Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A Push to Curb the Casual Use of Ugly Phrases
I may be bringing up a very controversial topic by discussing this article about the phrases used against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. The article is informing us about the actions people are willing to take in order to end the negative language and specifically hurtful words used by children at school directed towards gay individuals. I completely agree that it is immoral to hurt the feelings of another person who is different than yourself, however I think it would be utterly impossibly to stop children from saying phrases that they are very comfortable with. For example, the article brings up the phrase “that’s gay”. Many people use this phrase with absolutely no gay connotation. The phrase has been most likely derived from certain homosexual jest; however the meaning isn’t quite the same anymore. Many individuals, myself included use the overplayed phrase “that’s gay” to express a certain lameness or disappointment towards a topic or action. It is not meant to hurt anyone’s feelings or to be specifically directed towards anyone. I do not have a problem with gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgender people; I actually have a few in my extended family, so to say that I would be anti-gay would be completely incorrect. I am not supporting phrases that hurt people’s feelings by offending them, I am simply stating that phrases’ meaning’s change over the years. It starts to lose the meaning it initially derived from. Many people say things without thinking how they might affect other people. I agree that everyone should take in consideration the way others can be offended by certain phrases in which we do not think are offensive and then cut back the usage of them.
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I agree however, as teachers we will need to encourage students to use their words. Give them more intelligent ways to say what they feel. I realize that all students are not going to want to stop using certain phrases such as "that's gay." I won't lie, I've used it too, and no, I do not have anything against gay people. I just think that students need to realize that even though they may not be saying it to intentionally offend someone with different sexual orientation then them, it might anyways. We also need to keep in mind that there are those popple who do use that phrase and others in order to hurt or offend. I dont think it can be stopped because how are we to seperate those who are using it as a form of self expression as opposed to using it to hurt or do damage to someone? I just think that we should be mindful of the words and phrases that we use. Be intelligent people.
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