Boondocks on "brokeback"

[Wilson Gray]

IMO, the latter use of "brokeback" has been extracted from the phrase,
_ADJ as a brokeback mule_, a very common BE expression.probably two
days older than water. I was a bit taken aback when I first learned
that there was a movie entitled "Brokeback" anything, given the total
negative polarity of the BE term, which is sometimes dysphemized as
"brokedick."

-Wilson

On 1/23/06, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject:      Boondocks on "brokeback"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The Boondocks cartoon from Sunday 22 January contains a "new slang
> alert", defining "brokeback" as "used to describe anything of
> questionable masculinity" and giving its etymology as "believed to have
> originated from 2005 motion picture 'Brokeback mountain'".
>
> It should be accessible through this link:
> http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2006/01/22/
>
> The question: Has anyone witnessed this in the wild, or is this an
> attempt by Aaron McGruder to create a new term? A quick scan of the
> results from googling brokeback -mountain gets a lot of references to
> the movie, a lot of plays on the movie name (like "brokeback pastor",
> referring to the public outing of a previously closeted gay minister), a
> company called Brokeback Media, and a band named Brokeback, but nothing
> that seems to use McGruder's definition, at least as far as i could find.
>
> Interestingly, there's a blog entry titles "brokeback boondock" about
> the Boondocks TV series that seems to be using "brokeback" in a very
> different way--see
> http://www.ebogjonson.com/archives/2006/01/brokeback_boond.php
>
> --
> David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org