Phrase ‘That’s So Gay’ Causes Lasting Harm

Well to me i feel that its wrong to say and i can see how people could get offended by it but im so used to it from hearing it said so much that it has no effect on me.

 

Maybe not, but that's still an important result. It's also been borne out in other areas, like racism. This kind of stuff is called "microaggression," and the mental health effects of those are well-documented.

 

Yep, been saying this for years. It's obvious to anyone who understands what that phrase really means.

 

I think it's kind of like a double meaning word nowadays.. Like calling someone ginger isn't an insult anymore its just stating the hair colour.. I can understand that people would get over the top about it because it could be used as an insult. But it's not
There was a big deal made here in NZ when I prime minister called someones shirt gay because it was supporting the opposition party. Its a word tossed around amoung youth and I know I say it often too, I just relate it to being the same as lame.
... idk. I don't find it offensive unless its directly insulting someones sexuality..

 

I've never heard this phrase used by anyone who wasn't a moron, tbh.

 

Well, actually, in the example you mention it is surely not meant very positive. And if it is used to mean lame, then I'd say that is deffinitely offensive. I don't see how anyone could disagree with that.


However, my friends use it every now and then as well, but more when it's about things that actually are really gay. Like when my friend looked at another guy's butt and said "I'd do him" (yes, my straight friends actually say stuff like that), and my other friend looked at him weird and said "that's so gay." In that context, I don't find it offensive at all, because you can argue all you want, but it was gay.

So I don't have a problem with the saying itself, just when it's used in the wrong context.

 

I hate it when people use that phrase! It makes me so mad!!

 

I've never seen 'ginger' to be used as a catch-all insult though. I've only ever seen it used to refer to someone who actually has red or ginger hair. And even though it is still used in a negative light in most cases, it isn't as bad as it being used as a substitute for the word 'undesirable,' as gay is.

I'm okay with people using gay as a descriptor if the thing they are talking about is actually linked with being gay in some way... but it's not okay for it to just be a synonym for bad.

Do you really not see a problem with 'gay' being equated with 'lame'?

As for our sometimes foolish PM, there obviously wasn't any ill-intention there but he did look a complete idiot by saying it, it was totally inappropriate, and he quite rightly got the shit ripped out of him by pretty much every media outlet in the country.

 

I hate it when I hear this... it makes me feel like being gay is a sickness.

 

An important finding but tbh it just confirmed what we all already knew.

 

My friends don't use this phrase (around me anyway), but if they do, they will have a very angry homosexual on their case.

 

What is everyone mad about? Most people that say and use the phrase aren't even homophobic. It's so commonplace in society now, people don't even really think about what they're saying. They really don't think about what it is to be gay, because they're not. It's just something that people say. It's not a personal attack, especially if they dont know you're gay.

 

The fact that "That's so gay," has become commonplace enough in our cultures that some gay people are so used to it that they feel it has no effect on them is just further reason why we needed a study like this to confirm that it does affect us. Maybe it really doesn't affect you, but it is affecting other people out there, as the study shows. And even if you feel like it has no effect on you, don't you think we still ought to fight against it for the sake of those it is affecting? Because they're feeling isolated and suffering for it.

Frankly, I think that's BS. They can't equate "gay" with "bad" if they don't, on some level, think that being gay is somehow undesirable.

So it's a symptom of a generally homophobic society. But this is one case where, in my opinion, addressing the symptom can change the underlying cause. Language is a powerful thing; it's how we relate to each other and share ideas. If we can change the language we use, we can change the ideas being spread by it, including the idea that "gay" is interchangeable with "bad".

Regardless of whether it's personal or not, the entire point of this thread is that it's having negative effects. We can argue day and night about intentions, but that won't change the fact that it's still hurting people.

 

That made me lol. I like it!

 

To the majority, being gay is undesirable. You have everyone who isn't gay that doesn't want to be gay and then you have some people who are gay that don't want to be gay. Any gay person I've ever talk to regarding nature versus nurture in that people who are gay were born gay, they always agree that it's genetic and say "I would never choose this."

And I hate the term "homophobic." A phobia is when you're deathly afraid of something. Most people are just uncomfortable with "gay," I wouldn't even go as far as saying anti-gay. Because it's not more prevalent in society and there's no education about it, then it's like anything else unfamiliar. Very few are afraid of gay, most people reject it because they just don't understand.

What makes me mad is people, gay or not, that get upset over a silly phrase. A lot of gay people on this forum were once on the other side of gay and they themselves use to use the phrase. Some still do. I use it when maybe a friend of mine is doing or wearing something stereotypically gay.

People are over sensitive.

 

My twin started using this when we were about grade 10 level. When I bit her head off she defended herself saying "It's just an exclamation; I don't mean it like that." I told her that how she means it is irrelevant, because the people who hear her say it don't know that. Honestly, I think that she really was mildly homophobic in that she wasn't comfortable thinking of gays except for in a desexualized gay-best-friend kind of way...and probably most of the people who use the phrase have an edge of that too.

For those who now dislike my sister: I've since cured her, although it took some intense Queer as Folk therapy sessions and the trans pride director at my school.

 

& nobody was surprised

 

*smacks katy perry upside the head with a salmon*

 

I don't like the word "gay" anyway. When taking its orginal meaing into account, I picture a jolly, exuberant dandy. Can't gay people be grave, austere moths too?
I've only used the word in this context after hearing a self-styled gay person do so, suprising me a little. Also, a group of people in my A-level maths class came to the conclusion that pure maths is gay. Whereas mechanics is straight. Thus our modules for the year were named Gay 1, Gay 2 and Heterosexual 1.