This man is gay
Three-letter word reclaimed by homophobes
How do you feel about this? I don't wish to be a killjoy, but I'm uneasy. The facts are this: the BBC governors defended X Factor loser Chris Moyles' use of the word "gay" on his Radio 1 show in July last year (the complaints precedure certainly moves fast!). He described a ringtone on-air as "gay", implying it was bad. The governors, who are down with the kids, said the use of the word gay to mean "lame" or "rubbish" was widespread among young people, and it was "to be expected" that the Radio 1 DJ would use similar expressions. Groups like Stonewall and Beat Bullying don't agree that it's "expected" or acceptable. As a spokesman for the latter said: "While the BBC claims the word gay has evolved into meaning 'lame', this is only because people identify being called gay as undesirable, therefore giving power to that term." I have heard young people use the word "gay" to mean "rubbish", usually prefixed with "so" and I must admit it has always unsettled me a little. I accept that blanket usage has steered it away from any explicit homophobic meaning, but that doesn't make it any better. The new coinage still has its roots in homophobia, something I fought the Political Correctness Wars 1983-1990 to stamp out. Was it all for nothing? Perhaps I'm being very 80s about it. Perhaps gay people don't care in an age of more equality and civil unions and Little Britain, the gayest mainstream comedy ever. (By which I mean homosexual, not rubbish, young people.) But if it is expected to use gay as an insult, aren't we just ever so slightly sliding backwards, semantically speaking? What if the word "black" became twisted in the playground to mean "rubbish" and that entered the adult lexicon? Is that cool? Suppose "Northamptonian" became shorthand for "lame". That's so Northamptonian! Would I care? I sort of would, even if the use of it didn't actually injure me personally. I think I'd care in priniciple.
I know, the English language evolves and mutates the whole time, and that is a wonderful thing, but I don't think this matter is as cut and dried as the governors do. Surely it plays into the hands of those who think being gay actually is rubbish. I saw a documentary on Channel 4 the other night about a college in America for Christians who really do think it's rubbish. They think it's wrong and deviant and unnatural and dangerous. They must be rubbing their hands.
Discuss.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:27 AM
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19 Comments:
Oh gosh and the controversy last year when Rose called the Doctor gay in that way during 'Aliens in London' RTD's defence was pretty much what the BBC said here, although considering the core fan base of the programme it did seem a touch out of place.
Well, since you ask...
I'm not sure that gay meaning rubbish has become a separate word from gay meaning homosexual. I suspect that it is used either by people who don't know what it actually means (kids) or by people who don't care that it might upset people when 'gay' is used negatively (Moyles?).
Moyles is smart enough to know exactly what he's saying.
I suspect that here though he was merely apeing voguish US teen drama/comedy shows, where the use of "that's [i]so [/i] gay !" is becoming almost standard practice.
Why, though, do the BBC governors feel comfortable with R1's top rated DJ using a phrase that could cause offence to any section of the population ?
Because,deep down inside their hearts, they agree with the kids from the US Christian University and think that "gay" and "rubbish" are interchangeable words.
Not sure how to insert hyperlinks but you probably heard about this:
http://www.hecklerspray.com/?p=3227
Moyles clearly reckons it's ok to speak to the nation in the same way he speaks to his (predominantly straight, white and male I'm guessing) mates. It's not.
So long as a group of people use the word 'gay' to differentiate themselves, then it's not ok to use that term to mean 'lame'. I think you're quite right in being uncomfortable with the idiot DJ's comments.
I've been wrestling with this one since reading it last night because I normally agree with you and I sort of do on this point.
I like to think that I'm a pretty nice bloke and I would hate to offend anyone but I use that term.
I can't help thinking that this furore has been exacerbated by the fact that it was Moyles using the word. Surely if another, less abrasive and dare I say "gay-friendly" host had used it then it would have been okay? I don't mean a gay man I just mean someone not northern and laddish and perceived in the same way as Moyles...
I'll probably be pilloried for this viewpoint but I think there comes a time when people have to accept the fact that they're in a minority and some small-minded people won't like them or their lifestyle choices. Be comfortable in yourself and ignore the idiots.
Umm, Josiah, being gay is not a lifestyle choice. It's something you are either are or are not. Lifestyle choices are things like buying Ikea furniture, which would make a better insult - "That is just *so* Ikea!"
The only way that attitudes change is if people challenge things that are thoughtless and offensive, otherwise we'd still be asking for colours like "Nigger Brown" in paint shops. It's not "political correctness gone mad", it's just politeness to other people to show a little bit of respect.
I knew I should have stayed out of this. Alarm bells rang when I started to write before actually being able to reason my own argument out in my own head.
I retract my comments. I want everyone to be nice to each other I really do.
I suppose I want to say that just because you say that something is "gay" doesn't mean that you want all homosexuals strung up.
If that's the impression it gives then I will stop using it.
Didn't 'gay' used to mean 'happy'? Wasn't this innocuous little word hijacked from it's original meaning in the first place? Is it OK to still say to your friends they have a 'gay' shirt on? And is it ok to asume that a hairdresser is gay because, essentially, he's a hairdresser and has 'gay' clothes on?
NB all use of the word 'gay' in this comment means either 'happy' or 'homosexual', and not 'lame'.
I think common sense needs to prevail - Moyles is a sniggering, bullying schoolboy at best anyway, and I think that 'The Game' (who is a rapper I believe) denouncing homosexuals on Jo Whiley's show is much more of an issue. That complaint was not upheld either.
mind you, if you look at the list of recent complaints, some people obviously have too much time on thier hands...i mean, i knew Bill Oddie was subversive, but...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/text/apps_janmar2006.html
As a practising homosexual (I will perfect it one of these days), I don't really mind the use of "gay" to slag off a broken pencil or naff ringtone.
I had much more of a problem with the move to reclaim the term "queer" from its pejorative use to a positive one.
I also remember a time when "straight" didn't mean heterosexual. It meant "conventional" in the sense of not having long hair, not smoking dope and not listening to be-bop or something.
But Obviously not gay peoples hands.
Didn't this use of gay meaning rubbish start out as a kind of knowing joke? Its use was supposed to be ironic: it was a deliberately non-PC use of a word being employed by essentially PC people. The trouble (as was inevitable) is that it has become ubiquitous and the irony has been lost.
Much as I dislike Chris Moyles, I doubt very much that he is homophobic. I don't think he should use this word in this way though.
As a not very rubbish gay person I think Chris Moyles is a twat. That's twat meaning entertaining eloquent slim broadcaster, not twat meaning c**t.
I think that when adults use the term "gay" it arguably upsets me less. It tends to be more habit than anything and they're often aghast when they realise that it's been taken badly by those of us who aren't particularly straight in the near vicinity.
On the schoolground, there really is very little differentiation between the two means: homosexual == bad. When one child calls another gay, they mean that they are homosexual AND that that is a shit thing to be.
What worries me is that role models (and if you think Moyles isn't a role model on some schoolgrounds, think again!) using the word legitimises the prejudice. And trust me, realising you're gay when still at school is hard enough without the entire world feeling it's fine to beat on you for who you are.
At my ordinary state school the use of the word 'spastic' as an insult was successfully banned after just one assembly dictate; 'gay' should and could have been banned in exactly the same way. As for Moyles I assumed he was using it in a sort of neutered, nostalgic way - the language of his school days; thing is, some of us had the sense not to use it the first time round.
For anyone who missed it, Armando Iannucci said some not-very-nice things about Moyles on his Radio 4 Charm Offensive programme. It was very funny, and is available on Listen Again.
... me being a clever clogs found out (thanks to the BBC) the origin of the word "naff" (as used above). So can that word be used to describe something as being "not very good" ? Or not ?
As a not very rubbish not-gay person I think Chris Moyles is a twat also.
See? We [i]can[/i] just get along.
[What if the word "black" became twisted in the playground to mean "rubbish" and that entered the adult lexicon?]
Surely the "adult lexicon" already routinely uses 'black' in a perjorative sense.
An interesting point, Mr Dalton. Black mood, black day etc. But it's not actually a term of abuse. "You are so black!" would probably be a compliment in the playground, if anything.
When I was growing up, you would hear people say someone was "Jewish" if they were mean with money, a lazy allusion that's been banished now, it seems. "Puff" was also a form of abuse. Then that vanished. And now, thanks to Moyles, it's kind of back, whether he means it homophobically or not.
Touche, Monsieur Collins. I take your point. (Especially, of course, the main point about feeling extremely uneasy about this particular development in the usage of 'gay'.)
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