Community: Community Episode Analysis

The meaning gay has changed tremendously over time. In the past, the term gay was not used as frequently and as freely as it is used today. The term originated from the Old French and dates back to the 1600s, “Deriving ultimately from Germanic source” (Wikipedia). The word means “Joyful, carefree, bright and showy” (Wikipedia). Gay also means to be “Addicted to social pleasure and dissipations,” as a noun “of a person:

Martha Irvine, a graduate of the University of Michigan published an article titled Queer Evolution which talked about how the word “Queer” itself has evolved into the mainstream. Originally the word’s definition was to describe something as odd or weird. Society utilized the word “Queer” as an insult to the LGBTQ community. As more sexual orientations are being discovered, “Queer” became a more accepted word in the gay community in order to make things simpler. Irvine’s essay showed that whatever word we use, can affect a person depending on the intention, and the tone of how it’s being said. Irvine’s essay is very similar to Deborah Tannen’s essay You’re Wearing That which talks about the relationship between mother and daughter and how words have established expectations for women based on their appearance and behavior. Another essay that well connects with Tannen and Irvine’s articles is a section from a book written by Michael Kimmel titled Bros Before Hos’’: The Guy Code. Kimmel talks about “The Guy Code”, rules that a man should always follow in order to be considered a real man. Words are the reason why these standards have been established for all genders and sexualities. The relationships between parents and children would be better if words were replaced, which would abolish the expectations that society has for men and women.

The word “gay” has gone through drastic changes. Traditionally, it was a positive term that meant to be “happily excited” or “jolly” (Merriam Webster, “Gay”). It was used regularly to express one’s feelings about life. Today, it has a far different meaning. Now people use the word gay to label homosexuals, those with feminine qualities, or those who do something thought to be outside of the norm for their gender. “Being gay” went from expressing someone’s happiness to describing his sexual preference. The definition of gay has changed so much that its original meaning has become archaic and lost to the times.

In the article, What Do We Say When We Hear ‘Faggot’? by Lenore Gordon, it talks about what teachers can do if students are using derogatory language that suggest that a student might be gay. This article confirms my theory that education is the key when it comes to changing what people think, “name-calling is so common among children, and because it embodies the bigotry learned from adults, it is a good place for educators to begin” (Gordon, 1995, p. 87). This article was written in 1995, but I feel like times are changing and children are learning at a younger age that words like faggot and dyke are not okay things to say. However, that does not mean that it still does not happen. It is our jobs as teachers to education our students and

As a lesbian, there are a few slurs that can trigger a spark of dread in me on instinct. The word faggot is one of the first to come to mind. On occasion a group of teasing friends will use such words as a playful insult among one another--and it feels like I am the only person hearing them yell ‘fire’ in a building full of uncaring people. These words burn into my subconscious like a bundle of sticks being thrown into smoldering embers; the hairs on the back of my neck rise, my hands clench into tight fists, and my eyes dart about fearfully for the perpetrator. It is an ugly word--a crude, cruel word in both sound and meaning. It weighs heavily on the tongue like a condemnation, as it remains to be for gay people today. Therefore, due to the word’s implied hatefulness, our culture needs to shift from using faggot as a playful insult, to leaving it behind as we attempt to become a more diverse and accepting world.

“You’re gay,” a term now used so freely to not only insult peers but to take a stab at the homosexual community. But was this homosexual stigma always prevalent in history? Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Roman state ruled most of the known world. During those five hundred years, emperors rose to power and fell, a republic formed and was destroyed but what perhaps is one the most important aspects of Roman society is free love.

A typical SJW would immediately retaliate and denounce anyone who uses these words. As a homosexual myself, I would not take offense to slurs of any kind, even the ones directed at my orientation. Several gay people that I associate with also believe that such derogatory terms are petty and insignificant (a few of them are in fact encouraged by those slurs). Some people attribute the offensiveness to lie within the words themselves, even though words can drift in and out of inappropriateness. Most of us recognize, for instance, that "gay" literally means "happy" and related synonyms. Only within the last century did it happen to acquire the current context; consequently, many teenagers began to use it derogatorily. "That's so gay," is not a direct offense to gay people, but rather implies entirely different semantics. Isn't it rude to call someone stupid? Therefore, why would it be acceptable to use "that's so stupid"? They represent the same meaning! So how can one be more offensive than the other can, even though they're both relatively offensive in their own right? Involving the same group of SJWs in that LGBT+ chat, I received retribution for using the word "retarded", to which I defended myself with the literal definition and traditional use of "to retard". Suddenly, I realized that the logic behind a word’s obscenity originates from allowing ourselves to be offended by it in the first place. If as a society we didn't ascribe a word potential to offend or insult, then that word can’t be an issue. Attempts to phase out unacceptable terminology merely results in a different word to replace its unacceptability as people will consistently find other ways to object to whatever issue draws their attention. Self-victimization, attention-seeking, and name-calling recurrently plague human history, yet we are hopelessly ignorant to our past transgressions as a human

For the past couple of years, America has attempted to mend the issues in our society that kept homosexual people

It seems like the writers of the episode wanted to make the word fag so common that it would take away the power behind the word. Others thought it would backfire and popularize the word and increase the usage. Specifically members of the homosexual community believed that the increase usage of the word would rub off onto the general public. The episode was more so a misguided attempt to sympathize with gay rights. The articles goes on to question whether the meaning of a word is based on the interpretation of the audience, the intent of the word, as it's defined in the dictionary or a combination of all three. Schulzke believes that it is critical to understand that there are multiple factors that go into the meaning of a word. He concludes by claiming that the intent of the usage of the word as well as how the word is interpreted are more important in comparison to the dictionary definition. Which goes with the saying thats its not what you say however how you say it, that's what truly carries

Parents are hard folks to please. Ask anyone and they will say just that. Whatever a child does, they receive some sort of comment or criticism from their folks. While some parents are mean and criticize their children with the intention of hurting them, most parents criticize their children because they care and love their child. It boils down to the language parents’ use with their kin, and the actions behind their language. In Martha Irvine’s essay Queer Evolution: Word Goes Mainstream, she explains the evolution of the word queer and how the word has changed over time from a negative to a word that is seen as more tolerated. Irvine’s ideas are echoed in Deborah Tannen’s You’re Wearing That, and Michael Kimmel’s Bros Before Hos in that words parents use with their children might be harmful without the children understanding the actions behind the words. Irvine explains in her essay that words and the ideas behind the words is suspect to change over time. Tannen and Kimmel point out in their essay’s that this is the case when children interpret their parent’s comments as negative instead of positive.

Phrases such as “That 's so gay!” and “You look like a faggot!” are anti-LGBT slurs that are rarely looked at as such. Using someone’s sexuality as a derogatory term stimulates the idea that their sexual orientation is invalid. Many times, the loved ones of

This analysis will examine chapter three, “Is it Pink? Is it Blue?” of Robert N. Minor’s book, Scared Straight: Why It 's So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It 's So Hard to Be Human. Minor is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas and often focuses his writing toward gay rights and gender roles in society. This particular book is a cultural critique of the United States’ gender roles and homophobia. Minor’s arguments leave a weak impression and leave readers with a sense of confusion. Minor ineffectively uses rhetoric in his arguments to establish a purpose, inform his audience, use effective language, or to persuade his audience to take action.

The popular appearance of the word “queer” supports Irvine’s argument by showing how individuals are showing leniency towards it.

The phrase ‘that is gay’ is used daily by millions of people, to describe how they feel about a new song or movie and various other things, who think nothing of it. The phrase should come with the same weight as using the word ‘retard’. It is just as offensive to the LGBTQ community as the word ‘retard’ is to the learning disabled community yet we still think it is okay. Another issue would be hate crimes of homosexuals. They do not carry the same weight as other hate crimes. As recently as this summer I saw a news report showing a video of a gay male couple walking in downtown Philadelphia. This couple was approached by a group of heterosexual men and women and they were bullied and then beaten by the group. At first the media did not acknowledge that the couple was gay. What is worse is that the media and the police knew the couple was gay. The police did not take the initiative in finding the group of men and women just because the couple was gay. The case was a low priority because gay men and women are not equal. They did practically nothing to find justice for the couple. A gentleman watching the news broadcast was the one who took the initiative to find the group of people responsible. Using the power of the internet, this man found the suspects. Without him I am afraid the men and women responsible would not have faced

Homosexuality is a word that immediately invokes ideas of sexual attraction for me, and not just because it has the word ‘sex’ written inside of it. It has been defined to me countless times, from queer studies to the field of psychology, as being the desire for sexual interests or relations with someone of the same sex. All immediate branching identities of homosexuality, such as gay and lesbian, almost automatically receive this same sexual definition. The history of the word pressures the sexualized connotation, having originally been used to identify a mental disorder based solely in the