(no subject)

[felicula]

"That's so gay..." I find this phrase offensive whenever I hear it. It tacitly assumes that gay is something negative or annoying. Worse, it acts as a dismissal. Being gay may be on national television. It’s OK to talk about sexuality openly. Does that mean that people opposed to homosexuality have come to take the concept of gay that much more flippantly? There are times I’ve brought it up with people using the phrase to my face, only to be told that I should know they don’t mean it "in that way." What the fuck? I am not going to curl up in obeisance and deny that I am offended simply because the use of this phrase has been trivialized.

Comments

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

***hug***

[lexelby.livejournal.com]

I once caught a friend of mine who's a lesbian using this phrase. I pointed out that it's pretty ridiculous to use a phrase like that that denigrates homosexuality, and I think she really hadn't thought about it before then. Yeesh.

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

She's not the only one on the spectrum of alternate sexuality to do that... Some people grow up with that phrase and never think twice. Yeesh indeed!

[lexelby.livejournal.com]

I think the exact phrase she used was "That's almost as gay as me!" which was just... wow.

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

Damn! Yeah... just... wow.

[lexelby.livejournal.com]

To her credit, she at least did see the error of her ways when I pointed it out to her and hasn't said anything like that since.

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

That's heartening.

[kolys.livejournal.com]

That one bugs me a lot too. Just once, I'd like to see someone turn around to one of those people and say "that's so black" or "that's so Jewish" in the same kind of dismissive tone, and see if they'd learn anything from the resulting shock.

[blackfelicula.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I ought to try that next time. Lately I've adopted the habit of coldly replying that, "Actually, I'm a bisexual, but I don't see how that has any bearing on the matter." It feels good to say it, in my perspective, but I think its taken as a TMI bomb. ***shrug***