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

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

1) is the toughest to answer
Depends on the time/place/people
I've tried, believe me. But then sometimes there's my gay (well, technically bi-sexual, but currently long-term dating a dude, so to most, he's de-facto gay) and he uses gay in the same way the movie did

2) Not planning on it. Prolly will when it's on Netflix insta-watch (my guess, 10-14 months) or HBO (8 months?)

3) It's okay to call homosexuals gay. Cause they are.
I don't watch spong bob, I dunno if he's homosexual or not.

It's okay to call Barney Frank gay. But it's used to degrade far too often. And it's de-facto inferior to things that aren't gay--or so the language seems to imply.

Laws against pot aren't gay.
They are awful, terrible, stupid laws. But not gay.
Gay isn't awful, terrible and stupid.

Neither are electric cars.