Do you consider the word "gay" to be offensive?

[IronFist]

I never realized how much I use this word until this year when we got a gay RA on our floor. Now I have to stop myself from saying "dude, that's gay!" Or "What the hell? My computer is so gay!" Sometimes people slip up, however, and say things like "whatever, you're gay!" to someone when he's in the room. At first it was awkward, but now I crack up every time it happens.

So, do you consider the word "gay" to be offensive

[KC Elbows]

I think a lot of people get upset about this one because they think its just being pc, and they're not really meaning gay. However, I think that, by making gay the default for bad/crappy/heinuous, you tell a lot about your societies mind state regarding gays. I mean, if we made Kung Lek the default phrase for evil, power-toting moderators who sleep with goats, should kung lek not read any sort of message into this?

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[This message was edited by KC Elbows on 11-16-01 at 12:44 PM.]

[shaolinboxer]

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine who decribes things he doesn't like as retarded.

One of my close friends has a retarded brother....

so he learned to curb it in public.

i don't think calling something gay is the worst thing in the world, but some folks will be sensitive to it and you need to decide whether or not keeping this word in your day to day vocab is worth the risk of offending them.

[Ironpig]

there is a good quote that I think applies:

Only a fool is insulted when none is intended,
only a fool is insulted when an insult is intended.

and there you go.

just a few pennies from a pig.....
-"bigger is BIGGER"

IronPig

[Badger]

If he can joke about it ,it should be cool.

Badger

There's a little poop in all of us.

[Kung Lek]

KC, you leave my goat out of this.

Retarded people jokes are plain "Not cool"
And Ironfist, why don't you just be happy with who you are and come on out of that closet dude.
It's the new millenium and none of us will make fun of you for being gay or having a foul mouth, or being the provocative type that you are.

It's ok really. I've come to terms with my evilness, now you have to come to terms with your gayness. You will feel better for it.

You guys are such weenies at times. hahahahaha

peace

Kung Lek

Martial Arts Links (http://members.home.net/kunglek)

[KC Elbows]

True enough(Iron Pig).

(In general)
I just think that the use of certain words(gay, retarded, etc.) in the present contexts began as a kind of bigotry, and so I find it beneath me to use them in said context. Just because someone ignores the negative influences that gave those words their present contexts doesn't mean that the person using the words that way aren't guilty of carrying on a bad tradition.

No one uses gay for happy anymore. Therefore gay has 2 modern uses. A ****sexual, and anything bad or lame. Everybody with half a brain knows how it got the second meaning, and it all has to do with what some idiots think of the first meaning. I tend to avoid letting idiots pick the words I communicate with.

Okay, better put my soap box away.

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[Badger]

Badger


There's a little poop in all of us.

[KC Elbows]

Badger, I've been meaning to tell you that your sig needs updating. The whole poop thing has been going through serious research by social scientists, and, true to Marx's theories, most of the poop is held by a small number of people.

So, technically, there's a lot of poop in a few of us.

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[Badger]

I'm just full poop!

Badger

[Kung Lek]

george carlin once said "There are no bad words, only bad thoughts"

I personally think that there aren't any bad words, but the intentions behind them reveal the character of the person who speaks them, or the ignorance and inexposure of the person.

Nasrudin was the figure who made the comment "Only a fool takes heed of the words of yet another fool".

That in itself is true. Words are harmless, but not without effect. It is the intent behind them that gives them the power to make us laugh or cry or feel disgust.

key word is "feel". If words make you feel something it is because of the Intent they were delivered in.

some people like to throw around cusses simply because they have a limited vocabulary and are incable of expressing themselves intelligently and with meaningful intent. So like a naughty monkey, they fling their feces against the window where those who are curious are staring at them.

A wise man can learn much more from a fool than a fool will ever learn from a wise man. It's that simple.

peace

Kung Lek

Martial Arts Links (http://members.home.net/kunglek)

[KC Elbows]

Poop for the people!! :D

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[Design Sifu]

Ultimately I think it's a question of Language & it's use...

What If I started replacing the term "Gay/retarded/Dumb/crap(or fill in the term)" with the word "amerikan" ... so that when my computer is crashing rather than saying "My Computer is so Gay(or whatever)" I said "My computer is so Amerikan" I fairly certain this would be a cause for offence to some and perhaps amusement to others (especially these days).
Now my 1st amendment rights allow me to do this (and type it here) & the context of a fool being insulted could also be argued... But, as more people would proably be offended than amused (depending on the company)it may be that I could be the Fool for using such terminology.

I think this would be the same with ANY potentially derogatory term.

Language is one of our Greatest tools, and I would say that it's foolish to let oneself become subject to unconscious habbit with it's use.

How "intelligent" does a person who constantly inserts "uh" or "um" or "y'know" in their conversation really seem?
Even when they Do have something intelligent to say...
Kungfu training teaches disipline of the Body/spirit/mind (or so I believe). why NOT use that same Disipline with language???

[KC Elbows]

Design sifu? Never seen you before, and I thought I had all the moderator trading cards...

I agree. Further, even if, as individuals, our use of a word has no wrongful intent, if the overall use of that word in your society serves to discriminate, then should you feel free to use that word, knowing that whether your intent is harmful or not, it will likely have the same effect as if you did intend harm?

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[Ironpig]

Mindfulness practice.

Being mindful of who you are, where you are, what you are, when you are and why you are there.

Its hard, probably the hardest thing to do is to be honest and take the time to think a response, rather than to feel a response.

An insult quickly replied to steals most peoples reason, and dignity.

There is a concept that is harder to understand, and harder to accept. That you are actually empowered internally. When somebody calls me a name or makes a comment, I am the only person who decides how I get to react. Myself.

In the above vein, then the only person who can make a change in my life to choose to not offend is myself as well.

I cannot control another person, and controlling anothers speech is just offensive and disgusting.

I can hopefully set a good example and perhaps interact with others to spread the idea of personal empowerment (responsiblity).

practicing tolerance does not mean to tolerate all things, its the slippery slope of when to intervene that makes controlling language content so dangerous.

Nice thread.

just a few pennies from a pig.....
-"bigger is BIGGER"

IronPig

[Budokan]

"Sometimes you just have to call a midget a midget." --Harlan Ellison

K. Mark Hoover

[KC Elbows]

Budokan pulls out the Ellison. I agree, but it doesn't apply here. If the quote were something like, "Sometimes you have to call a bad thing a midget." Then we could use it. However, Ellison is welcome anywhere in my opinion.

Ever read "Quiet Lies the Locust Tells"?

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[Badger]

My computer is so cracker! Youre so cracker!
cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cr acker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!crac ker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!cracker!

or..
My computer is so lawyer! Youre such a lawyer!
lawyer!lawye r!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer !lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!lawyer!

Tear the roof off the sucka!! Woo Woo!

Badger

There's a little poop in all of us.

[KC Elbows]

Is that that stupid firestarter song?

I'm a garbage tie! Twisty garbage tie!

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[Badger]

Badger


There's a little poop in all of us.

[kungfu cowboy]

Are those the real words? :D

[KC Elbows]

He's quoting the gibberish from a def leotard song.

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[ATENG]

:D :p

"It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye. Then it's just fun."

[Sharky]

Usually, retard and gay jokes are fine with me.

===============================================
Sharky, I should expect this level of immaturity from you after seeing your post titled "Hm." regarding the woman that lives next door to you. I think everyone who unfortuneatly read that post is a bit more ignorant now for doing so. - Spectre

All i wanted was some RICE CAKES! Now? WE MUST BATTLE.

[IronFist]

this thread is gay...

You're gay!

:D :p

Iron

[Sharky]

Your mum's gay!

=================================
Sharky, I should expect this level of immaturity from you after seeing your post titled "Hm." regarding the woman that lives next door to you. I think everyone who unfortuneatly read that post is a bit more ignorant now for doing so. - Spectre

All i wanted was some RICE CAKES! Now? WE MUST BATTLE.

[IronFist]

Your mum's gay.

"Mum" is British for "Mom." :)

Iron

[diego]

& so it goe's

if i throw sand in ya face;WILL YOU Blink".

[diego]

LIKE IM TALKING ABOUT YOUR MANHOOD OR CONSTITUTIONAL STRENTGH'RIGHT YOUR GAY BLAINE
YOU HAVE PIGTAILS A LIMPWRISTED ***ET NO PUNCH
RIGHT AND YOUR TRYING TO TALK ALL ARNOLD BUT YOU LIKE HHHEEYYY!!

OR YOUR A FOOL YOU SOUND RETARDED TRYING TO PREACH BUT IT COMES OUT NIAYUH

SO IN RAP SLANG ITS NOT THE PERSON JUST SIMILES AND METAS

UNO

if i throw sand in ya face;WILL YOU Blink".

[SevenStar]

I don't think the word "gay" is offensive. I do think that getting hit on by a gay person is offensive.

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair

[diego]

hhheeeyyy *

if i throw sand in ya face;WILL YOU Blink".

[Chang Style Novice]

Nah, it's a complement. Just don't hit back.

_______________________
I am the Grand Ultimate Silk Pyjama

[JasBourne]

Wassamatter 7*? Only the fugly guys hitting on you? ;) :D

Ok let's see here... so by placing an extraordinarily narrow definition on what constitutes a 'real man', we exclude any and all traits deemed not male enough (coincidentally, these traits are the exact definition of what constitutes a 'real woman'). So, in effect, what we propose is to sanction the use of a term that is almost exclusively applied to ****sexual men (to be nauseatingly PC, you would call ****sexual women "lesbians", or if you have a lot of friends who really are, "dykes".), for the purposes of insulting someone who presumably is not actually a gay man. And the form that the insult takes is to call that person 'not a real man', or in other words, a woman.

****, that's like calling a black person a "n1gger", which is so frowned on in our society that we write censor software to excise it from our language.

sux0r, d00d.

That whole pervasive social attitude really bums me out. A wise chica in the last century once observed on a side of that concept:

"There are two types of people in this world: human beings and women. And when women attempt to behave like human beings, they are accused of acting like men."

Just thought I'd stir the pot and keep this good discussion afloat.

[SevenStar]

"when women attempt to behave like human beings, they are accused of acting like men."

Girl: No, I don't wanna do THAT - this is our first date!
Guy: c'mon, act like a human.
Girl: Well, since you put it that way...


A woman with the morals of a man? hmmm...

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair

[SevenStar]

I don't think that's the context in which the word's being used, Jas. If I called Diego gay for that reply to my post, then yeah, I can see that as bein offensive, as the comment is directed at someone. If I say, "this thread is gay" then why should it offend anyone? I think you'd have to be real petty to be offended by that.

Hey, wait...Jas? Where the samhell have you been?

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair

[KC Elbows]

Seven, calling something gay does, in fact, offend someone. The person who is called gay isn't offended, gays are offended. When you denote it to mean bad or lame, then you are offending gays because of that judgement call, even if that judgement call is being made about a post. When you substitute "This thread sucks" with "this thread is gay", you denote gay to mean negative things, and if the source of that negative spin is clearly not gay as in being happy, then you're left with gay as in ****sexual as the target for the negative spin.

In addition, any thesaurus will give you better terms to use. Its not about pc. I have no problem with anyone saying "This thread makes my pancreas bleed big chunky bits, it stinks so bad", which I don't think really passes for pc, but attributing negative meanings to terms that relate to people is still questionable. I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to do it, I just don't think its really impressive behavior or humor. Its amateurish, predictable, and been done to death. I just assume most people are more clever in their humor than "This is gay."

Oh well, done babbling.

City, your toast will never go unbuttered again! -The Tic

[This message was edited by KC Elbows on 11-17-01 at 07:19 PM.]

[Sharky]

KC Elbows is gay.

=================================
Sharky, I should expect this level of immaturity from you after seeing your post titled "Hm." regarding the woman that lives next door to you. I think everyone who unfortuneatly read that post is a bit more ignorant now for doing so. - Spectre

All i wanted was some RICE CAKES! Now? WE MUST BATTLE.

[ATENG]

[nt] :p

"It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye. Then it's just fun."

[IronFist]

Sevenstar said: I don't think that's the context in which the word's being used, Jas

I know what KC Elbows is saying.

When a word used to denote a group of people is used in context to mean something bad. "This thread is gay" means this thread sucks or whatever, so the gays get offended.

Sevenstar, you're a black guy. So what if when a thread sucked people would say "man, this thread is black!" It would **** you off, right? That's why gay people take offense to "gay" being used that way. The term used to describe them is also used to describe something that people don't like.

Iron

[IronFist]

****! I forgot that pìss gets censored! I can't say ****-ed off. That's so gay!

Iron

[IronFist]

Seriously though, you guys are all gay!

Iron

[SevenStar]

they censor p1ss? :rolleyes: I could go on and on about how the term black is used today - black magic, black plaque, it's like THE word for anything evil. I'm not having a conniption about it though. I can see how the word gay can be offensive, but in that context, it's petty.

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair

[SevenStar]

it really is gay that they censor p!ss

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair

[Shinakira]

gay is a word whatever.
*** is a bad word. (depending on the counry)

words only hold power over the weak.

Define the use of words through logical communication and ingnore the negitive feed back used by the weak and mentaly stunted.

god bless all

"oh your tough.. but can you kick my @$$!"

[Sharky]

language is ****in great

=================================
Sharky, I should expect this level of immaturity from you after seeing your post titled "Hm." regarding the woman that lives next door to you. I think everyone who unfortuneatly read that post is a bit more ignorant now for doing so. - Spectre

All i wanted was some RICE CAKES! Now? WE MUST BATTLE.

[SevenStar]

they censor p1ss, but not ****in? Now that's gay. It seems like they would, even if there is no 'g' at the end of it.

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair

[Kristoffer]

:rolleyes: Faaaaaaggot

null (http://www.geocities.com/monlinnerud/bilder/history/images/hist10.jpg)

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[Kristoffer]

not directed to anyone specific :D

~K~
"maybe not in combat.. but think of the chicks man, the chicks!" -- someone on the subject of back-flips in combat --

[joedoe]

You are all GAY :D

cxxx[]:::::::::::>
You're fu(king up my chi

[Kung Lek]

alright, this one has deteriorated enough to warrant a closing.

yeesh, sometimes it seems you guys just can't help it when it comes to going over the top.

perhaps you could try the same with kung fu practice? :D

peace

Kung Lek

Martial Arts Links (http://members.home.net/kunglek)