"Getz is Gay"

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Ahh, good 'ol 'Murrica. Where we give more of a shirt about the words that hurt people than about the people who were actually hurt.

 

[doubledown68]

He shouldn't have done it, but the sanctimonious outrage is worse than anything he did.

Yup.

 

[HC]

Until we stop treating the term 'gay' as a disparaging remark, this is not okay. Would it be okay if he used the 'n' word?

 

[rpmmutant]

Until we stop treating the term 'gay' as a disparaging remark, this is not okay. Would it be okay if he used the 'n' word?

And how many NBA players use the N word when they're talking to their boys? Total double standard. Not trying to justify it, just saying the N word gets abused and misused just as much.

 

[rpmmutant]

Just curious, but would there have been an outcry if he had written "Getz is fat!" in the dirt?

What's the difference?

Only fat people can make fun of other fat people. I am so offended.

 

[HC]

Until we stop treating the term 'gay' as a disparaging remark, this is not okay. Would it be okay if he used the 'n' word?

And how many NBA players use the N word when they're talking to their boys? Total double standard. Not trying to justify it, just saying the N word gets abused and misused just as much.

Different context entirely. I can use the term 'girls' when I'm talking with my female friends. When a client calls me a 'girl', it pisses me off. Using the term 'gay' as an insult is unacceptable, as is 'retarded'.

 

[BTExpress]

Tell 100 people an untrue rumor was going to be spread about them on the internet, and it will be one of the following . . . .

---- XXXXXXX cheated on his taxes.

---- XXXXXXX is gay.

The first one is illegal. The second "is nothing to be ashamed about."

Given a choice, how many people would rather have the second rumor made public?

In other words, it's a disparaging remark even to those who claim it shouldn't be. Because deep down people aren't honest about such things.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Face it. There are some groups (or traits of people) you are allowed to make fun of, and some you aren't.

And society moves the crossbar every few years. Don't ever remember getting to vote on this, but what the hey.

Calling Albom the Dwarf is fine, isn't it? Doesn't matter that short people (not to mention dwarves) have to deal with prejudices and disadvantages, and God forbid if one ever gets angry or tries to better himself (Napoleon Complex!!!!).

Fat people are fine to belittle, too. Heck, they even "deserve" it more than short people because all they do is stuff their faces with Twinkies and take up too much room in the airplane seat next to you.

Southerners? fork 'em. Bunch of inbred, backward, toothless idiots who all wave their Confederate flags.

Outrage over remarks made toward any of these people? That'll be the day.

So then you are forced to "rank" the injustices done over the years. If the injustice to a grandfather (or great-great-great grandfather) in your group was grave enough, you get outrage when remarks are made. If you have just been miserable dealing with remarks because you happen to be a 5-foot-1 kid from Alabama, well, tough shirt.

And finally, get 100 SportsJournalists.com members in a room watching a movie in 2011, and 99 of them will chuckle when Jeff Spicoli utters . . .

"THOSE GUYS ARE FAGS!!!"

People laugh at Spicoli, not with him. That was the point. It's like I posted early on in the thread. You can pull off that kind of humor in certain contexts. We aren't laughing because we think it's a hilarious insult that Jeff Spicoli called the other surfers a fag. Quite the contrary. It's funny because Spicoli is such a juvenile cartoon character that of course he would think that's an appropriate thing to say to insult someone. He doesn't know any better. He's a moron. That's what's funny about it. Same general reason we laugh at Archie Bunker. Or Ed O'Neill being uncomfortable with his son's homosexuality on "Modern Family."

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Until we stop treating the term 'gay' as a disparaging remark, this is not okay.

And then it's OK?

 

[printdust]

See if you're straight, no one ever makes fun of you because you're a heterosexual, you're hetero, call me a hetero, what's the big deal?

If you're gay, but you have felt the persecution and ridicule that people have thrown towards you, your friends, other known gays, its no big deal to throw the gay label around.

But hey, if you've never felt it, you probably think everyone is just being oversensitive because its just one word.

I'm guessing the people who are outraged by this are not gay people. It's the PC police and those who just love to be "outraged" over something that merits little more than a roll of the eyes.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong?

Better question. Have you ever been on the receiving end of any form of bigotry? It isn't necessary to be gay to be sympathetic to a homosexual person being offended by this. Some of us are members of other minority groups. Others just have some simple human empathy. Perhaps a combination of both.

I would imagine that 99 percent of us were made fun of something as a kid. I think we lived to survive it. There's a difference between persistent bullying and an occasional jab. There's also a difference in viciousness and this particular example. The way some of you speak of it, every use of the word in whatever use is Matthew Shepherd all over again. HUGE difference, though you can't see it.

 

[Dick Whitman]

See if you're straight, no one ever makes fun of you because you're a heterosexual, you're hetero, call me a hetero, what's the big deal?

If you're gay, but you have felt the persecution and ridicule that people have thrown towards you, your friends, other known gays, its no big deal to throw the gay label around.

But hey, if you've never felt it, you probably think everyone is just being oversensitive because its just one word.

I'm guessing the people who are outraged by this are not gay people. It's the PC police and those who just love to be "outraged" over something that merits little more than a roll of the eyes.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong?

Better question. Have you ever been on the receiving end of any form of bigotry? It isn't necessary to be gay to be sympathetic to a homosexual person being offended by this. Some of us are members of other minority groups. Others just have some simple human empathy. Perhaps a combination of both.

I would imagine that 99 percent of us were made fun of something as a kid. I think we lived to survive it. There's a difference between persistent bullying and an occasional jab. There's also a difference in viciousness and this particular example. The way some of you speak of it, every use of the word in whatever use is Matthew Shepherd all over again. HUGE difference, though you can't see it.

A good-natured jab at a gay friend who then gives me a good-natured jab about something like my clutziness? For sure.

A good-natured jab at a fellow straight jock in broad daylight - heck, in the locker room? Completely different.

Seems like this happened somewhere else recently. Maybe even with the Blackhawks. Except on a dry erase or chalkboard. My memory is hazy.

Yep, here it is. Patrick Kane:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Pronger-mocked-during-Blackhawks-locker-room-ce?urn=nhl-247420

You want to keep company with that neanderathal, be my guest, my friend.

I'm far less "outraged" than I am just a little tired of the fratboy culture in locker rooms at this point. And I say that as someone who, I'm quite sure, participated in it at points in his life, be it in high school or even college IMs. I'm sure I scrawled something about someone being gay on the frat house walls at some point. Or made these kinds of jokes. Then I grew up. I think some of us are just impatient for a generation of boys to come through who don't think of "gay" as an insult any more.

 

[printdust]

See if you're straight, no one ever makes fun of you because you're a heterosexual, you're hetero, call me a hetero, what's the big deal?

If you're gay, but you have felt the persecution and ridicule that people have thrown towards you, your friends, other known gays, its no big deal to throw the gay label around.

But hey, if you've never felt it, you probably think everyone is just being oversensitive because its just one word.

I'm guessing the people who are outraged by this are not gay people. It's the PC police and those who just love to be "outraged" over something that merits little more than a roll of the eyes.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong?

Better question. Have you ever been on the receiving end of any form of bigotry? It isn't necessary to be gay to be sympathetic to a homosexual person being offended by this. Some of us are members of other minority groups. Others just have some simple human empathy. Perhaps a combination of both.

I would imagine that 99 percent of us were made fun of something as a kid. I think we lived to survive it. There's a difference between persistent bullying and an occasional jab. There's also a difference in viciousness and this particular example. The way some of you speak of it, every use of the word in whatever use is Matthew Shepherd all over again. HUGE difference, though you can't see it.

A good-natured jab at a gay friend who then gives me a good-natured jab about something like my clutziness? For sure.

A good-natured jab at a fellow straight jock in broad daylight - heck, in the locker room? Completely different.

Seems like this happened somewhere else recently. Maybe even with the Blackhawks. Except on a dry erase or chalkboard. My memory is hazy.

Yep, here it is. Patrick Kane:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Pronger-mocked-during-Blackhawks-locker-room-ce?urn=nhl-247420

You want to keep company with that neanderathal, be my guest, my friend.

I'm far less "outraged" than I am just a little tired of the fratboy culture in locker rooms at this point. And I say that as someone who, I'm quite sure, participated in it at points in his life, be it in high school or even college IMs. I'm sure I scrawled something about someone being gay on the frat house walls at some point. Or made these kinds of jokes. Then I grew up. I think some of us are just impatient for a generation of boys to come through who don't think of "gay" as an insult any more.

Then let them grow up, like you grew up. Don't try to legislate it.