Why is "You're gay!" such an insult?

ehBeth wrote:

material girl wrote:
Wheres the humour in depicting a gay man that appears as straight as a homosexual?!

I'm just flabbergasted by this question/statement. Making fun of people because of their sexual orientation is as offensive as making fun of them because of gender, race, disability.

Well, just for discussion's sake: how do you feel about making fun of someone for...oh, say their lack of intelligence or the outfit they are wearing? Twisted Evil

Is it okay to make fun of someone for anything?

Here's a situation where I think its fair game to make fun of someone: A person is trying to act really cool or something, or put someone else down, or in general going out of their way to hurt someone or be a jerk.

Take for example the class wise-ass who is always putting other people down.

In that case, I'd say its fair game.

Wise-ass may learn something if he's at the other end of it all?

And no, for the record I'm not homo--thank you for asking.

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That's a pretty stupid question . . . and yer mama dresses ya funny, too . . .

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Setanta wrote:

That's a pretty stupid question . . . and yer mama dresses ya funny, too . . .

I'll get you for this. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next week.

No...it'll be when you least expect it, you'll be arguing about whether some historical figure was homo or something, and Bam!
Watch yoself. Twisted Evil

By the way, were Plato & Ceasar and Alexander the Great and all those dudes bisexual or just straight up homosexual?

I'll bet no one called Alexander a fag. Well not to his face anyway.

Was Leonardo da Vinci gay?

Guess I need to fire up the internet search engine: "Famous Gays of the Past"...hey that sounds like a good book.
hmmm..."Our Gay Past"..."Gaily Through the Years"...

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Yes

He was bi

He was bi

Yes

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Setanta wrote:

That's a pretty stupid question . . . and yer mama dresses ya funny, too . . .

See, the above is what I was talking about.

Setanta here has just said, in so many words: "Hey everyone, I'm a wise-ass! Please take this as an invitation to make fun of me!" Twisted Evil

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Sure, Boss, whatever you say . . .

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Lemmee guess: you're one of those girls who always has to have the last word, right? Twisted Evil

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Not being one of the girls, that is meaningless to me . . .

Pot . . . meet kettle . . .

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extra medium wrote:

Well, just for discussion's sake: how do you feel about making fun of someone for...oh, say their lack of intelligence or the outfit they are wearing?

Is it okay to make fun of someone for anything?

I don't think it's ok to make fun of someone for things they can't change - i.e. intelligence, gender, race, sexual orientation ...

I can, and do, choose to regularly change my hair colour. That's definitely something fair game for making fun of. If you were making fun of a young friend of mine who lost their hair as a result of a medical condition, you couldn't run fast enough to avoid being a sidewalk wipe.

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Setanta wrote:

Not being one of the girls, that is meaningless to me . . .

Think about it in the context of the thread "making fun of feminine guys" and I think you'll get the meaning...you're pretty smart.

Anyway, just kidding, of course! Laughing

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ehBeth wrote:

extra medium wrote:
Well, just for discussion's sake: how do you feel about making fun of someone for...oh, say their lack of intelligence or the outfit they are wearing?

Is it okay to make fun of someone for anything?

I don't think it's ok to make fun of someone for things they can't change - i.e. intelligence, gender, race, sexual orientation ...

I can, and do, choose to regularly change my hair colour. That's definitely something fair game for making fun of. If you were making fun of a young friend of mine who lost their hair as a result of a medical condition, you couldn't run fast enough to avoid being a sidewalk wipe.

Ok, I see. Is that your hair color in the avatar? You don't mind if people make fun of it? :wink:

Hey, how about the way ol' Setanta is making fun of me above? Thats not right, is it???

Please tell him/her to lay off me??? Crying or Very sad

Perhaps you could do that sidewalk thing to him or something? Razz

What do you say? Please?

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extra medium wrote:

Setanta wrote:
Not being one of the girls, that is meaningless to me . . .

Think about it in the context of the thread "making fun of feminine guys" and I think you'll get the meaning...you're pretty smart.

Anyway, just kidding, of course!

The initial sentence of mine, which you have quoted, was dry . . . i.e., willfully ignoring the sophomoric intention to insult . . .

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There was a documentary on the other night about a comedy show called Little Britain.It features a character who lives in a Wales and claims to be 'the only gay in the village'(his catchphrase).He wears OTT caamp clothes like PVC hotpants and make up.
In actual fact he isnt the only gay,there are other gays in the village and the villagers are completely tolerant of homosexuals.
The documentary showed the real life equivalent of the comedy characters from this show.
The documentary talked to a gay man in Wales.At no point did he say he was offended by it.

If the character was not sterotyped, it wouldnt be funny.
Doesnt anyone have a sense of humour?
Are we too PC?

I understand its not nice to take the mickey out of anybody for any reason, but does that mean scrapping all jokes, comedy programmes, odd clothes,different hairstyles/colours etc??????

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Also I think peoplek do a subconscious check before telling a 'joke'.
Would anyone ever say 'your gay' to an actual gay person?
Its only funny if the person its being directed to is a straight guy that has a sense of humour

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You shouldn't make fun of Setanta.He can't help it.

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I watched an episode of the new Dr Who written by sombody Russell(who is gay.He also wrote the fantastic Queer as folk)One of the characters in Dr Who said 'thats so gay'.
If a gay person can right that, is there a problem?

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material girl wrote:

Al
Would anyone ever say 'your gay' to an actual gay person?

I am not sure. I hear gay's alot rib each other by calling each other flamers, queens, or fags. It is good natured to be sure - but I think that it happens.

TTF

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material girl wrote:

Would anyone ever say 'your gay' to an actual gay person?

Only if they forget... in which case after a significant look they suddenly realise, get embarassed and go "oh yeah."

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I am not sure. I hear gay's alot rib each other by calling each other flamers, queens, or fags. It is good natured to be sure - but I think that it happens.

Entirely different, that's like black people calling eachother N(etc).

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Watchmaker-your first comment brought to mind the use of the N word, if its said by members of the involved community, its fine.
As a white person I would never use the N word let alone to a black person but it seems among the black community its seen as a term of endearment.

I call my friends b*tches for a laugh, they dont mind, they know im being silly.
But from a stranger or person that gets on my wick its a cruel thing and only meant negatively.

I think if people have a laugh and a joke with you they obviously feel comfortable around you no matter about yuor sexuality etc.
Id see it as a compliment.

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material girl wrote:

Watchmaker-your first comment brought to mind the use of the N word, if its said by members of the involved community, its fine.

One of the classic ways of dealing with being part of a subculture that is frequently insulted is to subsume the insults into your culture identity. Black people calling eachother N(etc) or gay people calling one another F(etc) becomes commonplace. Unfortunately this same phenomena often induces people to begin living out the stereotypical views of the subculture which may not be healthy.

I honestly feel that many of the problems afflicting modern african-american culture is because of this cycle of attempting to live out stereotypes that other people assign to your subculture. Of course attempting to completely model yourself after the dominant subculture equally leads to problems.

In the end what is required is to forge a new cultural identity. Something easier said than done. I hope that both african-american and homosexual cultures manage to do this, because I currently don't believe that they have.

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As a white person I would never use the N word let alone to a black person

I -might- use it, under extremely specialised circumstances (can't imagine what that would be, I just hate ruling any possibility out). It kind of bothers me that a friend of mine (heavily into rap) continues to call me "N(etc)" (neither of us are black). I don't object to "dog" or any of the other dimunitive terms in rap but I kind of wish that particular term fell down the same linguistic hole as gadzooks.

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I think if people have a laugh and a joke with you they obviously feel comfortable around you no matter about your sexuality etc.
I'd see it as a compliment.

Me too. I also see the word gay when used as an insult as having an entirely seperate meaning to when used as a descriptor from homosexuality. It's no more difficult to tell the terms apart than any other homonym.

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Why is "You're gay!" such an insult?

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