"Brokeback" named Hollywood word of the year

[Alice Faber]

Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> On 2/28/06, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>> On Feb 28, 2006, at 4:48 PM, James Callan wrote:
>>
>>> LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - And the winner for Hollywood's word of the
>>> year is "Brokeback," thanks to all the talk around the water cooler
>>> and Internet jokes that have turned a film about two gay cowboys
>>> into a cultural phenomenon.
>>>
>>> The nonprofit group Global Language Monitor placed "Brokeback" --
>>> as in the film title "Brokeback Mountain" -- at the top of its list
>>> of Hollywood words and phrases that captured attention this year.
>>>
>>> http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?
>>> type=entertainmentNews&storyID=11356806
>> annoyingly, they don't tell us what users think it means.
>>
>> feed the linguist!  feed the linguist!
>
> Well, you might go by the gloss in this snarky Defamer post...
>
> -----
> http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/brokeback-mountain/brokeback-is-hollywood-word-of-the-year-means-gay-157431.php
> A mysterious organization known only as the Global Language Monitor
> has released its annual list of the year's most influential "Hollywood
> words and phrases." Using advanced and sophisticated tracking
> techniques available to anyone with access to Google, the group has
> decreed "Brokeback"–that highly evocative cluster of geographical
> peaks and valleys on the map of the human heart that has quickly
> turned into yet another synonym for "faggy"–as Hollywood's word of the
> year.
> -----
>
> Good jab about GLM's "sophisticated tracking techniques". They go on
> to make fun of some of the other entries on the list ("Vincifer",
> etc.). At least *someone* out there isn't taking this stuff seriously.
>
>

But *is* that what it means? What I'd inferred from the examples posted
here was that people were using "brokeback" to mean something like
adopting stereotypical macho behavior to cover up being gay, in other
words, the antithesis of faggy.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963

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