That's Gay.

[Epic Fail 1977]

I once house shared with a gay guy. We used to play some sort of fighting game (Street Fighter or similar) on his console. He was much better at it than me, which resulted in a constant stream of profanities from my mouth. Bastard! That's so fucking gay! You gay bastard! You're so gay! And so on. This went on for about a week before one day, during a game, it dawned on me what I was actually saying (yes I really am that slow). I apologised and he shrugged it off and said it didn't bother him, but I wasn't convinced so I made myself get out of the habit of saying that stuff. That was 12 years ago. I still swear a lot, but I never use "gay" as a curse.

If I can do it, anyone can.

 

[Servantes]

I really think its a phase of insults or finding a better word to describe the situation, because when I was about 9 all the way up to 18 years old I used to say "gay" as a insult or pissed off response, now id say:

Typing the last letter of a text, phone battery runs out.
Response: PIECE OF SHIT!

Go look for keys to shed in house for half an hour, in pocket the whole time.
Response: FUCKING IDIOT! (to myself, yeah amazink?)

Buy something from vending machine, it doesn't come out.
Response: (after kicking the machine) WHAT THE HELL!?

 

[Foxblade618]

Anything that demeans a group of people, be it intentional or not should be avoided. Just courtesy really, showing some respect for your fellow man and all. People that hide behind the defense of 'oh, it's ok, I am (insert whatever word here)' are just as bad as I feel like that kind of attitude leads to self-destruction.

OT: I have been trying to bring back Zounds, it's not going so well though. Zeus doesn't have the same kind of pull he used to have, poor chap.

 

[Thundero13]

I am a gay guy and this annoys me to no end, so i've put out dorito as non-insulting slang to mean gay (like homosexual gay), as for what you're saying, I dunno sometimes I say that's so straight just to annoy people & whenever people do something that actually is gay then I say that's so gay eg guys hugging, guys groping eachother, guys pretending to have sex, guys that like wrestling/boxing. you'd be suprised how often this comes up in a school that has one actual gay guy in it.

 

[Phalene]

I think I'll keep using it, thank you very much.

P.C. bullshit is the reason the word "******" has mutated from just a common word to refer to a black person into a hateful slur against an oppressed minority, which has now made it impossibly derogatory if spoken by anyone but a black person.

Historical accuracy and you, they don't get along very well, do they? Do you have anything to back up your claim, or did you just yank that from your hat because it sounded cool?

Thirty goddamn seconds on Wikipedia browsing the word "******" would've shown the proof of what I'm saying. It was once a common enough word to be used in anything from book titles to movies- and now any time it's used in a song, the song itself is completely banned from Grammy consideration. Look up the book "Ten Little Niggers" and the movie "Boss ******".

You can shut up now.

On the other hand, you didn't answer my question, you merely pointed to a historical time when it was appropriate. Once upon a time it was also appropriate to refer to a black man of any age as "boy", from youth to old and grey. So no, I'm not going to shut up because you have no proof it was strictly the PC police who had a motive to drop the word from common use.

If you actually consider the historical context under which it was used, you'd actually have been able to answer my question, but evidently I wasn't clear about what I'm objecting to.

****** fell out of popular usage because of the negative association with a particular kind of context. It wasn't just used to describe a skin colour, but with class and respect issues built in- it was more of an ethnic term. Hence phrases we don't use anymore like "working like a ******" (working hard, for little reward) or "he's my ******" (he's my servant, he does whatever I want). It's not like some group of nervous Nellies woke up one morning and started freaking out.

I might still say "I am buying a scarf for my friend, what colour do you think will suit her? She's black, very dark." but if I say "My friend is a ******." I will have carried entirely different connotations to the table, and these will be other than the amount of radiation her ancestors got exposed to. Further more this meaning will have existed prior to when we dropped the word from polite circulation.

****** is not the only word that got rejected- "villain" used to be another word for peasant. Nonetheless, because I'm not an insensitive clod I know better than to tell people "Statistically speaking you are descended from a vast number of villains." People today know the word in its current meaning, because of the context it has been used in (evolving from "rude and thuggish, without honour" to "nefarious and evil") changed in the same sense that ****** went from "oh look, there's brown people over there!" to "carry my stuff, *****!"

 

[i7omahawki]

Words don't matter, meaning and context do.
If you're not a homophobe then you're not a homophobe, so it doesn't matter.

Words always matter. Your person feelings on gay people don't matter, if you're saying "that's gay", you're not only associating being gay with whatever the bad thing you're describing it as, you're also saying to everyone else that it's ok to describe this group of people negatively, and that it's ok to use language like that.

That would be the meaning and context, which you've constructed entirely by yourself. Words don't really matter a bit, I think the driving factor is actually the phonetics of that word, not the shared meaning with homosexual people.

Homosexual, for instance, when pronounced right (as in \ˌhō-mə-ˈsek-sh(ə-)wəl, -ˈsek-shəl\), isn't used in this way at all. Imagine someone saying 'that is so homosexual' unironically. This is despite it having exactly the same meaning as 'gay'. The word is either shortened to 'Homo' or pronounced something like 'Hommasecshual' when being used in a derogatory way.

It's generally just perceived as being immature though, and rightly so. But I think it could be separated, by using 'ghey' to differentiate it perhaps. Maybe 'homo' could be used as meaning 'samey' too, instead of meaning gay. The phonetics of the word are great, and if they didn't offend or chastise anyone then I'd use them everyday.

EDIT:

I am a gay guy and this annoys me to no end, so i've put out dorito as non-insulting slang to mean gay (like homosexual gay)

Haha that's fantastic. It'd be pretty hard to use that in a derogatory way to describe anything. "That is so dorito..." "- I'm sorry what?"

 

[Cliff_m85]

I've actually trained myself not to use 'gay' like that anymore. I usually just say, "That's dumb," "Shit," or "BLUBLUGYUH."

Thank you! That actually means a lot ^^

I don't understand this. Curse words tend to rarely mean what they literally are. I go by Lenny Bruce's philosophy that overuse kills the offensiveness.

Cracker is no longer really offensive. Honky isn't offensive. Fuck, shit, dammit are all kosher nowadays and produce yawns. It seems like the only offensive words are the words that are repressed, such as '****' or '******'. I can't think of any other words that produce such a literal gut-punch. But then we take the word '****' and examine it in America in comparison to England and we see a staggering difference. Americans rarely use the word so = super offensive. The English use the word quite a bit so it's nothing at all to them.

So I'd assume that overusing the word 'gay' would actually be better. Kill it off and end the offensiveness, really.

 

[Kanaan Brood]

Shit is usually the first word that comes to mind.

 

[Hollock]

I say lame. I only say that's gay when someones being racist and I only say racist things when people say that's gay.

 

[shiaramoon]

For me, depending on the situation, I may just facepalm at myself and/or laugh it off. If I feel like uttering something verbal I usually go with a nice sarcastic "joy". Rather than, as the OP put it, getting the words to reflect the meaning, I go with the sarcastic approach. Works for me

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Normally I would substitute that's so gay with that's retarded. But, I'm guessing this thread is about being politically correct, so I really can't use that... I guess I don't really have another substitute.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Meh. If none of my gay friends have a problem with it (and many use it themselves), I see no issue with it. I tend to not surround myself with people of such weak and pussified sensibilities. Nobody has the right to not be offended, so I don't much care if anyone actually is.

On top of all that, there are much better words to use.

And on top of ALL OF THAT, what business of yours is it what I say in the privacy of my own fucking home?

We've already got a word for something that is bland, boring, not groundbreaking, or otherwise just "meh"...we say "That's so vanilla." I vote we change it to "That's so lower-middle class white male,' just to see how pussified everyone has really gotten.

 

[Johnny Impact]

http://www.georgecarlin.com/dirty/2443.html
That ought to keep you busy. Mix and match as needed.

I only bust out "gay" as an insult for things I feel are really deserving, i.e. that remind me of bad homosexual stereotypes.

If I'm mildly upset I just let a swear word go under my breath. If I'm really upset I construct monolithic diatribes on the exact NATURE of the STAGGERING array of CATACLYSMIC errors that could POSSIBLY have allowed this WASTE OF SPACE/OXYGEN/SKIN/ETC to NOT ONLY be conceived in the first place, but to actually REACH CHRONOLOGICAL ADULTHOOD only to..........you get the idea.

 

[Super Toast]

Yeah, I say it. This reminds me of that South Park episode where the four main kids refer to Harley Riders as fags. The meaning has completely changed from generation to generation.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

I've actually trained myself not to use 'gay' like that anymore. I usually just say, "That's dumb," "Shit," or "BLUBLUGYUH."

Thank you! That actually means a lot ^^

I don't understand this. Curse words tend to rarely mean what they literally are. I go by Lenny Bruce's philosophy that overuse kills the offensiveness.

Cracker is no longer really offensive. Honky isn't offensive. Fuck, shit, dammit are all kosher nowadays and produce yawns. It seems like the only offensive words are the words that are repressed, such as '****' or '******'. I can't think of any other words that produce such a literal gut-punch. But then we take the word '****' and examine it in America in comparison to England and we see a staggering difference. Americans rarely use the word so = super offensive. The English use the word quite a bit so it's nothing at all to them.

So I'd assume that overusing the word 'gay' would actually be better. Kill it off and end the offensiveness, really.

I concur and, despite being American, use "****" more alone the English level of "eh" cursing.

Killing off the offensiveness of "gay" sounds like a good plan to me as well. It has already evolved to be a word with entirely different intentions/interpretations based on varying factors that fluctuate too rapidly by context alone. For example, the OP's use of the word really does not bring to mind something is "homosexual," but rather, it is a vague pejorative. Usually under standard contexts, it can be easily replaced by "stupid," "retarded," "dumb," or, if we want to get interesting, "nonsensical," "insipid," or "vacuous." I myself never associate any of those types of applicable scenarios (where it is not meant as a word regarding homosexuals) with anything positive or negative about gay people, let alone anything to do with them anymore. Part of me blames that on South Park, though, haha!

To answer the OP's intended query, however, I like to invent curses. Everyone probably is familiar(ish) with "Dicktits" from all of that news on this site about a certain Epic Games game, so use that as inspiration until you find a curse that is harsh to the ear, yet easy to say in a bind where it is needed. Also, I should mention that "Dicktits" was on an episode of South Park, and I think it may have pre-dated the video game's usage.

 

[LeafofStone]

See to me, the best option for cussing is just taking a note from Terry Pratchett and improvise some ridiculously long insult which basically translates into "bloody pillock"

 

[herts]

Two things... first, I've never understood, for lack of a better term, "reflexive vocabulary". I've never said anything out of habit of saying it. Just don't get it.

Second, more on topic, whenever I use the term "that's gay" I'm being deliberately douchy or ironic (usually both) and it's all just for a laugh. And I usually get at least a chuckle, even from my gay friends.

Which brings up a bit of a question to any gay people of the Escapist, do you mind if your friends use that terminology in the way I do? I've even called one of my gay friends "******" as a joke once or twice, and his answer was "Heh, yup."

That a norm or a rarity? Sorry if the question seems a bit insensitive.

Nope, I use gay in that context too. It's just how it was used as a was growing up in school with friends etc. I'm gay and I really don't find it offensive at all.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I use it often, for the early 90's nostalgia. Context is important, and I mind manners around people I think might be offended.

 

[Saelune]

Stupid, dumb, annoying, irritating, bothersome, trite, weird, wrong, bad, gross, disturbing, awful, terrible, corny, lame, odd......

No excuses.

 

[hailfire]

what is really so wrong about saying "that's gay"? do people really get offended that easily by things?