{"id":1547,"date":"2016-07-19T23:14:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T03:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1547"},"modified":"2016-07-19T23:14:57","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T03:14:57","slug":"language-politics-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/07\/language-politics-reality.html","title":{"rendered":"Language, Politics, and Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a heated exchange on my Facebook wall, a \u201cfriend\u201d\u2014I\u2019ll call him \u201cDB\u201d\u2014remarked that while I <\/em>was \u201ccool,\u201d the rest of those posting on my thread, including family members of mine, were \u201cfaggots.\u201d<\/p>\n

As soon as I realized what he had said, I deleted him from my friends\u2019 list.<\/p>\n

Soon thereafter, evidently unaware that I unfriended this person, another friend of mine\u2014someone who I do indeed know personally and who I\u2019ll call \u201cTed\u201d\u2014contacted me privately to share his judgment that the use of the word \u201cfaggot\u201d on the part of the offending individual was \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, Ted was upset primarily because of the specific<\/em> insult that DB used as a conversation-spoiler. That DB spoiled the conversation by way of gratuitously insulting others was of secondary importance.<\/p>\n

According to Ted, unlike any number of other nasty pejoratives, \u201cfaggot\u201d has \u201ca toxic past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the idea that a word<\/em> has a \u201ctoxic\u201d history is, at best, a vague one. I suspect that what Ted\u2019s driving at is something like this: To use \u201cfaggot,\u201d at least in the sense in which DB used it, is \u201ccareless and callous\u201d because it perpetuates \u201cintolerance\u201d of \u201chomosexuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where to begin?<\/p>\n

First, while it is undeniably true that, for much, though not all, of its history, the word \u201cfaggot\u201d has been used as an epithet to describe homosexuals, it has usually referred to homosexual men. <\/em><\/p>\n

DB referred to \u201cmen and women\u201d <\/em>on my wall as \u201cfaggots.\u201d These are, importantly, men and women about whose sexual orientation he knows nothing.<\/p>\n

Second, \u201cfaggot\u201d can and has also been used pejoratively to reference a \u201crepellent,\u201d<\/a> but heterosexual,<\/em> male.<\/p>\n

Third, \u201cfaggot\u201d needn\u2019t be construed as a pejorative at all and, in fact, is \u201csometimes used within the gay community as a positive term of self-reference<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourth and, most importantly, \u201cfaggot,\u201d not unlike language generally\u2014as, ironically, Ted himself unfailingly insists in our many conversations\u2014has continued to evolve in its long trajectory from its sexually-neutral etymological origins. Interestingly, for an increasing number of people, particularly the young, \u201cfaggot\u201d is evolving once more away from the sexual connotations that it\u2019s acquired to mean something like \u201cidiot.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

According to UrbanDictionary.com<\/a>, \u201cfaggot\u201d is no longer used to refer to a homosexual, but is instead a synonym of sorts for \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201closer.\u201d Below is the example that is given:<\/p>\n

Ralph: Chris hasn\u2019t been answering his phone.<\/em><\/p>\n

John: Yeah, he is probably hanging out with those other kids, that\u2019s why.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ralph: He is such a faggot.<\/em><\/p>\n

John: Yeah, him and his faggot friends.<\/em><\/p>\n

Given the context, it is unquestionably the case that DB used \u201cfaggot\u201d in this last sense. That this way of speaking is indeed callous and crass, to say nothing of sophomoric, is not in dispute. Nor is there any denying that it can<\/em> be offensive to homosexuals (and others).<\/p>\n

However, the point is that Ted seems to assume that the word \u201cfaggot\u201d has a life\u2014a static <\/em>life\u2014of its own, that it must <\/em>be offensive whenever it\u2019s used\u2014even when it\u2019s used toward heterosexual men and women, or even when employed within the context of friendships such as that which \u201cJohn\u201d and \u201cRalph\u201d have with \u201cChris\u201d in the foregoing illustration.<\/p>\n

The word, while it certainly remains a pejorative for gay men, has a range of connotations that are not limited to this.<\/p>\n

Thus, it\u2019s not at all clear how DB\u2019s, Ralph\u2019s, and John\u2019s use of \u201cfaggot\u201d perpetuates \u201cintolerance\u201d of gays. It\u2019s even more difficult to discern what this can even mean given that Ted holds up as an example of such \u201cintolerance\u201d the Republican Party\u2019s 2016 Platform! Pence, Ted declared, is representative of the platform in being \u201crigorously anti-homosexual.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, belief in the civilizational ideal of historical (heterosexual) marriage reveals an \u201cintolerance\u201d of homosexuals<\/em>?! And using the word \u201cfaggot,\u201d then, helps to promote such things as traditional marriage? In all fairness, this conversation occurred very quickly via private messaging, so Ted may have had more to say here.<\/p>\n

But since he is the one leveling this charge, the burden is on him to prosecute his case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a heated exchange on my Facebook wall, a \u201cfriend\u201d\u2014I\u2019ll call him \u201cDB\u201d\u2014remarked that while I was \u201ccool,\u201d the rest of those posting on my thread, including family members of mine, were \u201cfaggots.\u201d As soon as I realized what he had said, I deleted him from my friends\u2019 list. 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