Is "Same-Sex" Too Gay?
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New York Times wordsmith William Safire makes an interesting prediction:
Safire provides no example of a pejorative term, or even a neutral term that was widely used in a pejorative manner, ever "making a comeback." So why should homosexual be any different?
For example, Negro is, fundamentally, a neutral word. But I don't see it "making a comeback" any time soon. Or how about cripple — we would not hesitate to say "the ship is crippled" — so why not say "the ship's pilot is a cripple"?
No, I think words like Negro, cripple and homosexual will always tend to fade from everyday vernacular, if not because they're derogatory, then because they're clinical. They connote an empirical, analytical context, as if being homosexual warrants being studied in a laboratory. And that comes too close to the line between a characteristic and a condition, which itself comes too close to a defect.
Let's just stick with same-sex and gay.
More thoughts at Queer Law Watch.
An American Psychological Association report notes that homosexual "has been associated in the past with deviance, mental illness and criminal behavior," which has led to a "negative stereotype." As that connotation wears off, I expect that the noun — a Standard English synonym for the now widely used "same-sex" — will make a comeback.I very much doubt it.
Safire provides no example of a pejorative term, or even a neutral term that was widely used in a pejorative manner, ever "making a comeback." So why should homosexual be any different?
For example, Negro is, fundamentally, a neutral word. But I don't see it "making a comeback" any time soon. Or how about cripple — we would not hesitate to say "the ship is crippled" — so why not say "the ship's pilot is a cripple"?
No, I think words like Negro, cripple and homosexual will always tend to fade from everyday vernacular, if not because they're derogatory, then because they're clinical. They connote an empirical, analytical context, as if being homosexual warrants being studied in a laboratory. And that comes too close to the line between a characteristic and a condition, which itself comes too close to a defect.
Let's just stick with same-sex and gay.
More thoughts at Queer Law Watch.
Posted by Kip on
6 November 2005
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