As long as people have a hair up their ass about it, we probably won’t see the word go away in a while. I don’t like its usage either, but I tend to pick my battles when it comes to these things.
Quite a few kids use it simply out of ignorance, and they really don’t process the context of how they are using the word. However, once they realize that it makes some adults ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘offended’ they become empowered by using the word as a weapon.
Example with a non-cuss word:
I had a drama teacher who mentioned saying the word ‘Macbeth’ is bad luck in a theatre. He was kind of supersticious, and asked us not to say it. What did 99% of the class do? Say “MACBETH!” any chance they got to rile this guy up. Sure he had disciplinary action on students that were being just plain rude/abusive about it, but he really dug himself a hole by starting the year telling a bunch of kids about a word he didn’t like.
I had corrected students who said ‘that’s so gay’ in my presence, and the only thing it really did was give me the hassle of having to write multiple referrals and stay after school to talk with the assistant principal about students going out of their way to try to antagonize me.
Nope. I’m 33, and when I was a kid in the 80s, kids used “gay” to mean stupid all the time. I haven’t heard anyone use the word that way in many years. I was totally unaware until I was reading another thread here that people were doing that again (or still). How disappointing.
Liberace gay.
What’s “nigger rigging?” I’ve never heard the phrase. Not that I’d use it. Just wondering.
Same thing as “jury rigging” but with racist connotations.
nigger-rigging = a more offensive way to say jury-rigging. My dad uses the term all the time.
On the gay=bad thing. I find it offensive (and nonsensical), and I’d no more say it than I’d say “That’s so cunt” or “That’s so nigger.” I don’t put up with people saying that in my presence, but I think there are more important fights to pick.
Afro-engineering, it comes from jury rigging, which says it “refers to makeshift repairs or substitutes, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand.” Check out the link, it’s pretty interesting.
Yes, there are more important battles to fight. But I’m mainly curious as to how, after the pc 1990’s the gay community ( apparantly, according to a discussion I have going on another board ) has just rolled over and put all four paws in the air in the name of reclaiming the word, or empowering themselves, or some such philosophy.
Ten years ago, I figure they would have gone ballistic over this.
A lot of things were said in the pc '90s, and a lot of it entered the realm of the ridiculous, but they did spawn ideas like hate crime legislation, and concern over sexual harassment, so what I’m seeing here amounts to a mixed message coming from the ( assumed ) political left. What I’m hearing from the UK is that the gay community not only uses the word gay as a descriptive themselves, but are also ok with the straight world using it in the same way.
How times change, only problem is some of that stuff said in the 90’s actually stuck, otherwise I wouldn’t have started this thread. Damn my lack of hipness, I need a midlife crisis or something in order go get my finger back on the pulse of popular culture.
Cyros, I remember gay being used as an insult in the movie E.T. and that was 1982, but correct me if I’m wrong here, but didn’t Speilberg later edit that phrase out of the movie ?
Bolding all mine.
My question, for those who think using “gay” to mean “pathetic” is offensive; do you take similar offense when the word “lame” is used in that context? Surely that’s just as insensitive to paralysed / disabled people as the word "gay is to homosexuals?
Not sure. I have both versions here. I’ll check it out next time I watch.
The insult I remember best from ET is penis-breath 
To some extent. However, lame meaning disabled is not so much part of the common vernacular at this point. Disabled, differently abled and the like are more used. Gay is still primarily used to denote that someone is homosexual so I do see a difference.
Don’t forget that often times (especially on the Something Awful boards) people use the the words faggot and gay ironically, they are imitating a stupid 13-year-olds mannerisms. If they thought that someone seriously meant what they were saying they would be looked down upon.
Interesting point. No, I don’t take offense, and i’m hope it isn’t just because i’m not disabled myself. I think the difference is that the word “lame” is recognised as meaning pathetic, whilst the use of it for a specific type of disability really isn’t all that common anymore (YMMV, of course). The word gay doesn’t have “pathetic” among its definitions; it may at some point in the future if gay is really removed from referring to homosexual people, but at the moment homosexuality is it’s primary definition. So when people say “lame”, it’s quite probable they’re just thinking of it in terms of “it means pathetic” rather than “it refers to disabled people, who are pathetic”, whereas when it comes to “gay”, people are more likely to be thinking “it refers to homosexuals, who are pathetic”.
If people did find my use of lame offensive though, I apologise.
Trillioinaire- brilliant example, which should end the discussion right there 
Yes, a brilliant example, I agree, aqnd I used “lame” without even thinking about it, and thinking about it now, and all the thousands of times I’ve used it in the past hasn’t influended my attitude towards the disabled in the slightest.
I still can’t bring myself to use gay as a negative though, but I will try to in the near future just to see what type of reaction I get from other uptight straight people [ big cheezy grin ]
Thank you all for your input.
David
I once used “gay” negatively in front of a gay friend. I immediately apologized and he responded with “don’t worry, I don’t mind.” But it bothered me and I haven’t used the word that way since, and that was about ten years ago.
When I hear others use it, I kind of make fun of it. For example…
“Ugh, I hate minivans! They’re so gay!”
“Indeed. Minivans are sexually attracted to other vans of the same gender.”
Or the less effective…
“Ugh, I hate when people follow so close on the highway. It’s so gay!”
“Indeed. Following that close is sexually attracted to other distances of the same gender.”
That’s got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.
This thread is so gay.*
*I haven’t seriously used “gay” to mean “stupid” or “bad” in years, unless you count using it ironically, or sarcastically.
(A friend of mine had someone write in her guestbook, “Your site is so gay!” Her reaction? “My website is gay? I didn’t even know it had a gender!”)
“That guy ran into my car!! he’s so gay!” = offensive
“Me and my other guy friend spent all day at The pottery Barn. That’s so gay!” = Not offensive.
Just my opinion of course.