On SuperXClusivo , a program that airs on the independent InterMedia Partners-owned WAPA TV in Puerto Rico, where the host is a muppet, the prescient topic of Ricky Martin‘s coming out came up. It was discussed in these terms: Martin is a pato. Or, for the unfamiliar, a faggot. GLAAD has Spanish speakers over there, right?
UPDATE: GLAAD is “demanding” something.
[via]
Sexy Rexy
That is horrible. I hope his feelings are not too hurt.
Benny-N-Houston
Ummmm… Wrong… They appear to be calling him a Duck… Pato = Duck… Check your nearest spanish-2-english dictionary… Perhaps you guys meant “PUTO”… If so, we can then ring the bell…
Kieran
Since Ricky Martin is probably the best known Puerto Rican in America, wouldn’t it be great if, in the spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance, the organizers of NYC’s Puerto Rican Day Parade named Ricky Martin as the 2010 Grand Marshal of the parade? Wouldn’t that send a terrific message to the Puerto Rican community—-and indeed the entire city—that it doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight?
Jeff K.
Slang varies from country to country, but pato is used as an epithet for homosexuals in the hispanophone carribean. It’s not as offensive as marica or maricón, but I’d imagine some people would take offense.
Then again, hispanic cultures tend to have a higher tolerance for vulgarity.
Jeffrika
Right, Jeff, just like the Anglophones continued slavery for almost an entire century while barbaric latinos renounced it.
CondeNasty
God Benny pick up a book or travel more. Pato is slang for faggot in Puerto Rico as Mariposa is in Mexico….why else would you call a person a duck or butterfly its disparaging slang…
Jeffrika
S&M is a white thing, as is that whole leather master/servant stuff. White gays seem to love the machofucker type of latino or black man and uses their power to make these things happen. Doesn’t that make white men vulgar-enablers? Promoting unsafe practices like that. No wonder our communities never really gel except when you need a servant/fuck.
Jeff K.
Who said anything about barbarism? Besides, slavery only ended in Brazil by 1888, over 20 years after it was abolished in the USA, and 55 years after it was abolished in the UK.
delurker again
wtf, queerty? RM’s countrymen are other Americans.
Benny-N-Houston
@CondeNasty:
Ummm.. Perhaps you need to chill the eff out… Calling someone a duck, or a homosexual man is not a big deal… Yes, Puerto Ricans refer to gays as Patos, but its not as big as a deal as you are making it… okay Pato?
Rodri
I wouldn’t make too much of this. This type of machista commentary isn’t going to die out quickly in the Caribbean. Sure, its offensive, but we don’t have a culture of PC-ness on air that one has in the US, so its to be expected. Our culture IS changing, and for the better, and eventually people like these idiots will find less people laughing in chorus with them until finally they’ll be off the air.
RealCuban
I think you guys misinterpreted, because I’m Cuban and Pato doesn’t mean anything to me more than gay.
If they would have said “maricon” that to me is the spanish equivalent of faggot.
Pato = gay
Maricon = faggot.
Daniel
Caribbean island nations would literally be destroyed if they violated the human rights of Jewish people (who number less than 50 million on Earth), so why are such countries not simply destroyed when they violate the human rights of gay people and their families who easily number more than a billion strong? That’s the real question that should be answered. Only gay people and their straight family members put up with this crap when no other group on the planet ever would.
Karinne
GLAAD is too busy harassing gay filmmakers at the behest of unhinged trannies to worry about actual defamation against gay people on television.
Chandler in Las Vegas
The reason the word pato is used is that a bunch of PR gays, to them, sounds like a bunch of quacking ducks. It’s like calling us a bunch of quacking queens. While it is a slight slight, I do think that Ricky Martin deserves better from his own people.
As for shaded meanings, ask a Mexican to tell you the meaning of the word culero.
Capita
@Benny-N-Houston: Not wrong. Pato means duck but it is also used to mean faggot in Puerto Rico – and Cuba, for that matter, where pájaro (bird) is more common. I think Venezuela uses mariposa (butterfly).
NG
While the term loses luster translated into english, one still needs to take into consideration the machismo, archaic culture that still exists therhttp://www.queerty.com/puerto-rican-television-proud-to-call-countryman-ricky-martin-a-pato-20100406/#commentse. So in that context, when someone says pato it’s being done to demasculate and potentially encourage bullying or harassment.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
On SuperXClusivo…where the host is a muppet
Really?
Paschal
@Rodri: Well Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S. It’s not a state but is fully a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans have U.S. citizenship. Why does the U.S., by the way, have territories which aren’t states. This situation means that residents of certain places have less rights than fellow Americans.
Paschal
Note: I’m sort of disagreeing with myself now. Puerto TRico is unorganised and is therefore not apart of the U.S.A. proper but not independent.
FoolMe1
What about the freedom of speech
Giovannidude
Calling someone a “pato” in Caribbean Spanish is slightly worse than using the proper term, “una persona gay”. Gay is pronounced the same as guy.
If you want to up the ante, “maricón” is an offensive way of calling someone gay, roughly means fag, but it’s pretty universal in Spanish.
In Spain, the term “joto condenado” pretty much translates as goddamned faggot.
If you want to use a euphemism, referring to someone as a “mariposa”, which means fairy, should do the trick. If you want to be more subtle, you could see a bunch of gay guys walking by, and say, “Son de la izquierda” (they play for the other team).
In any case, if you’d like to tell off the nasty person who just called you a fag in Spanish, you might try “Anda para que te coja un burro zurdo” (Go get fucked by a left-handed donkey) or “Se dice que te gustan las tragosas” (People say you like to swallow it). The all-purpose standard obscene tell-off is “Mama la pinga, pinche cabrón” (Blow me, you fucking bastard).
Just make sure you’ve got your track shoes on. Hispanic dudes tend to be real touchy about their masculinity.
When I taught Spanish in high school, a girl asked me one day what “chucha” meant. I told her it’s a woman’s you-know-what. I thought students would ask more questions like that, wanting to know how you say various body parts in Spanish, but they didn’t. They wanted to know how you say “white trash” and “trailer park” in Spanish. Geesh!
Marc
PR Gay Activist announces campaign against homophobic TV show
While GLAAD are too busy taking orders from overzealous trans activists, El Vocero, a spanish language newspaper in Puerto Rico reported human rights activist Pedro Julio Serrano and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s (Puerto Rico For All) filed several lawsuits and complaints with the Federal Communications Commission against the WAPA TV show Super Exclusivo and it’s co-stars, Santarrosa Kobbe and Hector Travieso.
Super Exclusivo is an evening gossip/infotainment show featuring Hector Travieso and a middle aged muppet style character named La Comay. Translated into english, it would be something like MidWife. If I’m not mistaken, Kobbe is the voice behind La Comay.
It’s also the show I cited earlier where they repeatedly called Ricky Martin “pato” (faggot), although as Pedro via El Vocero noted, the show frequently uses gays for scapegoats.
Pedro & Puerto Rico Para Tod@s are also encouraging the Puerto Rican gay and lesbian community to file individual complaints with the FCC.
Complaints can be submitted through the following website:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgb/fcc475BSpanish.cfm
http://ng1260.blogspot.com/2010/04/pr-gay-activist-announces-campaign.html
Marc
GLAAD Demands Super Xclusivo Stop Using Defamatory Terms in Covering Ricky Martin Story and Others
Singer Ricky Martin’s decision to come out as an openly gay man has received generally fair and accurate coverage in Spanish-Language media. Unfortunately, some derogatory remarks have been made in the media as well.
On the Puerto Rican gossip show Super Xclusivo on Wapa America the pejorative term “pato,” was used several times on segments telecast April 5 and April 6. Co-hosts Hector Travieso and “La Comay,” a large puppet with whom Travieso gossips, have discussed the story extensively. Martin is from Puerto Rico.
The use of such anti-gay and derogatory terms helps to foster prejudice which can lead to violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. GLAAD is calling on Super Xclusivo to stop using this or any other defamatory term. Also on the show, the co-hosts presented a long segment in which they speculated on the sexual orientation of various celebrities, again using defamatory terminology.
http://glaadblog.org/2010/04/07/glaad-demands-super-xclusivo-stop-using-defamatory-terms-in-covering-ricky-martin-story-othersglaad-exige-que-super-xclusivo-deje-de-usar-terminos-difamatorios-en-cobertura-de-ricky-martin-otras/
Arkano18
Here in Latinamerica, is not taken that serious to be called a faggot. Is ebcause culturally, we use epithets commonly. I’m sorry, it can’t be fully explained, cuz it’s about cultural approaches.
E
In Puerto Rico “pato” DOES NOT mean faggot! It means “gay”. Saying “maricon” would be calling him a “faggot”. So getting worked up for calling Ricky Martin gay is ridiculous!
Brandon
It all depends on the context. As stated for the most part Pato is not the nice way of saying homosexual, however it is not nearly as offensive as Maricon, which is used ONLY in a derogatory fashion. Pato however, CAN mean faggot, but it depends on intonation and how it was used. I don’t see as much malice coming from this show. They are a gossip show.. They are being ridiculous. That is what they do, still probably not the best choice of words but Super Xclusivo never has been good at that.
prisle
I live in PR:
Pato=Faggot …..as does Maricon
Period
JAVSEL
PALANTE RICKI”””Y MUCHA PAZ PARA TI Y LOS TUYOS”””OK””SOLO VIVIR DIA A DIA….OK”””Y SABROSO EL SABOR DE VIDA,GOZALO”JAVSEL AND JOEY…
billy boy
@Benny-N-Houston: in Puerto Rico pato refers also to gay. check an urban dictionary