~~ really stupid linguistic wibbling...
Sep. 3rd, 2003 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaam i like, the only one that finds the word "gays" kind of offensive?
i don't know what it is, i'm stumped if i try to find a reasonable explanation. it just seems like... i dunno. icky. like something pc-type people would use about "those people with that lifestyle that are really quite nice, and they're normal, actually", and yet... why? it's a perfectly valid plural form of "gay" (which by the way, i'm also not in love with, but am okay with). it's like there's some nuance of usage, but a certain segment of the population..... i dunno!
has anyone else noticed? am i insane?
no matter -what- context i find it in, no matter -what- the person is saying, if they use "gays" as plural, i flinch. it puzzles me, but i suppose there is a possibility that it's not a complete idiosyncrasy. also, "a homosexual" connotates a certain... er... intellectualization of the idea that might be veiling distate, often enough, but i can differentiate between the use of this for "i'm using very formal language for everything" and just some throw-away use, which sets off subliminal alarms. like i said, just "gay" is fine, though it acquires... a weird tinge for me if it's -continuously- used to -describe- someone. as in, "i'm gay" and "that gay man" and "i'm not gay". it's just like... using any epithet would bother me in this way, like, "i'm a woman" and "that woman" and "the woman said". you're obsessing that it's a woman; why?
but the "gays" usage doesn't need to be repeated, as i said. it just connotates "them" to me. like, i'm well aware it's used as a self-label most of the time, too, or is it? i mean... is this a british thing or an american thing? i mean, in america, there's the "gay, bisexual & trans alliance" or the "rainbow alliance" in school-- they don't call themselves queer or anything. sigh. i'm baffled. in the news and media they say "homosexuals", never queers (since it used to be a disparaging term), and, more rarely, "gays".
perhaps i've become sensitized through fanfic. in the sorts of fics/contexts where "gays" or even "gay" is used most often in hp fic, i feel there's a certain... flat-footedness, a certain amount of stereotyping and ignorance and perhaps even slight homophobia i can detect. it's all very subtextual and subtle, but i really think it's there. i can trace a definite correlation in the fics that feel "off" overall in terms of queerness portrayal and the fics that would use the term "gays". and er... i can't really draw a conclusion except to say, "huh."
on a contradictory and futile note, saying "queers" bothers me too. heh.
actually, this is possibly related to how you don't exactly say "straights", do you. you say "heterosexuals", but only in a very specific context. you say you're "straight" (singular) but not plural so much. this is probably a part of why it bothers me.
"gay men" and "gay women" is okay. "so-and-so is gay, btw" is okay-- i suppose because it's an adjective rather than a noun at that point. hmm.
(and all of this does little to address barb's rather interesting essay on the possibilities of seeing harry as metaphorically `gay' within canon, and the use of metaphor in the hp books to denote disenfranchised groups).
i don't know what it is, i'm stumped if i try to find a reasonable explanation. it just seems like... i dunno. icky. like something pc-type people would use about "those people with that lifestyle that are really quite nice, and they're normal, actually", and yet... why? it's a perfectly valid plural form of "gay" (which by the way, i'm also not in love with, but am okay with). it's like there's some nuance of usage, but a certain segment of the population..... i dunno!
has anyone else noticed? am i insane?
no matter -what- context i find it in, no matter -what- the person is saying, if they use "gays" as plural, i flinch. it puzzles me, but i suppose there is a possibility that it's not a complete idiosyncrasy. also, "a homosexual" connotates a certain... er... intellectualization of the idea that might be veiling distate, often enough, but i can differentiate between the use of this for "i'm using very formal language for everything" and just some throw-away use, which sets off subliminal alarms. like i said, just "gay" is fine, though it acquires... a weird tinge for me if it's -continuously- used to -describe- someone. as in, "i'm gay" and "that gay man" and "i'm not gay". it's just like... using any epithet would bother me in this way, like, "i'm a woman" and "that woman" and "the woman said". you're obsessing that it's a woman; why?
but the "gays" usage doesn't need to be repeated, as i said. it just connotates "them" to me. like, i'm well aware it's used as a self-label most of the time, too, or is it? i mean... is this a british thing or an american thing? i mean, in america, there's the "gay, bisexual & trans alliance" or the "rainbow alliance" in school-- they don't call themselves queer or anything. sigh. i'm baffled. in the news and media they say "homosexuals", never queers (since it used to be a disparaging term), and, more rarely, "gays".
perhaps i've become sensitized through fanfic. in the sorts of fics/contexts where "gays" or even "gay" is used most often in hp fic, i feel there's a certain... flat-footedness, a certain amount of stereotyping and ignorance and perhaps even slight homophobia i can detect. it's all very subtextual and subtle, but i really think it's there. i can trace a definite correlation in the fics that feel "off" overall in terms of queerness portrayal and the fics that would use the term "gays". and er... i can't really draw a conclusion except to say, "huh."
on a contradictory and futile note, saying "queers" bothers me too. heh.
actually, this is possibly related to how you don't exactly say "straights", do you. you say "heterosexuals", but only in a very specific context. you say you're "straight" (singular) but not plural so much. this is probably a part of why it bothers me.
"gay men" and "gay women" is okay. "so-and-so is gay, btw" is okay-- i suppose because it's an adjective rather than a noun at that point. hmm.
(and all of this does little to address barb's rather interesting essay on the possibilities of seeing harry as metaphorically `gay' within canon, and the use of metaphor in the hp books to denote disenfranchised groups).
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-04 09:38 am (UTC)i'm becoming almost completely convinced that this is definitely significantly because of the grammar error. like, "a gay" just totally makes me flinch as well. like, because "a gay man" is totally fine, not that it's great or anything, but.
yeah. i don't even know where it comes from. it's not like people say "a white" or "a sad". it's just wrong, evil and wrong~:) plurarilizing adjectives: just say no >:D<