Styleforum › Forums › General › General Chat › Dumb but Honest Question
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Dumb but Honest Question

post #1 of 16
11/1/10 at 12:57am
Thread Starter 
Is faggot offensive to gays, like Nigger is to Blacks , Kike is to Jews and so on?
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 16
11/1/10 at 1:18am
like the n-word to blacks and k-word to jews, I think the only time it's not offensive is if someone from that community's saying it, in a non-serious manner.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 16
11/1/10 at 3:12am
Depends. If you're British then its a cigarette. If you're old school, or past the age of 60, then fag probably = sissy. Queer was used to single out homo's back then.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 16
11/1/10 at 3:17am
Yes.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 16
11/1/10 at 8:33am
In the south its a go-to insult for anyone. Outside you can assume its a specific reference to homosexuality.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 16
11/1/10 at 9:45am
As a black guy, I'd think you'd know that it is definitely offensive when uttered by a stranger as a slur, but can have a whole host of different grades of meaning depending on context.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 16
11/1/10 at 9:49pm
faggot harkens back to the times when homosexuals were burned alive. Put another faggot on the fire. I can see how that can be offensive, when put into context.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 16
11/1/10 at 10:35pm
Good rule of thumb: If a word is used to insult somebody based on an innate characteristic, it is offensive. Those words exist not to describe something, but rather as an insult that carries all the baggage associated with that characteristic and can't be defended against. It can be context-specific if it's not used to carry the loaded meaning as an insult (by members of the same group, for example), but that still doesn't make it OK to everyone.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 16
11/2/10 at 12:54am
This reminds me of some of Mike Tyson's insults. Like, "You're sweet. I'm going to make sure you kiss me good with those big lips. I'm gonna make you my girlfriend." And the classic, "I'll fuck you 'til you love me, faggot." (watch until the end)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later.       I AGREE

TIP: to embed Youtube clips, put only the encoded part of the Youtube URL, e.g. eBGIQ7ZuuiU between the tags.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 16
11/2/10 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AgentQ View Post
This reminds me of some of Mike Tyson's insults. Like, "You're sweet. I'm going to make sure you kiss me good with those big lips. I'm gonna make you my girlfriend." And the classic, "I'll fuck you 'til you love me, faggot." (watch until the end)Wow
IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later.       I AGREE

TIP: to embed Youtube clips, put only the encoded part of the Youtube URL, e.g. eBGIQ7ZuuiU between the tags.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 16
11/3/10 at 2:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CharlieAngel View Post
faggot harkens back to the times when homosexuals were burned alive. Put another faggot on the fire. I can see how that can be offensive, when put into context.

Hence the adjective "flaming", as in flaming homosexual, flaming faggot, etc.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 16
11/3/10 at 2:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CharlieAngel View Post
faggot harkens back to the times when homosexuals were burned alive. Put another faggot on the fire. I can see how that can be offensive, when put into context.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lone Wolf View Post
Hence the adjective "flaming", as in flaming homosexual, flaming faggot, etc.

No.

From Dictionary.com:

Quote:
"male homosexual," 1914, Amer.Eng. slang (shortened form fag is from 1921), probably from earlier contemptuous term for "woman" (1591), especially an old and unpleasant one, in reference to faggot (1) "bundle of sticks," as something awkward that has to be carried (cf. baggage ). It was used in this sense in 20c. by D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce, among others. It may also be reinforced by Yiddish faygele "homosexual," lit. "little bird." It also may have roots in Brit. public school slang fag "a junior who does certain duties for a senior" (1785), with suggestions of "catamite," from fag (v.). This was also used as a verb.

"He [the prefect] used to fag me to blow the chapel organ for him." ["Boy's Own Paper," 1889]

Other obsolete senses of faggot were "man hired into military service simply to fill out the ranks at muster" (1700) and "vote manufactured for party purposes" (1817). The oft-heard statement that male homosexuals were called faggots in reference to their being burned at the stake is an etymological urban legend. Burning was sometimes a punishment meted out to homosexuals in Christian Europe (on the suggestion of the Biblical fate of Sodom and Gomorah), but in England, where parliament had made homosexuality a capital offense in 1533, hanging was the method prescribed. Any use of faggot in connection with public executions had long become an English historical obscurity by the time the word began to be used for "male homosexual" in 20th century American slang, whereas the contemptuous slang word for "woman" (and the other possible sources or influences listed here) was in active use.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 16
11/3/10 at 3:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrG View Post
No.

From Dictionary.com:

It seems every word/phrase with an apocryphal etymology is not correct.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 16
11/4/10 at 4:34am
Anyone who has been young and gay, or even young and somewhat effeminate, has almost certainly been called a faggot. By other young people and even by adults. (One of my teachers called me a faggot once!) There's no way you could fail to notice the pejorative sense of the term. In fact, use of the term was typically accompanied by a threat of violence. If you are gay, then, you've probably spent most of your life very keenly aware of what the term means.

Gays have made some effort to co-opt the term. In my experience, gays will sometimes use "fag" affectionately. But I haven't heard "faggot" used affectionately nearly as often.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 16
11/4/10 at 5:34am


Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: General Chat
Styleforum › Forums › General › General Chat › Dumb but Honest Question