Reply With QuoteThe word "gay" is hardly literal anymore. It's definitely steering away from actual homosexuality. It's better that way.
A week ago a campaign against domestic abuse (specially focus to the abuse against womans) started and the slogan is the following -Fag, is the one who hit a woman-. When I first saw the image I start thinking "Is it right to use the word Fag as pejorative to call mans who hit their wifes? at the end you are using the word with the same denotation as it has always had, the only difference is that you named the ones who hit their wifes". But also the representative of this campaign is gay (does the LGBTQ of here approved the slogan of the campaign?).
So I didn't give any more though to this and the LGBTQ said no word about it either, so I guess everything was ok. But today a lot of letters start coming from homophobic groups about how the denotation of Fag is tried to be changed and blaming tv channels to trying to change the denotation of the word.
So is this people showing us how the denotation of the word is changing? or the denotation will keep being the same, and will only change the insulted? At the moment the only ones who are angry are homophobics because they don't want the denotation of word to change.
The word "gay" is hardly literal anymore. It's definitely steering away from actual homosexuality. It's better that way.
That's like saying there's nothing uncomfortable or disquieting if we suddenly decided to use the word "nigger" to describe people who are loud and poorly behaved, regardless of race.
The word 'fag' and other anti-gay pejoratives are inextricably linked with a history of anti-gay sentiment and hatred. And still heavily used in that context.
Also while I know the heart is in the right place, I'm reminded of a series of TV ads which went along the lines of "you taught him to throw a ball, you taught him to ride a bike, but what else will you teach him?" while a kid watched as his father abused his mother, and then the end stinger of "violence against women is always wrong."
Really we ought to be instilling the idea that violence against anyone outside of rarefied contexts is wrong. Men who hit women aren't 'fags' men who hit anyone for any reason outside of self defense and a handful of others are 'fags'.
EDIT: Also using "men who hit women are fags" is still heavily homophobic, come to think of it. It's clearly tying in masculinity and machismo and contrasting it to homosexuality. The man is a fag because hitting women is weak and feminine - it's gay and not a thing macho men do. It's still drawing a strong connection between femininity and male homosexuality and portraying both things as bad.
Simply put, people always thought of gey's as a bad thing so as with other *bad things* they'll use it to portray something bad.
Problem?
Originally Posted by GunZet
Agreed.
I can see why they would use fag in such a way because we as lgbt people do not identify ourselves as "fags". Other people think we are fags and associate the word with us in a negative way so using it as an insult against anyone is insulting to us. Using it in this campaign is saying " a man who hits a woman is a man who is so morally irreprehensible that he is gay.".
There is this stereotype that I keep hearing now that I haven't heard in forever and it's irritating "gay guys hate women. Even lesbians.". That makes no sense. I am more comfortable around women than men. I am jealous of women because it would just be so much easier (on me) had I been born a girl.
Actually I don't think it's that men who hit women are as bad as gays. I think it's got more to do with machismo. It's both homophobic and misogynistic. It's saying that women are weak and helpless little snowflakes so any man who would hit them is clearly not very manly because he is so weak he can only fight women. Real men hit men, but faggy men hit women because they are weak.
I see your point and that does make sense.
One time I watched HGTV and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Should I be concerned?
I believe the point of the campaign is what Kodo says, like trying to say "a macho man doesn't hit womans", but also I believe it can be read as Psy says "you are so bad as a gay person". And the whole slogan is made for misunderstood it (bad = gay, macho don't hit womans, gays do hit womans, etc).
So that is why I never liked the slogan and always found it very odd. But also it is made to generate noise in the public, like a troll campaign, and obviously the hate letters are the prove that the slogan works. But again, it's not the best idea to keep reaffirming this pejorative word.
you should be concerned cuz that channel's boring as hell
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