well just buck up. right?

 

[Agent Intellect]

I suppose I can follow up my last post with a little more explanation lest my lame (gay?) attempt at irony get lost on people.

Why is the word 'gay' being singled out here? Why not ask to make all taboo words (generally racial, homophobic, and sexist slurs) un-taboo? What makes 'gay' less offensive than 'nigger' or 'spic' or 'chink' or 'cunt' or any other slur?

I guess to me, when I was in high school during the late nineties, using 'gay' or 'queer' to call things lame and calling people 'fag' 'faggot' or 'homo' became a huge part of the lexicon. Being young and exposed to that played a huge part in making me a bit of a homophobe during that time (I got over it) and I've seen the same thing happen to my fifteen year old cousin right now. I don't think these words can (or should) be removed from the lexicon (I don't think any word should be removed), but raising awareness that the words do have a social taboo and that they can be hurtful to some (or even to just the general attitude) might help to curb the influence they can have on young, naive minds (like apparently mine was).

 

[Amagi82]

How do you feel about this? Personally, I find it ridiculous that people take offense to it, and the commercial actually made me upset. My own mother is a lesbian and we both use the word jokingly.

A word's meanings is defined by the person who interpret it, right? If that's so, then why can't people wrap their head around the fact that people use this word jokingly with no malicious intent.

I don't go around saying "dang, that's so gay" because I hate gay people and think they are just as lame/bad as the thing I'm describing as gay.

I agree. Context and intent

This one wasn't quite as offensive and obnoxious as the campaign to stop people using the word "retarded" as an insult- that one is just plain stupid.

 

[Jennywocky]

There's something low class about overusing words like "gay" and "retarded" and the like. Often the users tend to be bigoted and rather crude.

Psion, just because you're actually homosexual doesn't necessarily mean that your opinion is more valid than any heterosexual counterpart's. Would everyone employ the word "nigger" provided a black man condoned the use of the word? Perhaps not.

And to Dapper Dan, where does the PSA indicate that its intent is to totally eradicate colloquial use of that slang word? The message seemed more above awareness.

I dislike the righteousness of the correctors in the PSAs but, since the use of the word offends/hurts some people, its use should perhaps be put out to pasture.

The term definitely has a negative connotation. If something was awesome, you'd be less apt to hear some bloke calling that particular thing gay, right?

That kind of sums up my thoughts as well.

I actually am not bothered by that particular word, and one of my kids identifies as gay and would use the term, and I think it's a humorous way to say things. (Because, come on -- as an example, sorority girls in cute little matching outfits and singing clubhouse songs IS so "gay" so to speak!... the word actually sometimes seems appropriate.)

However, since it typically is like firing a loaded pistol into a crowd nowadays and I don't care to get caught up in lots of drama, I typically avoid it using it that way.

Why not ask to make all taboo words (generally racial, homophobic, and sexist slurs) un-taboo? What makes 'gay' less offensive than 'nigger' or 'spic' or 'chink' or 'cunt' or any other slur?

Probably for the same reason as the example I offered above. "Gay" can be used as an adjective in a way that most of those words can't be, and it's not really talking about "gay" people directly, it's just talking about something being goofy for being so overproduced to the point of being fussy. But I admit it's not really cut and dried.

 

[Hadoblado]

I frequently use the term, and have offended only one person with it ever (that I know of). It was pretty awkward, but it did little to change my habit. The best counter example I can think of is the word 'bastard'. Bastard is still used crudely to cause offense, but actually being a bastard holds very few negative connotations (at least where I live). Jesus was a bastard, I'm a bastard, half my friends are bastards, but I know not one that would ever consider themselves victims.

 

[ObliviousGenius]

There's something low class about overusing words like "gay" and "retarded" and the like. Often the users tend to be bigoted and rather crude.

Psion, just because you're actually homosexual doesn't necessarily mean that your opinion is more valid than any heterosexual counterpart's. Would everyone employ the word "nigger" provided a black man condoned the use of the word? Perhaps not.

And to Dapper Dan, where does the PSA indicate that its intent is to totally eradicate colloquial use of that slang word? The message seemed more above awareness.

I dislike the righteousness of the correctors in the PSAs but, since the use of the word offends/hurts some people, its use should perhaps be put out to pasture.

The term definitely has a negative connotation. If something was awesome, you'd be less apt to hear some bloke calling that particular thing gay, right?

I disagree. First of all "gay" and "nigger" is a really unequal comparison because of the history of the word "nigger". The word itself has only one connotation, "gay" has several. "Nigga" is a different story and I don't care who says it.

I wouldn't say that people who use the word gay are crude. I say it all the time to express my displeasure with a situation or object. How this relates to actual homosexuals I don't understand. If a gay person gets upset about that then they'd be upset with the word itself. None of these taboo terms mean anything by themselves. It's how they're being used in certain connotations.

I imagine some gay people find this issue laughable. Not all gays are hypersensitive about everything. They don't need commercials to raise awareness of how much they are tired of ignorant slang users offending them.

 

[Jennywocky]

I frequently use the term, and have offended only one person with it ever (that I know of). It was pretty awkward, but it did little to change my habit. The best counter example I can think of is the word 'bastard'. Bastard is still used crudely to cause offense, but actually being a bastard holds very few negative connotations (at least where I live). Jesus was a bastard, I'm a bastard, half my friends are bastards, but I know not one that would ever consider themselves victims.

yeah, 'bastard' isn't really equivalent to 'gay' in the US; it's become kind of a throwaway term that means nothing (compared to maye 50-100 when it had more teeth, since you were describiling someone's parentage; today it's equivalent to "mean jerkhead" at worst and shrugged off).

The US at least is still fighting the "gay culture wars," unfortunately, and so the term is very laden with the public mocking of those who are gender or preference variant, and the whole issue of same-sex unions being treated as inferior to opposite-sex unions. Also, it's still common for gays to be victimized for being gay -- socially, physically, professionally, etc. People nowadays aren't beaten and sexually violated and murdered and have their bodies tossed out on the street for being bastards; but gay people know that fear.

To summate, "bastard" has become a kind of a socially inert word (and I'd even say the word "bitch" is moving in that direction), while "gay" is still fairly volatile.

 

[BigApplePi]

These words are expressions of feelings. Use them in like company and you get support. Use them in alien company and you get what you provoke.

 

[Melkor]

Yeah...

I was listening to a radio 4 documentary recently (I doubt that means anything to most of you, but uh... Some of British radio is actually kinda highbrow compared to radio in other parts of the world, especially America. So trust me on the validity of this!) and it discussed the use of potentially offensive words in certain situations. Some of those present argued that it was the intention that truly mattered, that the word itself was less important than the manner in which someone says a word. There was a panel of sorts with a lady with a facial deformity and another with a degenerative disorder etc. They drew on their own experience to provide examples and opinions, and what I really got from it was this:
They were insulted by the word on the basis by which they:

A- interpreted it at that particular time in relation to the surroundings/ latest actions.
B-assessed the person and their overall intention/demeanour.

I can relate to this quite well. When some English bloke looks down his nose at me when he hears my accent and says 'OH. You're Irish...' and when a lively American friend punches me on the arm and yells something like 'Shut it you drunken Irishman', I'm inclined to beam at the latter and snarl at the former.

The same group word, but used in a totally different word, and quite subjective to my opinions and views on those individuals.

One woman in particular, though she sounded very intelligent and kind, was trying to remove the use of the word 'retard' from the English language, and was lobbying throughout the land to abolish its use.

Which I find frankly quite ridiculous, particulary since her main target group was young adults and children. I highly suspect that putting pressure on people to stop using a word loosely associated with one particular group will only heighten their negative inclinations towards said group.

I don't think we should start removing words in a frenzy of polticial corectitude...

(Oh. And I don't imagine I do it often, but I have called things 'gay' with a negative connotation before. It's just another piece of communication, I don't think I was even thinking of homosexuality at the time. (For a change))

 

[cerebedlam]

This is the 'middle school' definition of the word gay, which has no relation whatsoever to the concept of 'homosexuality'...And, it's certainly not going anywhere, anytime soon...We used that word when I was there, they use it at present, and definitely will well into the future...The word is synonymous with being 'uncool' or 'immature'...And, middle school kids think pretty much everything outside their small world of experience is not cool...

 

[downsowf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7hQN4Amaeg


Take-away from the commercial: If you say "that's so gay," Wanda Sykes will interrupt your lunch and harass you. For me, the less Wanda Sykes in my life, the better my life. Result: omit ever saying "that's so gay" to avoid Wanda Sykes. Commercial very effective.

 

[inner_mind]

Honestly, I do find it offensive, when it is used to indicate something is bad. Mostly because unfortunately there still exists a lot of homophobia.
Whereas 'bastard' is not in the slighest bit offensive, I would use it in any company. Because although technically it means child out of wedlock in a bad way, no-one actually attributes a stigma to children born out of wedlock anymore.
My 2 cents worth.

 

[Thurlor]

First off, I absolutely love that commercial. I wish we had that stuff here in Australia.

Personally I think nothing should be taboo due to causing offense. Who determines what is universally offensive?

My issue with the use of the word 'gay' in this context is that the word can be replaced with another word that is less ambiguous. If you mean silly say silly, if you mean quirky say quirky. I don't even like the term gay in reference to homosexuals as gay traditionally means happy or merry.