I listened to her on Hannity & Colmes last night.
I agree that her statement that "faggot" isn't offensive to gays was debatable.
I agree with her, since I work regularly with youth, that the young toss the word "faggot" around as a pejorative that doesn't necessarily mean they think the person is a homosexual. In the same way, the real "f" word doesn't necessarily have anything to do with coitus when it gets used.
It was clear to me in the tape replay that she used "faggot" in a parenthetical comment in which Edwards name was outside the parentheses rather than inside.
Her effort at irony hinged on how people aren't allowed to use the word faggot.
This may be a shocker, but I honestly didn't know that such a social convention around the word "faggot" had come to pass. I always believed that a "faggot" was a flaming gay....the overly flamboyent kind like in "The Bird Cage"...flaming, so therefore, faggot.
Baloney. If I called a co-worker a "faggot," I'd be sent to sensitivity training post-haste.
I agree with her, since I work regularly with youth, that the young toss the word "faggot" around as a pejorative that doesn't necessarily mean they think the person is a homosexual.
That is true. It is also true that youth routinely call people motherf--ers, without really meaning that they committed incest with their mom. They call people c--ks---ers without really meaning that people engage in fellatio. The fact that the pejoritive is used without really meaning the sexual connotation doesn't mean that it would be offensive for me to call you a motherf---er or a c--ks---er.
Furthermore, Ann Coulter is not a "youth." She's older than I am, and I can't get away with being called a youth anymore.
Oh, Padre, of course its offensive, at least in polite society, if not on the playground. However, hearing politicians feign offense at name calling reminds me of "Me thinks thou protesteth too much".