Fudgepacker power ! Can ya mash it ? Sho 'nuff !
Posted on 07/06/2007 4:19:18 PM PDT by tuesday afternoon
The Washington Post published a pro-gay editorial today about marriage. And that's great. But they called us "homosexuals" throughout the piece, and that's not great. It's degrading and offensive and archaic.
I've written about this before, and some have disagreed. But I'd argue that those who disagree don't understand the nuance of language or of this particular phrase. Ask any gay person, regardless of whether they agree or disagree that the word "homosexual" is archaic and offensive, whether they use the term "gay" or "homosexual" to described themselves. I.e., "I'm gay" or "I'm a homosexual." Just ask them. Unless they're living under a rock, gay people rarely if ever use the word homosexual. (My gay-friendly straight friends, however, use the term all the time. In the same way that I still hear friends use the word "oriental.")
Why? First, because it's become archaic. Usage changes, and just as Negro and colored changed to black and African-American, just as oriental gave way to Asian, homosexual has become gay. But second, and more importantly, the word homosexual is offensive in the same manner as negro and oriental. Sometimes archaic words sting. In the case of homosexual, I think the main problem is three-fold. First, the clinical nature of the term. It's a scientific word that mildly dehumanizes gay people by suggesting that they have a medical or psychological condition. Second, the words "homo" and "sex." Both words connote something negative, or at least something that shouldn't be spoken out loud, to a lot of Americans. Third, and most importantly, homosexual is the word the religious right uses expressly and uniquely in an effort to dehumanize gays. Anti-gay religious right activists have said publicly that they will not use the word "gay" - rather, they insist on using "homosexual." Why? Because for some reason or another they figure that the word homosexual helps their cause. And while I don't agree with the religious right on many things, their ability to gay-bash swiftly and effectively is unqestioned. If they think the word gay helps us and the word homosexual hurts us, who am I to argue?
Again, I don't mean to opinionated about it, but if you don't hear the negative nuance in the word homosexual, it's either because you're not listening, or more likely, you don't have an ear for language. There's a reason that colored and Negro and oriental weren't offensive terms years ago, yet are today. The nuance of words changes over time. And while gays were once thought to be mentally disturbed - that all changed in 1973 - the language has not changed since that time.
It's time it did.
PS Don't believe me? Read what a communications professional has to say about this. (Actually, I hadn't read his piece until after I wrote mine, but the logic is remarkably similar.) Also, check out this recent editorial in the lead gay newspaper in the US.
As I read this thing’s screed, I kept hearing his high pitched, lilting, lispy voice, “I’m a fudge packer, yes I am”. So to use his language, “fudge packer” surely connotes exactly what this queen is.
A point well taken. From now on, this FReeper will take pains to avoid that mistake.
I just read the first chapter of “The Marketing of Evil”
It was most interesting explanation of how simple old marketing techniques have taken us to this point!
SODOMITES.
Which proves again that Ann Coulter is always ahead of the curve.
So the "relgious right" "dehumanizes" gays?
Then what is it that the "secular left" does to unborn children?
They delifeanize them.
Fudgepacker power ! Can ya mash it ? Sho 'nuff !
How about sick perverts who lust after other men?
Fantastic. “Sodomite” it is. Or if that is too archaic, “Butt-Pirate.”
After all, the terms are accurate and specific.
I’ll do him one better: he has self-identified as having a homosexual orientation.
There! I feel LOTS BETTER!
I am so sick and tired of hearing anything about homosexuals. They offend me.
I still can’t figure out what the difference between gay and lesbian is. Are women who are lesbians, gay or not?
In 2000, John Aravosis launched an innovative grassroots effort called StopDrLaura.com that was profiled by Salon.com
a gay activist and blogger. Aravosis, an attorney who lives in Washington, D.C., is the founder of Americablog and a co-founder of StopDrLaura.com.
Aravosis is a lawyer and worked on Capitol Hill as a foreign policy advisor for Ted Stevens, a right-wing Republican senator in the late 1980s and early 1990s before becoming a Democratic activist. John has a joint law degree and masters in foreign service from Georgetown, where he studied under former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
In 2004, Aravosis launched a campaign against vice presidential daughter Mary Cheney for accepting a $100,000 a year job running the vice president’s re-election campaign while the campaign was making a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage one of its priorities.[citation needed] Aravosis’ Web site, DearMary.com, was immediately profiled in Newsweek and the Washington Post, and his image of Mary on a milk carton “Have you seen me?” was reproduced widely.
In 2005, Aravosis outed Jeff Gannon as “a conservative operative and as an alleged male prostitute”
In 2005, Aravosis took on Microsoft and Bill Gates for their embrace of anti-gay bigotry. In response to complaints from the religious groups[citation needed], Microsoft pulled its support for a Washington state gay rights bill and then said it was rethinking its support for civil rights nationwide.[citation needed] Aravosis [4] launched a campaign to highlight Microsoft’s change of heart, and after a month of nationwide bad publicity, Microsoft recommitted itself to the civil rights battle.
In 2005, Aravosis also took on the Ford Motor Company when, the request of the religious groups[citation needed], Ford was pulling its support for gay advertising and gay organizations.[citation needed] Ford maintained that it was re-structuring its advertising for business reasons unrelated to any social agenda, and, indeed, Ford continued to buy advertising space in gay media for its Volvo division.[citation needed] Aravosis launched a campaign on his blog to get Ford to recommit itself to the gay market, even though Volvo pulled advertisements[citation needed], Ford never left the gay market.
Aravosis also started hosting his own Internet televisionshow,[citation needed] DemsTV, which aims to fight the far right[citation needed]. As of February 2006, DemsTV became PoliticsTV,[citation needed] restructured its program, and added many specials
Aravosis served as the “online organizer” at the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF).
John Aravosis, a Washington lawyer and gay rights activist who writes at Americablog.com. “We believe the right has a whole media network, from talk radio to Fox News to Matt Drudge. The left doesn’t have that because the left doesn’t play well with others.”
having served five years as a legislative attorney for US Senator Ted Stevens, and assisting on the campaigns of Senators Ted Kennedy and Chuck Robb.
He hails from Chicago, and still considers it home even though he came to DC 21 years ago for law school and graduate school and somehow got trapped. By the way, that would be Bill Clinton’s hand on his shoulder in the picture (not kidding, seriously).
I refuse to call them gay.....I’d prefer to call them queer....and too may are friggin crybabies...I think the beef about oriental and negro is overplayed too...waaay
anyone hear MLK’s oratory?
negro this...negro that.....good enough for him it oughta be good enough for today’s poseurs
African American is insulting to me...what?...being just American ain’t goo enuff?.....what about Afrikaaners or Arabs in North Africa?
and oriental.....it’s a pain in the ass to call all of them asian....what if they are Indian or Bangladeshi?
Oriental means having mongoloid race physical features.
it’s not demeaning unless folks make it so
peckerwood/out
Bisexual men are homosexuals or are very drunk straight men and been had by a tranny.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.