"that's so gay"

[kimberkit]

I wonder whether it is my moral obligation as a teacher to stop my kids from using carelessly-offensive language like "that's so gay." Or is it just me coming from another paradigm?

Comments

[mansikka.livejournal.com]

Raising awareness is the first step towards correcting it. Maybe if you spend some class time coming up with synonymous alternatives (that don't target any one group as a scapegoat), they'll think that's really cool. The English language is rich and flexible enough for us to insult anything very freely without having to resort to targeting a certain group, inadvertently or not. :D

[sir-graeme.livejournal.com]

I would say that not stopping them or stopping them makes the difference between the one who waters the plants and the true gardener. Even carelessly-offensive language can hurt; and if you make your students aware of this particular example, it can be the first step to make them more aware of how they use language in general, thereby cultivating a much deeper and more awe-struck appreciation of the power of words. In stopping them, you are not only keeping them from offending the feelings of queer individuals, but also making them more responsible citizens.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

On a more practical level, I would bet a million dollars that the district already has a policy about this.

We have discussed this before, I think, but the fact that this has suddenly become all the rage fills me with rage and despair.

On a lighter note, have you seen those new Geico ads? The guy is like, "We have redesigned our website to be so simple, a caveman could use it!" And then from off-camera you hear this voice say, "Hey! Not cool!" And it turns out the boom operator is a caveman, and he throws the boom down in disgust. The spokesguy is like, "Sorry, I didn't see you standing there...."

Then there's a sequel where you see the ad that you saw being filmed being aired on this fancy-schmancy plasma TV, and then they cut to this high-tech ritsy bachelor pad inhabited by cavemen, and one says to the other, "Did you hear that? I can't believe it!" And the other looks up from his laptop (presumably he is using a website?) and says, "That is SO condescending!"

It tickled my heart.

[kimberkit.livejournal.com]

The first time they said it, I said, "did you ever consider that maybe someone gay might be hurt by that comment?" And then after that, I gave up and accepted it as one of those kid-culture things

[choirbean.livejournal.com]

Choose your battles - if you can expend a lot of energy fighing "that's so gay" comments, then you must be doing very well in general - when I taught city HS kids, I found that comments like that were so relatively tame that going after them didn't make sense.

Although Cath's idea of creative insults is pretty cool, too.

[wenchamuffin.livejournal.com]

Dude, correcting people is so gay.