"That's So Gay" Is Jt So Wrong | Psychology Today

Contents:

• THE TE MEANG BEHD “THAT’S SO GAY”
• "THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG
• THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”
• THAT'S SO GAY
• GAY (ADJ.)
• THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’
• THE COMPLEXY OF ‘THAT'S SO GAY'

THE TE MEANG BEHD “THAT’S SO GAY”

Stonewall argu that the phrase has a harmful effect on young lbian, gay and bisexual people’s tn and well-beg.

Yet the ial fdgs om my terviews wh 40 gay youth om four universi suggts a more plex picture, wh no clear agreement on what the phrase means or s effects. ” Siarly, Neil, gay and aged 18, said: “I don’t fd rogatory any way, probably bee I say as well.

How are we to unrstand a phrase that olr people fd homophobic, but many younger people do not fd offensive and even e themselv? My tert the phrase “that’s so gay” veloped when I rearched straight male stunts at sixth form lleg.

"THAT'S SO GAY" IS JT SO WRONG

Given that labellg the stunts homophobic would be ridiculo, was val to nsir how they were g this language and the reasons why. For them, gay had two distct meangs which they were able to distguish between – when refers to sexual inty and when refers, separately, to somethg beg “bbish”. I argued that straight men’s e of phras like “that’s so gay” uld only be unrstood by three key factors: first, the tent wh which was said; send, the social ntext (homophobic or otherwise); and third, the effect had.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORD “GAY”

But when is said settgs where sexual mori are out, proud and socially clud, and heterosexual men are iends wh their openly gay peers, tak on different meangs.

This argument was supported by the narrativ of many of the 40 young gay people a study I am unrtakg wh lleagu at Durham Universy. Only a mory of participants – ls than a third – thought that the phrase was homophobic, and even fewer said that they never ed . Most of the young gay people my study felt “that’s so gay” would only be homophobic if was directed at a gay person, and wh negative tent.

If young gay people are sayg that they do not experience the phrase “that’s so gay” as homophobic – and if they are even g the phrase themselv – then perhaps we should accept their arguments and ncentrate on other battl. So, like, if ’s wh my iends and someone says “that’s so gay”; I know ’s a very different meang than a kid who jt tripped and another one said “that’s so gay”, you know what I mean? Vidisha Sharma: I agree wh what Sofia said about nnotatn; if ’s someone gay, like myself, and I make jok like “oh my god that’s so gay” or “hahaha I’m so gay”.

THAT'S SO GAY

: Also, ’s jt bee people thk ’s quirky to say , like, “cê é tão gay, s viado” and that kd of stuff; ’s bee ’s popular and a lot of people are sayg . From the terviews, is evint that the people on the other end of “that’s so gay” are hurt and repulsed by the mon e of the phrase. Some young adults might feel that is okay to e this phrase as a joke or an sult bee don’t affect them, and and feel that“long gone are the tim when gay people were opprsed”, but they are wrong.

In the news, ’s mon nowadays to see a child murred ld blood bee they told their parents they were gay, an example beg Anthony Avalos. This 10-year-old boy had e out as gay days before his murr and was found wh severe signs of physil harm cludg malnutrn, cigarette burns, and bis.

GAY (ADJ.)

Phrase ed to signify a stupid, unwanted, or weird ia.Fred: Let's all drs as ts for hallowenn!Sam: Du, that's gay.by hatersgonhatee November 1, 2010FlagGet the That's Gay mug.GayHappsSon: “what do gay mean”. Friend 4: No bro the word gays Orgal Meang is Happyby Straght but Kurapika ge me wet January 17, 2021FlagGet the Gay mug.GayHappyMan he is really gay todayby plasma shot12 March 19, 2019FlagGet the Gay mug.gaygay means happy, read a fuckg booki’m feelg gayby briisdaddy21 May 28, 2019FlagGet the gay mug.GayGay means to be happyI'm so gay for youby Dildo dick face Febary 18, 2017FlagGet the Gay mug.GayHappyRylan is so gay, I know right he is always so happy.by Squish22 December 8, 2018FlagGet the Gay mug.12345Next ›Last »More random fns. Spend any time around teens, and you’re likely to hear the mon exprsn, “That’s so gay" — even among gay kids.

If you ask them about , as some rearchers have, they often will sist that is not tend as homophobic language, jt a harmls phrase to exprs tratn or somethg siar. When most people hear the term LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual), for stance, they equate to havg adult sex. Another client’s mother once ught him lookg at gay porn, and said, horrified, “You’re not gay, are you?

” Later when the parents learned their children were gay, they apologized to them for sayg the thgs, but the damage was already done.

THE ORIGS OF THE WORD ‘GAY’

Hearg kids sayg, “that’s so gay” every day mak the people and everythg else around them qutnable: Are thgs safe or dangero? What, then, n be done about makg kids (and the rt of ) more aware of the harm g such phras as “That’s so gay?

But parents who are enough aware of language’s substrata n help by helpg their kids’ schools unrstand the value of practicg the same kd of zero tolerance for homophobic language that they do for racist or anti-Semic or bullyg language. Anti-LGBT remarks such as “that’s so gay” are often untentnal and a mon part of teens’ vernacular. The term gay is equently ed as a synonym for homosexual; female homosexualy is often referred to as different tim and different cultur, homosexual behavur has been varly approved of, tolerated, punished, and banned.

THE COMPLEXY OF ‘THAT'S SO GAY'

Homosexualy was not unmon ancient Greece and Rome, and the relatnships between adult and adolcent mal particular have bee a chief foc of Wtern classicists recent years.

Others—om factns wh mastream Prottantism to anizatns of Reform rabbis—have advoted, on theologil as well as social grounds, the full acceptance of homosexuals and their relatnships.