"Getz is Gay"

Ahh, good 'ol 'Murrica. Where we give more of a shit about the words that hurt people than about the people who were actually hurt.

 

Yup.

 

Until we stop treating the term 'gay' as a disparaging remark, this is not okay. Would it be okay if he used the 'n' word?

 

And how many NBA players use the N word when they're talking to their boys? Total double standard. Not trying to justify it, just saying the N word gets abused and misused just as much.

 

Only fat people can make fun of other fat people. I am so offended.

 

Different context entirely. I can use the term 'girls' when I'm talking with my female friends. When a client calls me a 'girl', it pisses me off. Using the term 'gay' as an insult is unacceptable, as is 'retarded'.

 

Tell 100 people an untrue rumor was going to be spread about them on the internet, and it will be one of the following . . . .

---- XXXXXXX cheated on his taxes.

---- XXXXXXX is gay.

The first one is illegal. The second "is nothing to be ashamed about."

Given a choice, how many people would rather have the second rumor made public?

In other words, it's a disparaging remark even to those who claim it shouldn't be. Because deep down people aren't honest about such things.

 

People laugh at Spicoli, not with him. That was the point. It's like I posted early on in the thread. You can pull off that kind of humor in certain contexts. We aren't laughing because we think it's a hilarious insult that Jeff Spicoli called the other surfers a fag. Quite the contrary. It's funny because Spicoli is such a juvenile cartoon character that of course he would think that's an appropriate thing to say to insult someone. He doesn't know any better. He's a moron. That's what's funny about it. Same general reason we laugh at Archie Bunker. Or Ed O'Neill being uncomfortable with his son's homosexuality on "Modern Family."

 

And then it's OK?

 

I would imagine that 99 percent of us were made fun of something as a kid. I think we lived to survive it. There's a difference between persistent bullying and an occasional jab. There's also a difference in viciousness and this particular example. The way some of you speak of it, every use of the word in whatever use is Matthew Shepherd all over again. HUGE difference, though you can't see it.

 

A good-natured jab at a gay friend who then gives me a good-natured jab about something like my clutziness? For sure.

A good-natured jab at a fellow straight jock in broad daylight - hell, in the locker room? Completely different.

Seems like this happened somewhere else recently. Maybe even with the Blackhawks. Except on a dry erase or chalkboard. My memory is hazy.

Yep, here it is. Patrick Kane:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Pronger-mocked-during-Blackhawks-locker-room-ce?urn=nhl-247420

You want to keep company with that neanderathal, be my guest, my friend.

I'm far less "outraged" than I am just a little tired of the fratboy culture in locker rooms at this point. And I say that as someone who, I'm quite sure, participated in it at points in his life, be it in high school or even college IMs. I'm sure I scrawled something about someone being gay on the frat house walls at some point. Or made these kinds of jokes. Then I grew up. I think some of us are just impatient for a generation of boys to come through who don't think of "gay" as an insult any more.

 

Then let them grow up, like you grew up. Don't try to legislate it.