It's so not gay: casual homophobia in the twittersphere
Two years ago the trailer of the film The Dilemma caused controversy after lead actor Vince Vaughn was heard saying “Electric cars are gay. Not homosexual gay, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay”. The trailer was pulled after CNN newsman Anderson Cooper raised the issue on a popular show with Ellen DeGeneres.
In another scene from the popular British sitcom The Office, lead character David Brent sings a song he wrote. Upon finishing, another character, Tim, describes Brent’s effort as “sound[ing] a bit gay" to which an offended Brent replies "It's not gay!"
These and other instances, both in everyday life and on-screen, have helped cement the term as common currency. You might think that the meaning is quite clear according to the context it’s used in (Vince Vaughn above clearly differentiated between the different meanings in the trailer), but you may be surprised to know how much offense it causes. Just ask NoHomophobes.com, an initiative launched by The Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta in Canada, who monitor use of derogatory terms on the social networking site Twitter.
Use of the word ‘gay’ to describe something as inferior, not cool or rubbish is nothing but casual homophobia, say NoHomophobes.com. The issue mirrors the debate of casual Islamophobia in the UK. Conservative MP Sayeeda Warsi even claimed that Islamophobia now seemed to be ‘socially acceptable’. Now it’s the turn of casual homophobia.
NoHomophobes have collected data on the use of the word “faggot” and its variations since early July by monitoring tweets on Twitter. The monitoring of the use of these words is designed to serve as a ‘social mirror’ and capturing the homophobic language that exists in the Twittersphere. They claim that by the end of September the term faggot was used more than 2 million times and the term ‘so gay’ 800,000 times. The infographic at their website nearly three weeks later (ie today) indicates a usage of nearly 3 million occurrences.
Frequency of monitored terms between July 5th to October 9th.
However, considering that there are 340 million tweets a day, according to Twitter, that would mean that less than 1% of tweets are of a homophobic nature. But this also neglects to mention that only four terms are monitored, is limited to the English language and that there are many other ways of being homophobic not monitored in this study.
But the number of tweets is still a concern – the fact that these terms were used millions of times in the space of three months should highlight that homophobia exists and is a concern – a society wouldn’t accept racist or sexist terms however infrequently they occurred.
Today's frequency of monitored terms.
The power of the collected data is aiding the cause for activists concerned with battling homophobia. Gay Lebanese activist Raja Farah expresses concern “that the word [ie ‘gay’ in a derogatory sense] is used commonly without anyone even noticing or being shocked about it - that is the real shocker here. People will say that not everyone means it in a bad way, but that's not the point. It is still a derogatory word for gay people and its widespread use on Twitter is reflective of the issues we homosexuals face daily.”
So, before anyone goes around describing something as “so gay, man”, they should think twice about the offense it may cause and perhaps choose another word – plenty exist.
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Guest
I've been wondering about this for so looooong. I really dislike it when people casually say "that's so gay", "too gay", or even the stronger word "faggot".
I've always been really disturbed about it and just a while ago I saw TOO many casual comments where the used "so gay" or "faggot" was used to insult people in a verbal fight.
I was really upset because my brother's gay, that I decided to look more into it.
This is really a informative article for me.
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Corey
wow, i never knew so many people were homophobes, this is so wrong.. like leave them alone please!! its crazy.. just let them be. if they're happy dont be a hater let them have their relationship and let them do what they want in their relationship... ughh i mean come on, its not like its any of your business any ways.! >:(
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Michael
As a gay man the use of this term in a derogatory manner by the masses is both alarming and demeaning.
Two reasons, gay is one of the words we use to describe our sexuality openly without feeling negatively towards it. For example, Im not comfortable being called queer, and homosexual sounds off to me, others are different of course, but most if not all gay people accept the term gay as an acceptable description of their sexuality.
Now lets consider the root of the issue. Originally, some years ago before using gay as another word for bad or stupid was commonplace, straight folk saw being gay as dirty, wrong, bad, negative etc and began to call things gay to highlight their disapproval of certain things. This car is gay, that movie was gay, you are so gay etc etc. The word was being used to portray negativity because they saw the sexuality of being gay as a negative thing.
Flash forward to now, years later after many years of its casual use and we now have a situation where most arent even aware of the negative connotations involved with the sexuality when they use the word. I dont know what is worse to be honest with you, the fact that using gay to portray negativity is done so casually, or the fact that the perpetrators arent aware theyre being indirectly and casually homophobic while doing so.
The use EXISTS TODAY because of HOMOPHOBIA in the past. It IS homophobic regardless of how you try to sugarcoat it, and people would be better off educating themselves to this fact.
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Ignorant
The movie was totally ....
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Sam
In my job as a youth worker, I facilitate a Rainbow Group for young people identifying as GLBT. As a straight man, I have allowed the young people to teach me a lot about GLBT culture, and as such, I was a little surprised about their views of the word "gay" as a pejorative. It seems that young people are using this word with no connection to homosexuality. They use it to mean "bad, crap or lame", but they don't view it as having a connection to their sexuality. Just as you say that "gay" in a pleasant sense is now defunct, I think there may be a linguistic shift happening where "gay" is becoming a homonym.
Of course, this may only be happening amongst GLBT young people in a small Australian city, but it is what I have observed.
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Abdel
Quote:
Thanks for your comment, nshephard. I don't think that's a shortfall of the study - can you imagine anyone, either on twitter or in real life, describing an event or thing as 'gay' in a pleasant sense? That meaning of the word, in my view, is now more-or-less defunct.
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Abdel
Quote:
Thanks for your comment, Ivan. The reference to 'plenty' was in relation to describing something as 'so gay', not omitting the word 'gay' from usage, just from using it in a derogatory manner.
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Ivan
I'm a bit lost. I cannot use the word gay because someone use it in a derogatory sense and it would be better to use another word, there are plenty. If I'm right, I ask: which other words, since there are plenty?
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nshephard
What if the term 'gay' is used in its correct/traditional sense, i.e. merry, joyful, cheerful etc.? Doesn't read/sound as though this analysis take account of such uses.
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