# Living stereotypes! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 4, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686 "2001-09-04T16:20:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/21 "2001-09-05T20:55:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mouthbreather \* > > I don’t think it’s inappropriate to use the word gay in reference to Christopher Lowell. He’s pretty gay. Can you be just _kind of_ gay? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/22 "2001-09-05T21:43:51Z")
So gay is not a bad word when it refers to homosexuals, but it is a bad word when it refers to someone being lame because it is a derogatory word for homosexuals? Huh? DaLovin’Dj ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/23 "2001-09-05T21:54:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dalovindj \* > So gay is not a bad word when it refers to homosexuals, but it is a bad word when it refers to someone being lame because it is a derogatory word for homosexuals? ‘Gay’ is not a derogatory word when used to mean ‘homosexual.’ ‘Gay’ _is_ a derogatory word when to mean ‘lame’. If you use gay as a derogatory term meaning ‘lame,’ you imply that you think homosexuals are lame. If you say, “That movie was so gay,” meaning “That movie was so lame,” this means you think gay=lame, therefore homosexual=lame. Calling people lame hurts their feelings. This is _not_ rocket science. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/24 "2001-09-05T21:58:55Z")
DLDJ, you’re kidding, right? I mean, I’m not going to get rude here, because otherwise I think you’ve shown yourself to be a pretty decent guy around here. But do you really not get this? ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/25 "2001-09-05T22:12:14Z")
Podkayne: Over in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84413&pagenumber=2) oh so fun thread, **Esprix** said the following: > [@](#): > > BuddahDog and dalovindj, you both need some serious courses in etymology, and specifically about the etymological history of the word “gay.” Use google or some such similar web search tool - or, better yet, go read the links in my .sig (I believe it was covered several times). Gay went from happy to depraved (happy for licentious reasons) to homosexual ('cause we’re all depraved, don’t you know) to lame. “Gay” used as “lame” did not spontaneously spring into existence independent of its previous usages - it came from derogatorily using the word “gay” as “homosexual.” Thus my statement that gay is a derogatory term for homosexuals. Obviously Podkayne, you do not agree with Exprix’s statements concerning the etymology of the word gay. Either the word is derogatory or it is not. Unless you posit that intent is important, in which case the use of the word to mean lame is valid. Mouthbreaker: I get it (and stopped using it). I just think it’s foolish to imply that the speakers intent (especially when using a common defininition of the word) is unimportant. DaLovin’Dj ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/26 "2001-09-05T22:18:36Z")
Aahh! You’re hijacking my thread with this argument! I think this discussion is like some horrible Dope-borne virus, infecting everyone it touches. Get out, get out! You have plenty of other threads in which to discuss your strange, depraved “alternative thead-hijacking lifestyles.” ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/27 "2001-09-05T22:21:12Z")
I don’t want to hijack this thread further than it has been. check your mail in a bit, DJ. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2001, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/28 "2001-09-05T22:28:38Z")
Calm down Necros, it will be all right. Just read the posts you like. DaLovin’Dj ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/29 "2001-09-06T01:12:50Z")
I just had a pizza delivered – by a blonde guy with a mullet, wearing a baseball cap backwards. He greeted me with “Duuuuude”, spoken with a stoner/surfer inflection. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/30 "2001-09-06T01:22:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeannie \* > \*\*So, and I sincerely hope I don’t offend anyone here, you know all those Polish jokes? My neighbors are the reason those jokes exist. \*\* In grad school, I started a Web site called **Virtual Cheektowaga** - it poked fun at a blue collar suburb of Buffalo with a large Polish population. However, the focus of the site was the suburb’s trademark lawn ornaments and shrines, and its distinctive culture – the stereotype is that life revolves around church, bowling and the volunteer fire department. Think Parma, Ohio – Cheektowaga’s quite similar. A woman at the school was offended when she discovered the site. Turns out she lived in Cheektowaga, in a house with a screened porch and the required ornaments. Her husband is a volunteer fireman who plays in a polka band on weekends. They were also avid bowlers. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/31 "2001-09-06T01:56:09Z")
Today, as I was on my bike, I was almost run down by a woman driving one of those luxury SUVs (didn’t catch which brand name I could have had implanted on my forehead), alone, in downtown Boston, talking on a cell phone, not paying attention to what she was doing (what, you’re not supposed to turn left into the lefthand lane?). I can’t recall if she was doing it against the light as well. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/32 "2001-09-06T02:29:04Z")
Laughing at the pizza guy because he has a mullet is one step down the slippery slope to racism, slavery, and the Fourth Reich! How dare you! \* - The above was a (lame) attempt to be the living stereotype of the PC Kneejerker. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/33 "2001-09-06T04:04:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Living stereotypes! Thpeaking! _ducks & runs_ ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/34 "2001-09-06T15:08:51Z")
What are you talking about, **matt\_mcl**? You’re a gay, left-leaning, goth-like guy who…oh. Never mind. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/35 "2001-09-06T15:37:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Podkayne \* > **Calling people lame hurts their feelings.** PC Jerk checking in! “Lame,” used instead of “uncool,” would probably insult those people who are lame by its standard definition, that of being partially disabled. I mean, DIFFERENTLY abled. 😉 And it implies that disabled people are uncool. Are you saying that a physical disablity makes a person uncool?!?!? Fascist swine! Which opens the can of worms in which uncool people are offended by the implication that not being cool is bad. Or that being a fascist is bad. Or the pigs will be offended by being compared with fascists. I’m going back to petitioning the UN for reparations for serfdom. ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/36 "2001-09-06T15:47:44Z")
Dammit **dropzone** I’m trying to STOP laughing here at work. Way to make a point using laughables. DaLovin’Dj PS - Yeah I did just coin the word laughables. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/37 "2001-09-07T01:11:49Z")
My cat has a lame arm. And her breath smells like catfood. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/38 "2001-09-07T01:42:15Z")
You want to hear some unbelievable bit I saw on the news this morning? It seems that in Queens an SUV ran over and killed a pesedstrian. The driver in the SUV went out, took her baby…and walked away. We watching all thought “What the f— was that???” ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/39 "2001-09-07T02:04:33Z")
:rolleyes: I don’ wanna hijack, so, just: :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686/40 "2001-09-07T04:22:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by capacitor \* > \*\*You want to hear some unbelievable bit I saw on the news this morning? It seems that in Queens an SUV ran over and killed a pesedstrian. The driver in the SUV went out, took her baby…and walked away. We watching all thought “What the f— was that???” \*\* What on earth was Lizzie Grubman doing in Queens?? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/living-stereotypes/79686.md?page=3)