[ SECRET POST #157 ]

[grayout.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #157 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Early for no reason, really.

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 76 secrets from Secret Submission Post #023.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, 0 not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 11th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: Here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

Like I said, where I live (which, I assure you, is very different from where you live), I've not encountered many that view it as highly offensive. Then again, if you're gay and you live around here you have far more to worry about than possibly harmful nonsense words.

Also, it may help to clarify that it's not really used as straight up malicious insult by me or any of my friends. Mostly a typical text message of "sup faggot" is as far as it gets.

And what the hell? Put that attitude back in the cupboard; I was just asking a question.

[moebot.livejournal.com]

I only mentioned I was Canadian because of the way you worded your question, which implied that I was in whatever country you're in, and I wasn't sure that it was the same one.

"Then again, if you're gay and you live around here you have far more to worry about than possibly harmful nonsense words."
So just because someone could possibly do something worse to me than call me a name means that... I should stop being offended by those names? Please clarify.

The word "faggot" doesn't offend me when used in particular contexts. I worked backstage at a drag show, and because it was an atmosphere of comradery and we were kind of like a big, gay family, people bandied the word around no problem. But there is a big difference between a use between friends that you know won't take offense, and to make a secret in a community that has shown itself to have many queer members, and use the word as an insult within that context.

My attitude was never in the cupboard to begin with.

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

That is what I am goddamn saying.

Here, (and from what I've garnered, most everywhere else), "faggot" and "fag" has passed from nasty insult to common slang, used in everything from standard gay camraderie to "Halo is for fags". Rarely have I ever heard it used as a deliberate insult to gay people, which is apparently in stark contrast to a good few people here. Of that, I was not aware, and I doubt the secretmaker was either.

Also, I live in Tennessee, about ten miles from the county that actually banned the presence of gay people for a while. The term is so common and there are so many OTHER, far nastier words hurled for actual malicious insult that faggot does not phase many in the gay community around here.

[moebot.livejournal.com]

So just because it's widespread and everyone uses it without thinking about what they're actually saying... it should be less offensive to me as a gay individual that a word that is synonymous with "gay" in many people's eyes can also be used interchangeably as a word for "idiot"?

Your points. They do not make sense.

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

Actually, exactly. A "geek" was originally a circus freak who bites off chicken heads, but the word metamorphosed over generations into something completely different. Clearly, if people are using it out of habit with no ill will toward gay people, then how the HELL is it offense TO gay people? It is just simple integration of new slang into the western repertoire.

I am not saying you and I have no right to be offended when someone legitimately means you emotional harm by using it. But common usage that has nothing to do at all with homosexuals does not warrant taking offense.

[moebot.livejournal.com]

Thanks for telling me what I can and can't be offended by!

[kinneas.livejournal.com]

Anytime!

[anna-chronism.livejournal.com]

Personally... I think I'm more offended when it's used thoughtlessly. I don't like the off-handedly insulting tones it carries. If you're going to be so horribly offensive, at least mean it.

[moebot.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say I'm more offended, but yes, it still is offensive :( This is my point. The fact that it's the first thing to the tongue of someone who wants to use an insult makes me sad in my crunchy-lezzy-soul. It means it's sort of... internalized. To use it and insist it isn't harmful. Really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Different cultures have different connotations attached to their words, but I really don't think, no matter how much kinneas insists otherwise, that the word is stigma-free in the Deep South. I find it really hard to believe.

[anna-chronism.livejournal.com]

If it isn't harmful, why is it being used in an insulting context?

I live in the South, too. It is tossed around a bit, not as much as "gay". I usually can't bring myself to object because whenever I hear it used it's not in a gay-friendly area.

Some areas are worse than others. My college is very homophobic, while the next nearest large university is well-known as gay-friendly.

Also, when I hear "Deep South" I think Alabama. Louisianna. Not Tennessee. But maybe that's just me.

[moebot.livejournal.com]

Mmhmm. I go to a very gay-friendly university so I don't hear "that's so gay"/"you're such a fag"/"stop being such a homo" as much as I used to (still a lot, but not as much), but boy, was it ever prevalent in high school and middle school. Pissed me right off. Still does.

Ah, sorry on that last point, I'm not American so I don't know how the different areas are referred to. kinneas used it that way first, so I assumed that's how it was seen.