I read a post on another blog this morning that I thought bore some sharing. The post is, at least in part, about the civil and economic unrest in Greece, which, to be honest, I’m not very well informed about, but more importantly to me, the post included this paragraph:
I did not like the word faggot used there. I don’t like it that it’s acceptable by somebody in the public eye to use words like that to berate others in the year 2012. I don’t like it that well-known people can go on TV and use this and other similar words without anyone complaining about it. I don’t like it that racist and homophobic language are equally acceptable. That people can feature in mainstream media, using words like faggot (poustis), sissy (aderfi), nigger (arapis) and ape (pithikos) to describe others. Whether it’s done in a serious or a ‘humorous’ way. I loathe that no one calls them out on it.
I say, here, here! It’s time more people stood up to this!
The entire blog post can be read here.
Riggledo 
Interesting how words have lost their original meanings over the years. Gay at one time merely meant happy and carefree. Queer meant something peculiar or slightly odd. Faggot or fag was nothing more than a cigarette, or to be more specific, a smoldering sliver like a match. I guess I watched too much BBC growing up, I didn’t even know that people used these words to mean homosexual under any guise or tone until I became an adult. Remember when bitch was a bad thing? Now women don the title like a compliment, completely ignoring the fact that it is still the actively used and correct technical term for a breeding female dog.
While I have not been called a redskin, at least to my face, I have been called an apple by fullbloods in my tribe. (red on the outside, white on the inside,) I shake it off. Until we learn to move beyond slurs amongst “ourselves” we aren’t likely to move beyond them with outsiders. Slurs are used by those who are ignorant. Truly, there are far more interesting and intelligent ways of insulting people you’re mad at.
And now I’ll move off your soapbox. Great, thought provoking stuff.
I agree with you, to an extent. I do know that none of these words we’re talking about started out meaning what they mean now, but that doesn’t change the fact that society now uses them in new ways and therefore (much as I personally hate the misuse of the English language) they now mean these new things. And the fact is, no matter what the “original” or “real” definition of the words might be, as long as people are using them in derogatory tones, they are insults. Plain and simple.
(By the way, I didn’t realize that a female dog had to be breeding, to be a “bitch”.)
I’m not sure if I know what you mean by, “Until we learn to move beyond slurs amongst ‘ourselves’ we aren’t likely to move beyond them with outsiders”, but I think the real point, at least for me, is, a slur is a slur and it should never happen. No matter who is saying it or two whom.
I totally agree. I felt the same way about Nicki Minaj’s grammy performance.
Ironically, I don’t really know what was so offensive about Niki Minaj’s performance, but only because I didn’t watch it. It didn’t hold my interest, performance wise. While I didn’t quite get to the point of being offended or angry, I didn’t like where it was going so I’m not surprised that others did.
Sounds like I didn’t miss anything.