Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlatan
It's not a matter of whether or not the user of "that's so gay" intends to be disparaging of homosexuals. The simple meaning of the words is that something is being disparaged by its association with being homosexual (i.e. gay).
It's generally frowned upon for people to equate those who are cheap with the money with being Jewish. For example, Carl doesn't want to help pay for a round of beers. His friend says, "Carl, don't be so Jewish."
I can remember this being a common thing people would say when I was growing up. We don't say it so much anymore. We don't use it because we are not so ignorant as to see that the association between Jews and being cheap is at best rude and at worst horribly offensive.
Using "gay" as a pejorative is a similar thing.
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i see your point, and i can almost kind of agree with you.
except there is only one meaning for Jewish, it is used to denote a specific group. "gay" however, has different meanings. it meant something else entirely before a group of homosexuals claimed it as their own. they took the word and changed its meaning, which is cool, that's the beauty of english.
and, for what it's worth, when i say something is "gay" i don't mean bad, inferior, stupid. i just mean its not cool.