Kids these days will make you lose faith in the future of humanity no matter what they’re doing, but they seem pretty universally progressive when it comes to matters of human rights and equality.
To get a pulse on the opinions of millennials regarding the terms “gay” and “faggot” when used as derogatory slurs, the makers behind popular YouTube series Kids React showed a diverse group of 13-18 year-olds the homophobic verbal assault that forever locked slapstick “comedian” Jonah Hill in the dog house.
Last month, Hill asked a photographer to “suck his dick” before calling him a “faggot,” a vile display of homophobia that these kids are largely not ok with. They seem to be duped by his non-pology for the most part, but all of these teens agree that it’s time to retire the use of “gay” and “faggot” as derogatory slurs.
Keep your eyes on that opinionated girl with the fancy headband appearing for the first time around 1:12. She argues that Hill’s use of the word “faggot” wasn’t “meant to be mean,” and that “gay” has “evolved” to just mean “stupid.” It doesn’t take long for her to stumble back into her backward logic and realize that equating gayness with something “stupid” or “lame” is actually pretty offensive.
How about we take this to the next level?
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redcarpet
I hear that headband girl stuff all the time. I’m sorry but you don’t get to take our identity away from us and turn it into something else, whether things have “evolved” or not.
thekangaroonest
I can definitely see that Hill didn’t mean any offence to our community when he used that word, but that does not mean that it’s ok. The use of that word needs to be stopped! Saying that they don’t mean to be offensive and don’t ‘use to word that way’ is no excuse, how would people feel if someone used the n-word that way?
SteveDenver
My neighbor’s daughter just turned 16 and attends a suburban high school that is bigger than the town where I grew up. She’s hot and popular, and now that she and her friends drive, and they can come visit her, I’ve noticed a lot of young gay men hanging around their place. She knows I and my boyfriend are gay and out, and always invites us to things at school with her mom, who shouldn’t drive at night.
She’s had some hot guys come up to her at events and shows, and she’s a little chilly toward them. They didn’t “pass” because they either had a stupid mouth or weren’t nice to her gay friends. I can’t express how her “cool” quotient shot through the roof on that one.
Her mom doesn’t mind her dating at this age, but has equipped her with birth control and condoms for any actions she decides to make. Her mom has also instilled in her that she’s in charge of her body, and explained exactly what assault and rape are, and what to do if it happens.
There are a lot of parents raising smart children these days. There will always be plenty of kids who are misguided or uninformed, but it seems like there are plenty who know what’s going on.
skcord
@redcarpet: No offense, but if your identity is completely tied to a single word, you have greater problems than people being insensitive. The things that make me wonderfully gay don’t have anything to do with the word gay. You can call me a gobbuldy gluck and it won’t change my sexuality or how I relate to the world at large. Words change and just as you don’t feel others have the right to change what you feel is the only definition of a word, so to do those people feel you don’t have a right to police and monitor their word usage.
robirob
While yes, we as a society evolve the intention why certain words are used (to hurt, to demean, to humiliate, to tease, to make light of a situation, etc.) remains the same for a very very long time.
Behavioral patterns established during childhood are hard to shake off and reveal themselves as reflex or instinct reaction to a (threatening) situation.
DickieJohnson
Cool, the “millenials” will evolve their own culture, in time. “Gay culture” has moved along quite amazingly since I came out 45 years ago. We couldn’t even dance together for fear of being arrested.
TomMc
“Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Some day we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you.”
? Maya Angelou
SFHandyman
Using “gay” and “faggot” does not necessarily mean the person is homophobic or objects to gay people. What it absolutely does mean is they don’t care if they are hurting gay people.
This is what they need to know. Yes you are absolutely hurting many gay people, mostly gay kids when you use those words derogatorily. So if I stood an 11 year old gay kid next to you, and everytime you said “that’s so gay” or “faggot” you had to immediately slap that kid, would you continue doing it? Because that is what those words feel like.
andyrwisc
Come on Queerty! You can’t complain about people using “gay” and “faggot” as pejoratives and then turn around and use the word “lame” as a synonym for stupid. Lame is a slur for individuals with physical disabilities. It’s amazing how sensitize we are too anti-gay language but we have no problem with disability-negative terms.
inbama
These are sweet children.
As for Hill, not only was that not a “nonpoligy,” but having seen the circumstances, understandable.
Ken A.
Seems to be he was provoked by the paparazzi and out of anger words are said. OK.
Mezaien
He is FAT STUPID and UGLY yes! actor NO.
Ben Dover
Since the “millennials” were the ones who invented the phrase “that’s so gay” in the first place, and they were the only ones ever to use the term, it seems disingenuous to credit them with giving it up just because they’ve FINALLY figured out what it means!
jayj150
Now can you please notify ‘Transadvocate’, ‘Transriot’ and transsexual activists like Molloy who openly and routinely use ‘f3ggot’ to refer to gay people, without Glaad so much as flinching.
renly
It’s a nice thought, milennials “unanimously” agreeing to give up those phrases but it simply isn’t true. I’m 19 and living in Tennessee and that kind of language isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The South will always be a few decades behind the rest of the country.
eddiesocket
If that was a “nonpology” then there is no such thing as an actual apology. If you’re going to lob an accusation like that, you should at least attempt to justify it.
Sebizzar
@eddiesocket: Exactly, the man looked like he was about to cry! And the fact that he chose to do it on TV and not the internet makes it more sincere.
inbama
@Sebizzar:
I can’t know how sincere he is, but it was public, took some courage and left no doubt that he took responsibility.
I myself would cut anybody slack as to what words they use when they’re being harassed.