That Lawsuit Is So Gay

That Lawsuit Is So Gay On You

A high school student in California used the phrase, “That’s so gay,” in response to being made fun of for being Mormon.  She got in trouble with the principal for using the phrase, and this has now turned into a very silly lawsuit.  Amongst people who have nothing better to do (including myself), “that’s so gay” is a hotly debated topic.  The charge that it is homophobic is leveled against it, whereas defenders of the phrase argue it is harmless and means “dumb or silly.”  I argue that they are both wrong, and that the use of gay in the pejorative sense has the same stem as being synonymous with homosexual.

After writing the article defending Microsoft, my friend Jen commented that I must enjoy being a contrarian.  The short answer is no… of course.  The truth is that it is hard to not be a contrarian when the prevailing sentiment in our culture is cynicism and mistrust.  To support companies, all rights of individuals, and to believe that people are fundamentally good inherently makes me a contrarian.  But this negativity is new in American culture, and I suspect the change started during the Vietnam War.

Busby Berkeley musicals used to be huge in America; 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 were both very successful.  People loved seeing these larger-than-life performances that were lavish, melodramatic, and by modern standards completely over the top.  Early rock and roll was joyous and campy.  Case in point:  Tutti Frutti.  Certainly television reflected an upbeat view of the world through shows like Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver.  It was a time when entertainment was truly gay in the classic sense.

But with the Vietnam War, then Nixon, then a recession, Americans became mistrustful of the world around them.  Popular art of the ’70s reflected themes of paranoia and self-doubt that were rarely seen before except in literature.  Bread’s hits expressed self-doubt, Steely Dan wrote some of the most cynical music ever, and films like Deliverance and Logan’s Run became classics.  Busby Berkeley was out, big time.

During this era the word “gay” began to adopt its new meaning now familiar to us.  Whereas it once meant light and cheerful, another connotation implying flamboyance and camp came about reflecting this cultural change.  From there it branched off in two directions:  Homosexuals adopting this flamboyance (a whole other article there) and the straights rejecting this rose-tinted view of life expressed in cheery musicals.

As a pejorative, “That’s so gay” entered common parlance in the early ’80s, the same time when Garbage Pail Kids were popular.  Think about this.  Could you imagine those trading cards even having a market in the ’50s, much less being created?  During the Reagan-era, children rejected things that were gay and recontextualized the word as a pejorative, yet retained the targets of the definition.  Busby Berkeley musicals were still gay, but that was no longer a good thing.

In fact, arguing that “That’s so gay” is inherently homophobic illustrates my point about cynicism and mistrust.  We can’t believe that there could be a non-hateful meaning to this phrase because we always assume others are being negative.  Here are two examples:

Shot your wad
Balls to the wall

It is safe to assume that everyone thinks those are dirty little phrases because they sound dirty.  “Shot your wad,” however, came from muzzle loaded guns before the days of cartridges.  There is some debate on exactly how it came about, but the prevailing thought is that in the heat of battle a shooter may forget to load a musketball and only shoot the wadding, akin to firing a blank.  While it’s easy to see how that got recontextualized in a sexual sense due to its similarity to a masculine defect, it’s hard to argue it was inherently sexual because there’s no direct connotation between ejaculate and a wad.  It’s even harder to explain “Balls to the wall.”   There is no obvious sexual connotation–has anyone ever referred to a chick’s hoo-hoo as a wall?  The truth is that it meant that you were going as fast as you could and it derives from throttle regulators used on locomotives.  They had weighted balls on a centrifugal cam that performed a similar function to rev limiters on modern ignition systems. 

If we continue to assume that any phrase that sounds dirty must be dirty then kids aren’t going to be able to play with their balls anymore and will instead enjoy passing spheroids about.  And if we continue to assume that there is a bad intention behind every action then we will hamper the ability to get past stupidity.

My friend Alex would most likely argue that it doesn’t matter what the derivation of a word is; its popular meaning defines the use of the word.  Ergo, if gay means homosexual and gay is used as a pejorative then it ultimately associates homosexuality with unacceptance.  I say pshaw on this.  It’s the cultural equivalent of jumping off a cliff because everyone else does it. 

Why is acceptable to correct someone for using “hate speech” and not acceptable to correct someone for inaccurately accusing people of “hate speech”?  The need to assuage our guilt and constantly apologize to other people for offenses real or imagined is self-defeating.

Never trust anyone who doesn’t trust anyone.