There seems to be a lot of memes lately where people use the term gay as a pejorative: much to the delight of others. Has Lemmy become more homophobic recently?
I posted this in the wrong community.
That being said… I’m gay. The word ‘gay’ meaning a bad thing has kind of come full circle in the gay community itself to an extent. A shocking amount of us will openly call something gay that sucks in a sort of jokingly reclaiming way.
I don’t mind being called gay; even in negative terms (I mean, aside from the fact they’re being mean). I hate the other one tho. The F word. It’s basically a death threat. I have been noticing a lot of furry art using that word recently and it’s not fun.
Oh I use that fucking constantly but with friends who also don’t give a shit. Not everyone has the same reaction to the word that I do. Someone did actually yell that in my face when actively trying to kill me. In a way to cut that anxiety, I just doubled down on using it whenever I wanted to as a reclaimation. It works for me. Not for everyone.
I get this - and I really hope* that changes in the same way (just like bitch or gay).
(*Bcs it’s being used, phonetically I really dislike the word.)It’s weird tho that that word lost the meaning of bundled sticks, while gay/gaily & bitch still retained their older usage.
Words are dumb but an invention we still need.
It actually didn’t lose the meaning of a bundle of sticks. That’s why I view it as a death threat. The bundle of sticks is kindling used to burn people at the stake. When someone calls you the F word, they are basically saying you should die by being burned alive.
Oh fuck.
I didn’t know that.Well, luckily you can continue on without knowing that because it’s a myth. @Kolanaki@pawb.social is not the only one who believes this, I did up until a couple of years ago, but it luckily isn’t true.
The F word does mean bundle of sticks, this is true. But it wasn’t applied to homosexuals due to being burnt at the stake. The term ‘Fslur-Gatherer’ was someone that collected the sticks to be bundled and were often women. The theory is that it was born out from gay men being referred to as feminine. The other option is that it was saying that someone was a burden because a bundle of sticks is awkward to carry. There isn’t any complete proof of that, but it’s the most logical step as to where it came from. However we can completely rule out the burning at the stake as to why the term was used for two main reasons.
First is that while homosexuals were burnt at the stake, that was in the middle ages and centuries removed from the slur being used to mean homosexuals. However the slur when it was initially coming into language never had any death penalty connotations to it. It was just a slur that was used derogatively but there isn’t any evidence that it was used in relation to death specifically. The second is that the term grew in popularity in the UK but England and the colonies had never used being burnt as the stake as a punishment for homosexuals.
It’s a convincing urban legend, but an urban legend nonetheless.
That was in interesting read, thx!
