FAG again

[Arnold Zwicky]

ron butters to jesse sheidlower:
 >Writing FAG when QUEER would have perfectly illustrated your
 >point was a mistake.

for what it's worth, i agree entirely with ron.  QUEER has been
significantly ameliorated, DYKE somewhat so, but FAG(GOT) not at
all, so far as i can tell; it's used for in-group reference, in
ways that ron talked about, and for highly in-your-face talk
to outsiders, and that's it (at least for the way queers use
FAG).

there's "gay male fiction" and "gay political groups" and "queer
studies" programs and all that, but no "fag fiction" etc.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)