# 'Homo erectus' as an insult, is it homophobic?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 18, 2014, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815 "2014-09-18T12:51:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815/41 "2014-09-23T14:10:59Z")

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> [@Bozuit](#):
>
> Another vote to just play it safe with “_Australopithecus_”.

I should have said that this would be particularly useful if you are, for example, a Yorkshireman insulting a Londoner, or a New Yorker insulting an Alabamian.

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**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815/42 "2014-09-23T17:50:03Z")

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> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#):
>
> Long time readers of my threads will be unsurprised that it was yours truly being insulted in this manner. Can’t remember why, but it did spark a much heated debated over whether if you said it to a gay man it could be taken the wrong way, and nobody wants to be taken the wrong way by a homo erectus.

I see what you did there. :eek:

With the understanding that literally any word, phrase, statement “could” be taken the wrong way, how did you understand the meaning of the term?

I would have thought that someone was trying to call me a neeandurthal, neanderthul, neandurtal… errr caveman and didn’t know how to spell it. 😃

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815/43 "2014-09-23T20:14:43Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> Wrong Genus. 😉

Only if you’re an incorrigible splitter.

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815/44 "2014-09-23T20:37:29Z")

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> [@Johanna](#):
>
> Do people tend to think of _Homo erectus_ as more bestial rather than human? 'Cause I read a novel about an East African _H. erectus_ community—[_Daughter of Kura_ by Debra Austin](http://books.simonandschuster.com/Daughter-of-Kura/Debra-Austin/9781439112700)—and it portrayed them as fully human in terms of emotions and social organization. Their technology was limited to fire and simple Paleolithic stone tools, but they already had cuisine and social rituals, and even a form of nonverbal language.

From what I hear and read of the news, these days, I’d say that that contemporary humans are often more bestial than humane.

The novel sounds interesting; I had no idea that anyone had ever created _H._ erectus characters in fiction.

I doubt that religion as distinct from ingrained rituals or other social behaviors existed this long ago.

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**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/homo-erectus-as-an-insult-is-it-homophobic/698815/45 "2014-09-24T02:39:18Z")

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> [@Icarus](#):
>
> As a comparison, as a white person in a group of African Americans, try calling someone an “enigma” and see how it works out. Same same.

Ok I’m confused. Enigma is racist?

Oh I see (or rather hear) it now. Never mind.

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