• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

I wonder how homosexuals feel about...

You know, the horrifying thing is that I have wondered whether now I may actually get a Warning for a post on here.

It's weird to think about because I usually associate Warnings (and I'm speaking as a Mod elsewhere) with Newbies Who Don't Know Better, People Who Lost Their Tempers/Common Sense Briefly, or People Specifically Trying to Cause Trouble, and I don't associate myself with any of those categories.

BTW, who's that in your pic? Hm. Is that suggestive?
 
Agreed. I suppose we all have to "tiptoe" around the BBS so as not to offend anyone in particular. I may have to change my Chris Allen avatar. I think it's making me think "impure thoughts." We wouldn't want anything like that to happen.
 
Honestly, I think the "that's gay" usage of the word is taking over the "homosexual" meaning, which overtook the "happy" meaning. Com'on, baby... Let's give "happy" a comeback so all those old songs can be taken without a :facepalm: once more!

It's a little bizarre to listen to songs like "Paralyzed" anymore because of this. Not to mention terms like "the Gay Nineties" a.k.a. the 1890s.

It's the same with a word like "pinhead". It used to refer to people with microcephaly, which has the unfortunate side-effect of usually (although there are exceptions--the original 19th century "Zip the pinhead"/"Zip the what-is-it"/William Johnson was not mentally impaired, although famous examples like Schlitze/Simon Metz, Zip/Elvira Snow and Pip/Jenny Lee Snow were) causing mental retardation. Yet, most people probably don't think of the antiquated sideshow freak connotation. It means "retard", which is yet another example of an evolved word disparaging toward another disability referring to being mentally impaired.

A "dork" is a whale's penis, by the way. Another word that has drastically changed its meaning and left the former meaning practically irrelevant... just like "gay". People don't really think that you're calling them a "whale's penis" when you call them a "dork" or tell them that they are "dorky".

"Gay" referring to "stupid" is taking over the homosexual meaning (which was also stolen)... And just like "pinhead", "retard" and "dork", it's probably going to continue to evolve, even if the reason behind the change is quite insulting. Ultimately, I don't think anyone can do anything about it.

I'm still struggling to get my mind around ones like "phat".

Granted, this is the same English language that brought us "cool", "bitchin'", "tubular" and "gnarly"... Not even frickin' close to the meanings of those words.

Did you know that the original meaning of "passion" was "suffering"?
 
Last edited:
Oh, my favorite was when I was writing a PM as a mod else-forum and in the course of my message, as an attempt to keep things light, put in something like, "Dude, that's really not cool."

I got a response where one of their main points focused on how insulting it was that I'd called them a Dude.

Wikipedia (or dictionary.com?) to the rescue after nobody who I ran it past had any idea what the guy was talking about.

It did put a line from "Carousel" in proper context though, finally..."And I'd dress up like a dude..." I kept thinking dude ranch, but that wasn't making a great deal of sense to me.

As far as passion=suffering...isn't that what Passion of the Christ is all about? Otherwise it sounds kind of (here we go alienating people) pornographic. Which, if you go back to some original meanings of _that_ word, may still apply.
 
From Wikipedia-

"One of the earliest books to use the word was The Home and Farm Manual, written by Jonathan Periam in 1883. In that work, Periam used the term "dude" several times to denote an ill-bred and ignorant, but ostentatious, man from the city. The term may have also been used as a job description such as "bush hook dude" [8] as a position on a railroad in the 1880s."
 
I suppose that depends on whether or not you tend to consider surfers to be ill-bred and ignorant, but ostentatious. :)
 
I'm NOT gay and even I find it offensive (and I'm pretty difficult to offend) and extremely stupid. I loudly call into question the intelligence of anyone who says it in my presence.
 
I know that my parents don't like when I use it around the house...my mom is lesbian and she and her partner lecture me every time I use it. They consider it to be a derogatory term.
 
I'm NOT gay and even I find it offensive (and I'm pretty difficult to offend) and extremely stupid. I loudly call into question the intelligence of anyone who says it in my presence.

Wow. I can't believe you and I actually agree on anything or have done the same on anything...

...but here, we most definitely have, and if this is the one thing we share, then I say it's a good one. I've called people out on it as well. And in my case I even did it in class the year I attended a Christian private school. Now, the school WAS otherwise a good experience for me. But when I heard that, I did have to point out how using a name like that was un-Christian.

To my surprise, I think over half the class got the point and even the teacher seemed to be leaning my direction.
 
Wow. I can't believe you and I actually agree on anything or have done the same on anything...
Is it so hard to believe? We're both people, and on the generally good side of things.

...but here, we most definitely have, and if this is the one thing we share, then I say it's a good one. I've called people out on it as well. And in my case I even did it in class the year I attended a Christian private school. Now, the school WAS otherwise a good experience for me. But when I heard that, I did have to point out how using a name like that was un-Christian.

To my surprise, I think over half the class got the point and even the teacher seemed to be leaning my direction.
Good for you. :)
 
I just say, "That's ~so~ 'what's weak, this week'."

Just to keep from being clapped up the back of the head by whomever might be within earshot and just pissed off enough to call me out on it in public, physically or otherwise.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top