People are offended at everything?

[Mister M 1,594]

You could have just said that when I asked you first time.

So good for you, you are gay. You are still jumping on the 'offense' bandwagon though.

 

I didn't feel the need to justify my sexuality first time round. I'm not jumping on any bandwagon. I'm expressing my thoughts about how language can be used, however unthinkingly, to put people down.

 

---------- Post added 27-12-2016 at 19:58 ----------

 

It could be argued that gays stole the word gay in any case.

They hijacked it and changed its meaning. It used to mean happy.

Now they are getting in a tizzy because the word Gay now means more than just homosexual. It can also mean lame or rubbish. They should get over it and themselves.

 

How could it be argued that gays stole or hijacked the word gay?

[Gamston 10]

It could be argued that gays stole the word gay in any case.

They hijacked it and changed its meaning. It used to mean happy.

Now they are getting in a tizzy because the word Gay now means more than just homosexual. It can also mean lame or rubbish. They should get over it and themselves.

Larry Grayson boosted his career with the phrase 'What A Gay Day !"

[ECCOnoob 1,013]

It makes him a Drama Queen, which any gay person is, if they are offended by Richard Hammond's joke.

 

What was the "joke"? Nobody seems to know.

Even his own co-hosts dont even know what the hell he was going on about and called him out on it.

 

Clarkson's outrageous comments at least have some realistic but lazy stereotype. Hammond's comment was just a bizzare and nonsensical link between a food item and masculinity. None of which has (even a weak comedic) basis in reality.

 

It wasnt a cheap gag about funny foreigners, it wasnt a cheap gag about a sex or race of people, it wasnt even some cheap gag about someone/something being camp or infeminate

 

Jesus, even Mrs Browns Boys outdated and pantomime portryal of homosexuality is more realistic because (albeit the minority) some gay people that OTT do exist.

 

I am certainly not one to ever jump on the offence bandwaggon and would always argue that people have a right to be offended just as much as people have a right to be freely speaking.

 

But when you are a so called professional broadcaster you know when something has fallen flat and anyone with a brain cell should have just snipped it out at the edit.

[Mister M 1,594]

Larry Grayson boosted his career with the phrase 'What A Gay Day !"

 

Did he?

..........

It's unfortunate that Grayson felt the need to put himself down to ingratiate himself with a 1970s audience. As a comparison, Lenny Henry has recently spoken about how he regrets being in the Black and White Minstrel show. Perhaps had Grayson lived, he might have felt the same about himself....

Edited December 27, 2016 by Mister M

[Robin-H 11]

It could be argued that gays stole the word gay in any case.

They hijacked it and changed its meaning. It used to mean happy.

Now they are getting in a tizzy because the word Gay now means more than just homosexual. It can also mean lame or rubbish. They should get over it and themselves.

 

Clearly you don't have much etymological knowledge, which isn't a criticism as there is no particular reason why you should, but you should perhaps do some reading up before stating things as fact.

 

The word gay wasn't 'hijacked' by homosexuals who 'changed its meaning'.

 

As long ago as the earliest part of the 17th Century, the word gay (alongside meaning happy or carefree) started to mean 'immoral'. By the mid 17th century, the meaning of the word had changed to mean 'addicted to pleasures and dissipations'. (Possibly an evolution of the original 'carefree' meaning of the word).

 

By the 19th Century, women were often described as 'gay' if they were a prostitute, and men as gay if they slept with a lot of women. By the 1920's, gay was a term used to mean men who slept with other men.

 

Whilst it may be true that this term was used more in this sense by the gay community before it was used by the wider community (not surprising as the wider community would have had much less of a reason to use it) it is certainly not true that they 'hijacked' a term that meant happy and turned it into a term that meant men who slept with men.

[Happy Daddy 10]

Larry Grayson boosted his career with the phrase 'What A Gay Day !"

 

I seem to remember. I was young in his heyday though. He was the guy who did the Generation game right?

[Gamston 10]

Did he?

..........

Yes, he did many gay comedians have played on being gay to get laughs over the years. Are you old enough to remember John Inman ?

 

---------- Post added 27-12-2016 at 20:14 ----------

 

I seem to remember. I was young in his heyday though. He was the guy who did the Generation game right?

That's the man.

[Happy Daddy 10]

That's the man.

 

Thanks for that. Boy that guy was funny. Im going to have to Youtube him

[ECCOnoob 1,013]

Yes, he did many gay comedians have played on being gay to get laughs over the years. Are you old enough to remember John Inman ?

 

Its funny you mention John Inman and I assume you will be referring to his portrayal of Mr Humphries.

 

Nobody said he was gay. The writers didn't and neither did the actor.

 

Camp - yes. Mummys boy - yes. Theatrical - yes. One might even say "drama queen".

 

But as Mr Inman said himself in interviews, unless you saw Mr Humphries banging a customer over the counter who can say what sexuality he was.

 

Theatrical camp does not automatically mean gay man. See David Walliams or Tom Cruise.

 

Straight blokey manly pursuits and actions does not automatically mean stright man See Gareth Thomas or Wentworth Miller.

Edited December 27, 2016 by ECCOnoob

[Mister M 1,594]

Yes, he did many gay comedians have played on being gay to get laughs over the years. Are you old enough to remember John Inman ?

 

---------- Post added 27-12-2016 at 20:14 ----------

 

That's the man.

 

I think Grayson and Inman were products of their time - tragic figures who had to be subservient, and play into people's stereotypes about gay people. Certainly some gay men are camp, some are promiscuous. People say things have changed since the 1970s. Perhaps to some extent they have. However when Julian Clary sent up the image of the homosexual as camp and promiscuous to its extreme in the supposedly more liberated 1990s ( see here

), his transgression was punished by the press, and his career badly affected.

[Happy Daddy 10]

I think Grayson and Inman were products of their time - tragic figures who had to be subservient, and play into people's stereotypes about gay people. Certainly some gay men are camp, some are promiscuous. People say things have changed since the 1970s. Perhaps to some extent they have. However when Julian Clary sent up the image of the homosexual as camp and promiscuous to its extreme in the supposedly more liberated 1990s ( see here

), his transgression was punished by the press, and his career badly affected.

 

Clary's joke was considered over the top and vile. Thats why it affected his career.

[Mister M 1,594]

Clary's joke was considered over the top and vile. Thats why it affected his career.

 

Well who considers what's over the top and vile?

Personally I find Clary's joke less vile, than unthinking comments in general about how something considered crap is branded as 'gay'. No Norman Lamont probably wasn't best pleased - but he was in a powerful position, and an adult who could speak for himself - and had plenty of allies in the press to speak for him.

Think about the impact on a solitary young person struggling with their sexuality having to hear the word gay being constantly equated with being crap and rubbish. How do you think that's going to affect them?