Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 06-26-2009, 06:00 AM   #41 (permalink)
warrior bodhisattva
 
Baraka_Guru's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: East-central Canada
I think a lot of people also severely underestimate the power of language. "It's just semantics" is one of the most ironic phrases I can think of.

As an example, the word war means one thing to me, a Canadian, and another thing completely to a Somalian, Angolan, or Rwandan.
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
Baraka_Guru is offline  
Old 06-26-2009, 07:02 AM   #42 (permalink)
part of the problem
 
squeeeb's Avatar
 
Location: hic et ubique
Quote:
Originally Posted by cellophanedeity View Post
I agree whole heartedly with Charlatan.

Even without intent to offend, the casual connection between "gay" and "not cool" is offensive and ignorant. I'm kind of gay, and I'm awesome.
you are awesome, but not because you are gay. being gay doesn't make you any more awesome than not being gay.
__________________
onward to mayhem!
squeeeb is offline  
Old 06-26-2009, 08:55 AM   #43 (permalink)
Addict
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlatan View Post
The simple meaning of the words is that something is being disparaged by its association with being homosexual (i.e. gay).
I dunno. Usually people who use these phrases are young and tend to say things through peer pressure without understanding the full context of it's meaning or the context of which they are applying it to. No doubt the association is there but the overall meaning or intent is secondary in directing it at homosexuals or negative connotations thereof. Maybe.Who knows
percy is offline  
Old 06-26-2009, 09:03 AM   #44 (permalink)
Heliotrope
 
cellophanedeity's Avatar
 
Location: A warm room
Quote:
Originally Posted by percy View Post
I dunno. Usually people who use these phrases are young and tend to say things through peer pressure without understanding the full context of it's meaning or the context of which they are applying it to. No doubt the association is there but the overall meaning or intent is secondary in directing it at homosexuals or negative connotations thereof. Maybe.Who knows
And that's exactly why the ads that are in the first post of this discussion are needed!
__________________
who am I to refuse the universe?
-Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers
cellophanedeity is offline  
Old 06-26-2009, 09:05 AM   #45 (permalink)
part of the problem
 
squeeeb's Avatar
 
Location: hic et ubique
over in the racial slurs thread we veered off a bit, so i'm bringing it over here.

cellophanediety said something about dykes, i said i wanna be a dyke,

she said "See, the word "dyke" can now have positive meaning too! "

and i said "when did it have a negative meaning? really, i'm 40 fucking years old, all my life i thought dyke just meant lesbian."

she said "I've just heard too many men use the word "dyke" in an intensely negative way. "

and that brought up an interesting point to me.

they were using a word that wasn't necessarily negative in an intensely negative way. enough to where some people think dyke can have a negative meaning.

so...what if i started using the word "Tall" in an intensely negative way? i hated that movie, it was so tall. that food sucked, it was tall. dude, quit being so tall about it. those pants look totally tall on you, i wouldn't wear them.

would suddenly the tall people get offended? and if they did get offended, would anyone care, or would most people say "oh cmon, it has nothing to do with your height"?
__________________
onward to mayhem!
squeeeb is offline  
Old 06-28-2009, 02:14 AM   #46 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
It's beyond dispute that the term gay is frequently used to desribe homosexual people.

And it is beyond dispute (in my view) that homosexuality is a stigmatized er... sexual orientation. And it is a minority group.

On this basis, it seems wrong to me to use the term "that is so gay" in general public speech. Regardless of intent. Apart from which, it sounds rather lazy.
Nimetic is offline  
Old 06-28-2009, 07:52 AM   #47 (permalink)
Deliberately unfocused
 
grumpyolddude's Avatar
 
Location: Amazon.com and CDBaby
Words have meanings, within context. Ultimately, isn't it the responsibility of the speaker or writer to qualify their audience before making their statement?

In individual conversation, vocabularies can expand and definitions agreed upon. The larger the audience, the smaller the available vocabulary. Assume that the current slang or local colloquial usage will be applied to your message.

If a 90 years old woman uses "that's gay" to describe the present you brought her, she probably likes it and approves. If a middle school teacher said that about a gift from her students, she's likely to get her tires slashed.

---------- Post added at 11:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 AM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by squeeeb View Post
so...what if i started using the word "Tall" in an intensely negative way? i hated that movie, it was so tall. that food sucked, it was tall. dude, quit being so tall about it. those pants look totally tall on you, i wouldn't wear them.

would suddenly the tall people get offended? and if they did get offended, would anyone care, or would most people say "oh cmon, it has nothing to do with your height"?
Say it loud! "I'm Tall and proud!"
__________________
"Regret can be a harder pill to swallow than failure .With failure you at least know you gave it a chance..." David Howard
grumpyolddude is offline  
 

Tags
gay


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:51 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360