Aries Magazine December 2013 / January 2014 Issue | Page 42

NEED TO KNOW

I like to think I’m down
with youth culture and its slang.
Well, a bit anyway. I understand
that the word “sick” can mean
“cool”, and “bare” can mean “a
lot”. This is pretty much the limit
of my knowledge. But I do like
to think I can tell the difference
between words that have changed
their meaning in a quirky but
harmless way, and those that
have a damaging knock-on effect.

The evolution of the word
“gay” is a case in point. Once it
meant carefree or merry. Over
time it came to be used to describe a sexual orientation. Now
– for many at least – it has been
appropriated to mean “rubbish”
or “crap”. So a word that started
out meaning “happy” has ended up being used to denigrate.
Well, language changes, doesn’t
it? Many would see no problem
with a shift driven by everyday
speech.

It is a problem, however,
for those of us – a whole swath
of society – who are actually gay,
and for whom the word forms
an important part of our identity
and sense of self. It might not be
obvious to those who aren’t. But
the casual, insulting use of the
word, in schools and elsewhere,
hurts us. In fact, it seeps into the
subconscious. It fuels people’s
perception of gay people as
wrong or bad.

If a young person, growing up gay, constantly hears
the word being used to refer to
something that’s disliked, useless
or stupid, they are quite naturally going to feel that reflects
on them. They are going to feel
disliked, useless and stupid. And
young gay people have enough
to deal with already. Look at the
statistics: 23% of gay or bisexual
young people have tried to take

DEC 2013 & JAN 2014

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ARIES

41

When You
Use The Word

“Gay”?

their own lives and 56% have
self-harmed. This isn’t inconsequential squabbling over the
use of an adjective. No one is
looking to fetter freedom of expression. This is about stopping
a new generation of gay people
from growing up in a climate of
persecution and ostracism.

Gay charity Stonewall
is leading a campaign against
homophobic language. I share its
view that the young people using
the word gay negatively are not
necessarily homophobic. There
is a difference between labelling
a statement or action homophobic and labelling someone a
homophobe. What is needed is
better education – of students and
teachers alike.

This isn’t a question of
punishment, but one of enlightenment. Young gay people have
told Stonewall that
when they hear phrases
such as “that is so gay”
they feel ashamed; like
they are outsiders. Once
again, this isn’t oversensitivity, or nitpicking
over language that may
have been used quite innocently. I believe that
political correctness
for the sake of it can
be counterproductive.
No, this is a form of
bullying – intentional or
not – that has obvious
consequences.

But are we
fighting a losing bat42

ARIES

tle? Can you really stand in the
way of a linguistic change, or
the way kids choose to behave
in their own friendship groups or
the playground? I firmly believe
that young people’s attitudes can
rapidly change once they’ve been
educated about something – I’ve
seen it with my own eyes. I have
faith in them. Give them the
information they need about the
harm being done and they will
stop using language that hurts
and upsets many of their peers.

Most of the time, young
people don’t want to offend.
They want to understand things
and, ultimately, behave well
towards one another. The devil
is in the detail when it comes to
language that is used to ostracise
people. It is the detail that we
have to get to grips with. What
else do we have?

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DEC 2013 & JAN 2014