Gay as a pejorative

[verytwistedmind.livejournal.com]

“Ladies and Gentlemen, electric cars are gay,” Vaughn’s character Ronnie Valentine says. “I mean, not ‘homosexual’ gay, but ‘my parents are chaperoning the dance gay.”

-         The Dilemma

 

This preview has been getting a lot of negative press because of the use of the word ‘gay’ as a pejorative.

This is a pet peeve of mine among young people. I’ve noticed that 10-19 year olds seem to default to ‘gay’ way too much. So for me, it’s not a question of sensitivity to treatment of homosexuals as it is to the lame minds of our youth.

Ron Howard has said he will not remove this comment from the movie. I kind of think it fits the sort of comment and back peddle you typically hear from a Vince Vaughn character.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/10/ron-howard-on-the-dilemmas-gay-joke-it-stays-in-the-movie.html

So my questions:

1)       What do you do when you hear someone say “that’s gay” as a pejorative?

a.       What is a more apropos term/slang? I don’t want ‘lame’ coming back because of my time spent in the 80s…. I feel ‘lame’ is the gateway word to ‘gnarly’. Gnarly makes me want to gag myself with a spoon…like totally.

2)       Are you planning on seeing this movie? Does the ‘gay’ comment affect your decision?

3)      Is it okay to call Sponge Bob and Flapjack gay okay? I mean…come on they are gay..right?        

Comments

[verytwistedmind.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why people have an issue understanding this. If a group uses a label to describe themselves, other people co-opting that term to mean something negative is obviously a b.s. thing to do

I certainly hope that my post didn't come off as not understanding that it was a bullshit to use 'gay' as a pejorative. Did it?

"gay" when they mean it is "stupid" or something bad betrays how utterly self-absorbed, conceited and lacking in basic logic skills the majority of our culture is.

I don't see how it's self-absorbed or conceited it is logic-missing though and does show a disconnect between thought and words.

Now as a gay man did you find the pre-view offensive? Are you not going to see the movie because of it?
Did you feel forced to go see that gay cowboy movie (OMG I Forgot the name...I've been calling it bareback mountian for so long...lol) or were you actually interested in it? Western romance just isn't my thing plus when I found out there was no actual penetration scene....

[hey-its-michael.livejournal.com]

I certainly hope that my post didn't come off as not understanding that it was a bullshit to use 'gay' as a pejorative.

Not at all. I was responding more generally to those who do not seem to get it, not to you.

Now as a gay man did you find the pre-view offensive? Are you not going to see the movie because of it?

No, I am not going to see the movie because it is a Vince Vaughn movie, not because of this stupid joke. I have seen far more offensive things.

Did you feel forced to go see that gay cowboy movie

I saw Brokeback Mountain. Did I feel forced to? No; however, I wanted to see it (regardless of the general genre of film) because it was so rare for such a major movie to feature a same-sex romance between two men. Plus, the majority of movies that were LGBT-related before Brokeback were generally crappy movies, so I appreciated seeing a quality gay-themed movie getting so much attention.