Thought of the morning

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1436633]

Comments

[andrewducker]

The first one definitely is (in my opinion) - but I'm really not sure about numbers 2 and 3. You're taking a sex act largely performed by gay men and using it as a swearword/negative term - which sounds like it _should_ be homophobic. But I've never heard anyone refer to it as such. Plus, of course, pretty much all kinds of sexual words are used for swearing, which evens the scales somewhat.

Oh, and for some reason "Bugger" is vastly less offensive than "Fuck" in the UK. Never really understood that one...

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

regarding Bugger, you're getting into etymology of it being a very old word, and why very old words (which are Anglo Saxon? I think? Someone else will know) aren't allowed because the Normans didn't like them. Bummer, if I recall correctly, is an American term and nothing at all to do with Buggery.

Gay in that context is just homophobic.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

AND ANOTHER THING why are you automatically associating anal sex with homosexuality? Don't the filthy breeders do it too?

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

It's quite apt reading this so soon after your aspergers post that talked about intention.

At no point would I intend any use of those terms to be homophobic, in the same way that saying "fuck" isn't supposed to associate an event with sex (especially since I'll usually shout the f-word out when I've hurt myself) ;)

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's different in the UK, but I don't believe the etymology of bummer has anything to do with anal sex, someone's butt, or homosexual behavior. There are all sorts of explanations for where it comes from, but what I'm most familiar is the idea that you get bummed out, it's a bummer. That it has something to do with that beaten down and blah, bad experience kinda thing you could associate with bums and the like.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

In the US at least, "bugger off" is simultaneously a Britishism and also very much related to gay sex. OTOH, it never occurred to me that bummer had any such connotation - I assumed it was like "bum deal", and came into common use when the term bum was commonly used to refer to homeless people.

Then again, I was also in my late 20s when I figured out that "to welsh on a bet" was anti-Welsh (a fact made more difficult, because in much (perhaps most) of the US, it's pronounced "Welch".

[aliiis.livejournal.com]

I think there is a difference between 'homophobic' per se, and inappropriate/potentially alienating or perpetuating negativity. Y/Y?

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

At school we would refer to two male friends as "bum chums" in a way that was, retrospectively, vaguely homophobic.

Since no-one is complaining about the construction of the poll

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

"Silly sod!"

[zz]

i never started using "gay" to mean bad until someone mentioned how much they hated people using it for that purpose, years ago. :>

i like to think i'm repurposing/reclaiming it, just like it was already repurposed from "cheerful/etc", and that the bad meaning and homosexual meaning don't have to be connected (any more).

but then half the time i just don't understand why people find specific things offensive, and the other half i actively enjoy pushing buttons (especially if i consider them irrational)... :)

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

It's all contextual and I've been in situations when "innocent" words have been used as coded insults.

That said "gay" used negatively is horribly offensive and upsets me if it happens around me in conversation. To me, and this is personal, it feels like someone saying the word "nigger". It's just vile.