BBC says "gay" is OK!

[Drake Tungsten]

Sorry man, but Apolyton isn't a very accurate reflection of the society at large. Lot less b*tching out in the real world, for one...

[notyoueither]

If Aggie, you, and MikeH told me I was full of **** on a given subject, I would hope I would have the wisdom to give serious pause.

[Drake Tungsten]

I don't think Aggie is gay. He just likes sheep...

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by notyoueither
What if every gay person to speak up says they are offended?

I'm not offended by its use- after all, the Welsh are saddled with being called after the Anglo-Saxon 'wealas'- strangers or foreigners.

Odd how the Germanic immigrants label the indigenous peoples the strangers...

It's a piece of contemporary slang- it's usage will either linger or not, depending on whether or not it serves a linguistic or cultural purpose. Given that current British youth culture has 'nang' used in some areas to mean 'cool' should indicate the high turnover of slang words.

What I find offensive is the specious reasoning displayed by a national and international broadcaster- that somehow the use of a term which may or may not be offensive to a minority is justified on the grounds of its usage in the rest of society or by other groups.

The B.B.C. would not countenance the use of the phrase 'to jew down', no matter which age group or demographic deemed it suitable.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by molly bloom

What I find offensive is the specious reasoning displayed by a national and international broadcaster- that somehow the use of a term which may or may not be offensive to a minority is justified on the grounds of its usage in the rest of society or by other groups.

The B.B.C. would not countenance the use of the phrase 'to jew down', no matter which age group or demographic deemed it suitable.

I think the BBC has got it badly wrong here, in some sort of embarrassing attempt to 'hang with the kids' - since when has playground slang been some kind of official barometer of the development of language?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

One, people such as Drake are simply obtuse and insensitive to other people's perspectives no matter how well reasoned arguments are presented for not using the word in such a manner.

I've yet to see a well-reasoned argument on why I should be offended by the use of a socially acceptable term that has little to no relation to homosexuality in its common usage.

As far I can see, Drake, there's been a whole thread full of well-reasoned argument, and you've chosen to ignore it all. If this usage isn't pejorative, with no relation to homosexuality, where has it come from?

{edit - typo}

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


I think the BBC has got it badly wrong here, in some sort of embarrassing attempt to 'hang with the kids' - since when has playground slang been some kind of official barometer of the development of language?

But apparently Chris Moyles' show is popular with 'ver yoof' .

So therein is the real justification....

[Provost Harrison]

I will withhold my opinion about Chris Moyles and Radio 1 anyway...this thread is blue enough under the MoO3 colour scheme

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by molly bloom
I'm not offended by its use- after all, the Welsh are saddled with being called after the Anglo-Saxon 'wealas'- strangers or foreigners.

Odd how the Germanic immigrants label the indigenous peoples the strangers...

IIRC, the Welsh aren't "native" to Wales, but migrated/invaded from what is today Scotland after the Saxon conquest had mostly been completed in the 6th (?) Century.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Lorizael
What if gays not such as yourself are not offended by the use of the word gay in that manner?

Some blacks use the word "******" among themselves, so I suppose following your "logic" that it would be okay for whites to use the word "******."

[MrFun]

Originally posted by notyoueither
100% so far in this thread, and I'm pretty sure Witt, Molly, and Asher couldn't agree on most things.

Thank god no one here is ignorant enough to claim that every gay person agrees with all other gays on all issues.

[General Ludd]

I couldn't help but think of this topic after coming across these quotes in the book Machete Season.

It is awkward to talk about hatred between Hutus and Tutsis, because words changed meaning after the killings. Before, we could fool around among ourselves and say we were going to kill them all, and the next moment we would join them to share some work or a bottle. Jokes and threats were mixed together. We no longer paid heed to what we said. We could toss around awful words without awful thoughts. The Tutsis did not even get very upset. I mean, they didn't draw apart because of those unfortunate discussions. Since then we have seen: those words brought on grave consequences.

Those gentlemen [radio broadcasters] were famous artists, great comic virtuosos. What they said was so cleverly put, and repeated so often, that we Tutsis as well, we found them funny to listen to. They were clamoring for the massacre of all the cockroaches, but in amusing ways. For us, the Tutsis, those witty words were hilarious. The songs urging all the Hutus to get together and wipe out the Tutsis - we laughed out loud at the jokes. Same thing for The Hutu Ten Commandments, which vowed to do us in. We got so used to these things that we didn't listen to the horrible threats anymore.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

Originally posted by molly bloom
I'm not offended by its use- after all, the Welsh are saddled with being called after the Anglo-Saxon 'wealas'- strangers or foreigners.

Odd how the Germanic immigrants label the indigenous peoples the strangers...

IIRC, the Welsh aren't "native" to Wales, but migrated/invaded from what is today Scotland after the Saxon conquest had mostly been completed in the 6th (?) Century.

No, not all the Welsh. I think you're referring to the Gododdin or Votadini who migrated to north Wales.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by MrFun
Some blacks use the word "******" among themselves, so I suppose following your "logic" that it would be okay for whites to use the word "******."

Though I doubt that I could bring myself to say "******" to a black man's face, if one of my black friends told me that I could, and even should use that term affectionately with him, would it be wrong to do so?

You can follow my "logic" to any end, if you twist it around enough. But try taking my logic to reasonable, rather than emotional, ends.