But fag means cigarette!

[Hyena Dandy]

I'm really tired of people throwing the word 'fag' around wildly. And when I ask them to stop, and tell them I really don't like that, they say "Oh, but fag means cigarette/bundle of sticks/whatever!"

And it's like... Yeah, sure, you were saying people who don't like what you like, or who do something you don't like, are bundles of sticks. >_> It annoys me when people use it, but that's just because it bothers me. I don't mind people using it not around me. But I really hate being told that my feelings are invalid because fag means cigarette/sticks/whatever and they weren't using it to mean gays, you stupid bundle of sticks...

[Jaden]

This is one of my more immature habits I've, thankfully, mostly managed to break myself out of, that is, using "fag" or "gay" as a casual insult. It was mostly just due to environment, growing up with my male friends who used it throughout high school. Eventually, though, I asked myself, "Why on earth should I feel comfortable using words that are used as hate speech towards gay people when I would never use words that were used as hate speech anybody else?" So I've stopped, and I think using those words as insults is incredibly stupid, immature, and hurtful. People are just fooling themselves when they say they're just using to mean cigarette, despite using it as an insult

[HYHYBT]

Hyena: how old are the people you hang around, ten?

[siead_lietrathua]

i dunno, i'm admittidly torn on this one. i hang with a fairly diverse crowd, and some of my friends will call eachother gay or fag as a taunt. but then within 5 minutes be slapping eachother's arses and flirting. so i know they arent saying it out of homophobia. :/

[DrFaroohk]

"Fag" and "Gay" do NOT mean homosexual. Guess what, they NEVER EVER DID.

I'm sure some people pretend it means that, but it doesn't. I say Fag and Gay all the time. Am I talking about homosexuals? Nope. I'm just using it for people or things I don't like.

My personal stance on words like that and other words: If it can mean two things, then it means whatever the person saying it say it means. If you disagree, tough shit. It means two things and you can never really prove what that person meant. Like that sports guy who said "Chink", but not as a racial slur. It MEANS TWO THINGS.

[Jaden]

"Fag" and "Gay" do NOT mean homosexual. Guess what, they NEVER EVER DID.

I'm sure some people pretend it means that, but it doesn't. I say Fag and Gay all the time. Am I talking about homosexuals? Nope. I'm just using it for people or things I don't like.

My personal stance on words like that and other words: If it can mean two things, then it means whatever the person saying it say it means. If you disagree, tough shit. It means two things and you can never really prove what that person meant. Like that sports guy who said "Chink", but not as a racial slur. It MEANS TWO THINGS.

Literally the first two definitions on dictionary.com of "gay" are homosexual, or indicating homosexual interests and issues. Are you calling the things you don't like happy? If you really want to claim that, fine, but everybody's just going to roll their eyes at you given how disingenuous it is.

You don't get to decide what words mean. The English language, the dictionary, and context get to decide that. If you disagree, tough shit

[Silverharp]

The original meaning were far different, but unfortunately social use now equates "gay" and "fag" to be homosexual, just like "queer" originally meant "strange and unusual"

[BlaqueKatt]

my co-worker Sean would be more than happy to lend you all* his multi-purpose word for all things stupid and or ridiculous.....the word is "clownshoe"

Usage-some of these stories on the internet are totally clownshoe, or, The laws that congress is considering passing are clownshoe.

it's a great word.


*seriously he gets all kinds of happy every time someone other than him uses it, the first time I said it in front of him, he stopped smiled and said, "you used clownshoe in a sentence, you have no idea how happy that makes me!"

[Nekojin]

"Fag" and "Gay" do NOT mean homosexual. Guess what, they NEVER EVER DID.

I'm sure some people pretend it means that, but it doesn't. I say Fag and Gay all the time. Am I talking about homosexuals? Nope. I'm just using it for people or things I don't like.

My personal stance on words like that and other words: If it can mean two things, then it means whatever the person saying it say it means. If you disagree, tough shit. It means two things and you can never really prove what that person meant. Like that sports guy who said "Chink", but not as a racial slur. It MEANS TWO THINGS.

Context, dude. Context tells us how you mean it. When you're using it as a derogatory term ("That's so gay!" or "He did what? What a fag."), you're using it to denigrate both whatever you're talking about AND homosexuals, even if you don't actually have homosexuals in mind when you say it.

Pick a new word, as BlaqueKatt suggests. Might I suggest "jackass"?

[Ginger Tea]

Well gay meant happy during the time of writing the Flintstones theme song, so I've no idea when it got switched around to it's current meaning being the dominant/only definition of the word.

Over here we don't use Fag in that way, oh trust me we have many a word to substitute, but I can not see any UK teenagers on XBLive calling people a packet of cig's, I think I would be calling someone a 'right combine harvester' long before I call em a packet of cigs.

[Nyoibo]

"Fag" and "Gay" do NOT mean homosexual. Guess what, they NEVER EVER DID.

I'm sure some people pretend it means that, but it doesn't. I say Fag and Gay all the time. Am I talking about homosexuals? Nope. I'm just using it for people or things I don't like.

My personal stance on words like that and other words: If it can mean two things, then it means whatever the person saying it say it means. If you disagree, tough shit. It means two things and you can never really prove what that person meant. Like that sports guy who said "Chink", but not as a racial slur. It MEANS TWO THINGS.

So, what, you're saying that you're calling someone you don't like happy? a bundle of sticks? a cigarette?

[bex1218]

I hate when people give the excuse that its offensive to *ALL* of the LGBT community. If I was truely offended by it, I would not say such things. I have friends who are and friends who could give a shit. I tend to ask first. If they are, I try not to say such things. I apologize if it slips out.

[fireheart17]

Well gay meant happy during the time of writing the Flintstones theme song, so I've no idea when it got switched around to it's current meaning being the dominant/only definition of the word.

I have a sneaking suspicion that "gay" as a term to refer to homosexual men (more so) was born out of the idea that homosexual men in general are supposedly more flamboyant than your average straight blue-collar worker i.e. "Happy all the time."

So really I see it as a mix of a compliment and an insult. I don't use fag or gay as an insult or as a curse word, usually more "that sucks" or "aw man" are my non-swearing alternatives (which I really need to practice more often since I'm going into a school!)

[jackfaire]

If it's ever been used as a derogatory term and your using it in a "that's stupid" kind of way you are doing so because it became a derogatory term.

I don't care if you think gay people are the most awesome things since sliced bread.

If you said, "That's nigger" and meant "that's stupid" your using it that way because it's recognized as a bad thing.

Being gay is bad thus calling something gay is calling it bad.

Whether you are personally a believer that being gay is bad that is the only reason the word works in your context of saying something is bad the same with Fag.

You couldn't say, "that's sunny" and have anyone think you were calling something bad or "that's straight" It simply doesn't work.

[SongsOfDragons]

My auntie's name was Gay. She was only born in the 60s.

The last song I heard that had the lyrics include the word 'Gay' was a German Eurovision song some years ago, Let's Get Happy. It's a good song too ^^ though that usage may be from the German mother-tongue writer(s) not realising or ignoring the modern social use - or they decided it rhymed well anyway