Kids using gay as an insult

TeamLowe

calling everything in the world ever gay was popular when i was at high school (left 2002, realising Person_One is only a year older than me has made me feel very old!)and then sort of fizzled out as boys grew into men.
or started liking girls and realised girls found it childish, which is usually the most straightforward way of correcting male behaviour.

and i'm really upset to find that gimp doesn't just mean a certain kind of BDSM practicioner!

ScarlettUK

TeamLowe wrote: »

and i'm really upset to find that gimp doesn't just mean a certain kind of BDSM practicioner!

That's what I thought too! I thought gimps wore masks haha

Kildare

My 16 year old nephew says 'gay' as an insult on a regular basis - when I first heard him do it I told him not too, that he was being offensive. He was very defensive and said its not homophobic it just means 'rubbish' and everyone uses it.

He now doesn't use it around me as I give him a look if he does but suspect he and his mates do use it all the time. I think it may have become one of the words which means one thing to one generation and another to todays teenagers...

elizabethdennis

Carpi09 wrote: »

Most 9 year olds won't use 'Gay' as homophobic, they use it generally as you say as an insult/joke to anyone who annoys them as you would say. It has nothing to do with homophobia.

However, if they know the true meaning and are personally attacking an individual who is gay, then this should be delt with accordingly.

Your husband is right, it is a common place.

You have no right in talking to other parents kids, if you have a problem with them, go speak to the parents and let them deal with their own children.

I definitely agree. You should let the parents handle their children. Just think of how would you feel if other people would reprimand your children.

Gloomendoom

TeamLowe wrote: »

calling everything in the world ever gay was popular when i was at high school (left 2002, realising Person_One is only a year older than me has made me feel very old!)and then sort of fizzled out as boys grew into men.
or started liking girls and realised girls found it childish, which is usually the most straightforward way of correcting male behaviour.

That was over twenty years ago. Things have moved on. Gay is the new pants and in common usage by both sexes.

sassyblue

fluffnutter wrote: »

It was !!!!!! in my day. Each generation has its own politically incorrect set of insults. Just do what parents have always done - say 'That's not a nice word to use as an insult. There's nothing wrong with being gay' and leave it at that.

TBH, I don't actually see it as homophobia. Today's generation of kids are probably far more tolerant of homosexuality than previous ones. It's just the word of the moment. Just like 'retard' or '!!!!!!' or, famously, 'Joey' (after Joey Deacon on Blue Peter). Kids use words like this. I don't think you need to equate playground insults with conscientious marginalising and bullying of particular groups in society. Kids are just thoughtless.

^^^ THIS ^^^ (fluffnutter we are a similar age!)

My nephews all around the age of 20 call each other or things they do 'gay'. It did startle me at first because the cycle of teasing/insulting evolves and they used a word l wouldn't have, but it's said in a comical way not dripping with hatred. There's the difference.

thehappybutterfly

ScarlettUK wrote: »

That's what I thought too! I thought gimps wore masks haha

They come from the planet Gimpoid!

Person_one

TeamLowe wrote: »

(left 2002, realising Person_One is only a year older than me has made me feel very old!)

Jeez, you lot really know how to make a girl feel good about herself, first I'm a 70 year old bloke and now being a year younger than me is shockingly old!

VestanPance

Person_one wrote: »

Jeez, you lot really know how to make a girl feel good about herself, first I'm a 70 year old bloke and now being a year younger than me is shockingly old!

I didn't think you were old, just had a different opinion.

Although I'm from Glasgow and every other local slang word is some form of insult! In fact you can tell close male friends up here as we insult each other constantly.

On the language angle in my area there was always sniggers years ago for Kenn Dodd and his Diddymen, as diddy is slang up here for a ladies bosom.

Mr_Toad

Kildare wrote: »

My 16 year old nephew says 'gay' as an insult on a regular basis - when I first heard him do it I told him not too, that he was being offensive. He was very defensive and said its not homophobic it just means 'rubbish' and everyone uses it.

He now doesn't use it around me as I give him a look if he does but suspect he and his mates do use it all the time. I think it may have become one of the words which means one thing to one generation and another to todays teenagers...

Every generation likes to try and be different from the one before and one of the ways they do this is via language. They take words and change their meaning and it has as much to do with making the older generation wonder what they're talking about and making them feel like the older generation than anything else.

I've recently noticed a new insult in my part of the world amongst Uni students. I don't know if it's local of more widespread but they've started using mushroom as in What a mushroom or he/she is such a mushroom, you're such a mushroom etc.

It used to be plank.

And yes the word gay is used as a general word for rubbish/daft/silly by the local teenagers and kids.

I suspect that this thread might still be running when they've moved on to a new variation of our wonderful language.