Posted by sigismund on September 27, 2011, at 15:20:02
In reply to Bitter substances » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on September 27, 2011, at 14:53:44
>The big insult was to say something or someone was gay.
Of course, and it was when I was at school. Back then it was (and it had to be said with a tone of angry contempt) 'You are a f*ck*ng p**ft*r'.
Now that puts me in time and place. We don't have p**ft*rs any more. They have vanished. But it was much more threatening than being told you were gay, which, it has to be said, could also be said in a tone of angry contempt.
When my kids used that expression I took issue with them once or twice. By the time they used it they had forgotten where it had come from and they felt I was being pedantic. I did of course say things like 'I'd be delighted if you were gay', which led them to say things like 'You're weird'. Later I could see that the terrible Australian homophobia had been moderated. In my son's muck up athletics day the gay boy wore a dress and they all played together happily enough. I know because I saw the videos they made. This would have been inconceivable 45 years ago. But we made a point of not sending our kids to the kind of 'good' school I went to and chose a humane catholic school instead where they took community values seriously.
poster:sigismund
thread:997807
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20110926/msgs/998055.html