Long Week
Yup. It's been a long, harrying week. I could rant about how I hate it when people take advantage of me, I could also rant about bitchy admin staff in school who keep trying to pass their job off to other people, hence making me run around all over the place. I'm miffed that my research credit may or may not be letter graded. I have till Tuesday to make a decision. Whatever choice I make, it means more work, though, either now or sometime in the future. I'm feeling my way towards a solution and hope to decide over the weekend.
Have been asked to go to NY over Spring Break. Then again, its probably because someone pulled out of the trip, and I've been tasked to keep someone company. The dynamics are horrible here. Two straight homophobes whom I don't like all that much, one gay person, and me. Argh. I almost feel like going out of sympathy, but as LN would put it, I'd be crazy to go.
Speaking of homophobia: what's with using "gay" as a degratory descriptor? It seems (in the contexts I hear it) to mean someone who's male but effeminate (and where does that put women who are effeminate? Or masculine? Should we christen the former "gay" too? And the latter as "butch"? Why should male homosexuals get singled out?). Or a person who's ineffectual, weak, compliant. Or a situation which is just plain dumb (ie: used as a synonym for "fucked up") How does this happen on a campus 20 minutes from the gay capital of the US? I find use of the word offensive, just as "nigger" is offensive, or "chink" or "kike" or any one of many words that reduce a group into a sub-human class. There's too little awareness, too much that the gay community lets past because it seems too much trouble to correct. Of course polite straight folk would never use "gay" like that in front of some0ne they know to be gay. And if you confronted a straight person about their feelings towards the gay community, they'd toe the party line and say there's nothing wrong with being homosexual. But if they don't somehow feel there's something wrong, why is the label degratory?
Yup. It's been a long, harrying week. I could rant about how I hate it when people take advantage of me, I could also rant about bitchy admin staff in school who keep trying to pass their job off to other people, hence making me run around all over the place. I'm miffed that my research credit may or may not be letter graded. I have till Tuesday to make a decision. Whatever choice I make, it means more work, though, either now or sometime in the future. I'm feeling my way towards a solution and hope to decide over the weekend.
Have been asked to go to NY over Spring Break. Then again, its probably because someone pulled out of the trip, and I've been tasked to keep someone company. The dynamics are horrible here. Two straight homophobes whom I don't like all that much, one gay person, and me. Argh. I almost feel like going out of sympathy, but as LN would put it, I'd be crazy to go.
Speaking of homophobia: what's with using "gay" as a degratory descriptor? It seems (in the contexts I hear it) to mean someone who's male but effeminate (and where does that put women who are effeminate? Or masculine? Should we christen the former "gay" too? And the latter as "butch"? Why should male homosexuals get singled out?). Or a person who's ineffectual, weak, compliant. Or a situation which is just plain dumb (ie: used as a synonym for "fucked up") How does this happen on a campus 20 minutes from the gay capital of the US? I find use of the word offensive, just as "nigger" is offensive, or "chink" or "kike" or any one of many words that reduce a group into a sub-human class. There's too little awareness, too much that the gay community lets past because it seems too much trouble to correct. Of course polite straight folk would never use "gay" like that in front of some0ne they know to be gay. And if you confronted a straight person about their feelings towards the gay community, they'd toe the party line and say there's nothing wrong with being homosexual. But if they don't somehow feel there's something wrong, why is the label degratory?
posted by Enforced Equanimity at 11:10 AM
2 Comments:
Yes, the "gay" thing annoys me too. My younger siblings would occaisionally use it when they were 10-12ish, and I'd confront them and they'd go "Geeze, it's just a word, I don't hate gay people or anything." So I'd tell them to be careful, since until they hit puberty they'd never be sure they weren't gay themselves, and it would break their little brains :) (They're much nicer now)
There's actually a guy I know who I'm 90% certain is gay (he outed himself to someone who told me despite it theoretically being a secret. Unless that person is lying. Either way I'm never telling them my secrets :)) who uses it as an insult. But closeted gay people are a special case I suppose..
It's been around for some time -- I first encountered it in that context in Singapore post-O levels. I think the best way to not let something like this get to you is just to ignore it. The majority of the gay population probably recognises that it's only the narrow-minded and small-hearted that continue to perpetuate the undesirable usage -- people whose opinions they frankly don't give a shit about. After all, people grow up (or so we hope), and the world can never be perfect.
If there's something you do want to do on a personal level: discriminate. Show them through your choices and actions that you do not support them. Alienate. Encourage mature, individual thought.
In the end, words are just words. Names are just names. They are entities in themselves, but they are not what things are.
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