"That's so gay" controversy

[GABRIELLA MODAN]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick, Peter L" <patrickp at essex.ac.uk>
Date: Monday, March 12, 2007 11:03 am
Subject: RE: [Linganth] "That's so gay" controversy

> Ron, I'm surprised at you! Surely you are aware of the many 
> meanings of
> "white", 
> and the possibility that the usage might derive from particular
> discourse patterns
> relating to oil-painting (or is it auto refinishing?) in the Southern
> States? Why I'm
> surprised at your rash leap of faith to think it might have 
> anything to
> do with race!
> 
> Historically speaking this is of course nonsense, since the color 
> whiteexisted for
> millennia before slavery, and anyhow haven't we said enough about all
> that awful stuff?
> 
> In any case I have no position whatsoever on the meaning of 
> "white", and
> anyone
> who says I do is wrong, except to note that I could probably find lots
> of dictionary 
> definitions if I really tried, and I reckon the more I put in my 
> email,the better it would 
> prove my point... 
> Quit laughing - this is a grave and sombre analysis and the 
> imprecations
> for all you straight-men are serious...
>            -p-
> 
> Prof Peter L Patrick
> Dept of Language and Linguistics
> University of Essex
> Wivenhoe Park
> Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK
> 
> E:  patrickp at essex.ac.uk
> Ph:  +44 (0) 1206 87.2088
> Fax: +44(0) 1206 87.2198
> Web: privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~patrickp
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
> [owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu] On Behalf Of Kephart, Ronald
> Sent: 12 March 2007 15:00
> To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
> Subject: Re: [Linganth] "That's so gay" controversy
> 
> All this reminds me of my first teaching job, at an exclusive private
> boys' 
> school here in Jacksonville, Florida, 1969-70. On any day that I 
> didn't 
> assign homework, somebody was sure to say "that's really white of you,
> Mr. 
> Kephart."
> 
> Ron
> Another question that this discussion brings up is whether words like this ever get totally resignified so that they lose their original connection with the group they once referred to. I had thought that this seemed to be the case with the term 'jerry-rigged' (derogatory term for Germans), but, according to my students from southern Ohio, the group-ID meaning stuck around enough that people in southern Ohio think it's an old derogatory term for African Americans. I'm wondering what people think about the term 'lame', though. To what extent has it become decoupled from the meaning 'disabled in the foot or leg'? Can 'lame' or 'gay' or any other generalized pejorative only lose its connection to a group when that term falls out of usage as a literal (derogatory or not) referent to that group? 

And in regard to John's question about whether 'that's so gay' is related to homosexual gay -- it's not a coincidence that 'that's so gay' means exactly the same thing as 'that's so queer'. (But I would argue actually means something different than 'that's so lame'. It would not make sense to say 'that's so gay' to mean, that's a really lousy excuse.) 

Galey