“That's so gay” is a phrase that is nowadays used frequently among young adults, one might hear it in everyday speech or see it in written form as comments on social networks, in forums or blogs on the internet. In most of these cases young adults do not refer to people that are homosexual but most of the time to things they dislike. But why do they use this phrase so frequently? What was the original meaning of the word “gay” and do homosexuals see this phrase as an insult? In the following I am going to investigate the origin of the word “gay” and what young adults mean when the use phrases like “That's so gay” and how often they use this expression. Furthermore, I am going to deal with the impacts the use of the word “gay” in youth language might have on homosexuals and bisexuals and I will investigate if they feel insulted by this phrase.
I conducted a survey in which 40 participants between the age of 16 and 28, half of them were male and the other half were female, were asked if they used phrases like “That's so gay” and if so, if they use it rarely, sometimes or frequently. They were also asked if they used this expression in a deprecative way and with which words they would equalize “gay” when they use it not to refer to homosexuality. Other questions in the survey were why they use it and if they think that homosexuals and bisexuals feel insulted by the use of the word. I am also going to compare my findings to the findings of other surveys.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Origin of the Word “Gay”
3. The Use of the Word “Gay” among Young Adults
4. The Impact of the Word “Gay” on Homosexuals
1.Introduction
“That´s so gay” is a phrase that is nowadays used frequently among young adults, one might hear it in everyday speech or see it in written form as comments on social networks, in forums or blogs on the internet. In most of these cases young adults do not refer to people that are homosexual but most of the time to things they dislike. But why do they use this phrase so frequently? What was the original meaning of the word “gay” and do homosexuals see this phrase as an insult? In the following I am going to investigate the origin of the word “gay” and what young adults mean when the use phrases like “That´s so gay” and how often they use this expression. Furthermore, I am going to deal with the impacts the use of the word “gay” in youth language might have on homosexuals and bisexuals and I will investigate if they feel insulted by this phrase.
I conducted a survey in which 40 participants between the age of 16 and 28, half of them were male and the other half were female, were asked if they used phrases like “That´s so gay” and if so, if they use it rarely, sometimes or frequently. They were also asked if they used this expression in a deprecative way and with which words they would equalize “gay” when they use it not to refer to homosexuality. Other questions in the survey were why they use it and if they think that homosexuals and bisexuals feel insulted by the use of the word. I am also going to compare my findings to the findings of other surveys.
2. The Origin of the Word “Gay”
The word “gay” arose in the 12th century in England from the word “gai” which was used in Old French (Hiskey 2012). Older meanings of the word were “carefree”, “bright and showy” or “joyful” (Hiskey 2012). But the meaning changed in the middle of the 17th century when it meant “addicted to pleasures and dissipations” (Hiskey 2012). Three decades later, in the 20th century, it had the meaning it still has today when referring to homosexuality and it became official in 1955 (Hiskey 2012). According to the Oxford Advanced Learner´s Dictionary (2010), “gay” means “sexually attracted to people of the same sex”.
Nowadays, many younger people also use the word “gay” when they mean “rubbish” or “crap” or when they refer to something as “lame”, so the former positive meaning of “carefee” or merry”, the word had in the 12th century, has turned into a negative one ( Young 2013). “Gay” in the form it is mostly used in youth language today was found for the first time in the late 1970s in conversations in high schools in the United States (Winterman 2008). In the 1980s some students also started to use the word as an offense (Winterman 2008). Apart from the usage in America, it is also used frequently among young people in the United Kingdom, as well as, in Germany (Winterman 2008).
3. The Use of the Word “Gay” among Young Adults
The word gay is used nowadays by many children and adolescents; its use has become fairly popular over the last few years (Winterman 2008). Students do not longer see the word “gay” as something that refers to sexuality in their everyday speech, but most of them rather use it to refer to adjectives such as “lame” when they say that something or someone is gay (Winterman 2008). 80% of the male participants in my survey use the word when they do not refer to sexuality and 40% of the female participants use it. It is used rarely and sometimes by 37,5% of the male participants and 25% use it frequently. When it comes to the female participants, 75% use it rarely and 25% use it sometimes. According to my survey, the word “gay” is used more by males than by females and males also use it more frequently; one quarter of the male interviewees stated that they used it frequently, whereas none of the female interviewees stated to use it frequently. When they were asked if they used it in a depractive way, which does not mean that they intend to insult homosexuals, but that they use the word to refer to something negative, 56% of the male participants and 37.5% of the female participants said they used it in deprecatingly. The participants who use the word “gay” were also asked what they mean by it and they could choose more than one answer. 93 % of the male participants who use the word “gay” use it in the sense of “lame” or “stupid”, which seems to be the most common form. Nevertheless, there are also 62% who equalize the word “gay” with “unmanly” or “girlish”. There are also 18% of the participants who use it to refer to something as “disgusting” or “abnormal”. When it comes to the female participants in my survey I found out that 25% equalize the word “gay” with “lame” or “stupid”, 25% equalize it with “abnormal” and 25% use it in the sense of “girlish”.87,5% of the male participants use “gay” because it is used in their circle of friends and 12,5% use it because it is used at their school/university or at their working place or because it is used in the media. A survey that was conducted on male undergraduates between 18 and 25 found also out that the majority of the interviewees use the word “gay” because their friends use it and that most of them equalize the word with a female touch (Howell&Woodford 2013). This poll also found out that the more often people hear the word “gay” or phrases such as “That´s so gay” in the media, at school or elsewhere, the more often they use the word themselves (Howell&Woodford 2013). Furthermore, the investigation also dealt with the question if people who have homosexual or bisexual friends or who know more homosexual and bisexual people use the word as often as people who do not know any homosexuals or bisexuals and the outcome is that people who know homosexuals and bisexuals use the word “gay” less frequently than other people (Howell&Woodford 2013).
As I have mentioned before, 93% of the participants from my study stated that they used the “word” gay in a deprecative way but they do not mean to hurt homosexuals. In a study ,that was conducted by Mark McCormack, the interviewees said that they equalized the word “gay” with “rubbish”, but they stated that they did not use the word “gay” in a homophobic way and that it was not their intention to insult LGBT people (McCormack 2012). For instance, one student in the survey argued that he used the term “that´s so gay” to complain about his homework and that in this case his homework was no person that could be homosexual (McCormack 2012). Furthermore, the student added that he did not intend to offend someone with his frequent use of this phrase and that he was not homophobic because he had homosexual friends (McCormack 2012). In an interview by the compiler of the Dictionary of Contemporary Slang the students also emphasized that their intention was not to insult homosexuals and a student said that young people rather used the word “gay” to refer to things and not to people (Winterman 2008). For most youngsters the word “gay” has two meanings; it can either mean homosexuality or “rubbish” and students state that they can, depending on the context, distinguish between the two meanings and that they do not have anything to do with each other (McCormack 2011, 669). McCormack also interviewed heterosexual rugby players who have homosexual friends and he found out that they use expressions like “don´t be so gay” or “that´s so gay” (McCormack 2011, 669). Most young adults call things “gay” because they think it is funny and not because the want to offend homosexuals but there are also bullies who use the term to harm other people (Di Giovanni & Poteat 2010). According to Winterman (2008), the word “gay” is used in the most insulting way by students who go to secondary school. There was also a study in which some male students admitted that they say phrases like “That´s so gay” to demonstrate that they are straight and in order to insult other people (Di Giovanni & Poteat 2010).
4.The Impact of the Word “Gay” on Homosexuals
One cannot say that the use of the word “gay” in youth language has an impact on everyone who is homosexual but it might have an impact on many people. Furthermore, there are different opinions if it has an impact or not. In a study by McCormack (2012) homosexuals were interviewed and asked what they think about terms like “That´s so gay” in youth language. One homosexual participant said that he thought it was no problem when homosexuals used the term and that he even used it himself, whereas other homosexual interviewees did not like the term even though when it was not used in a homophobic way (McCormack 2012). McCormack (2011, 672) also investigated three high schools in the United Kingdom where students used the term “gay” in a non-homophobic context. He observed a conversation between a homosexual and a heterosexual student, the heterosexual student said that what the homosexual one had just done was “really gay” and the homosexual student laughed and thought that the comment was funny and replied that his behavior was “pretty gay” (McCormack 2011, 672). So the homosexual student did use the term himself and was not at all offended by this use and thought that it was funny (McCormack 2011, 672). The outcome of McCormack´s study also agrees with the outcome of my study in which some of the homosexual participants do not use the term and feel insulted if other people use it, but there were also homosexual participants who do not feel insulted by term and some who even use it themselves. According to McCormack (2012), if the use of such terms affects or insults someone depends on the context or the environment in which they are used. There is a difference whether heterosexuals use such terms to bully a minority group or if it is used among tolerant heterosexuals or even among homosexual people (McCormack 2012). Another research that was conducted by the University of Michigan investigated 114 LGBT students between 18 and 25 in order to find out what happens when they hear the phrase “That´s so gay”
[...]
- Quote paper
- J. J. (Author), 2014, The Use of the Word “Gay” in Youth Language, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/337919
-
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X.