17
Feb 12
When did that’s so gay start?
I was thinking about our discussion of Dude, You’re A Fag and I was reminded of those commercials where a group or a few people would be talking and say “that’s so gay” and then a woman would come over and tell them that you shouldn’t say that, how would you like it if I said ____ was so sixteen year old boy. That got me thinking. Where did that’s so gay even come from? Who decided to use it as a substitute for stupid or dumb? How did it catch on to become popular enough to need PSA commercials to attempt to stop it?
A quick google search turns up several websites against the phrase but nothing exactly telling me where or about when it started. I did find some articles about people being sued for using the phrase however, and many forums against the phrase. I haven’t heard the expression lately so hopefully it is going away.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and the video! I also haven’t heard people say this lately. I like that a famous person is speaking out against it, I think it goes back to the reading we read last week, “Dude, you’re a fag,” by calling something gay to speak about it negatively, the speaker is also distancing themselves from anything gay. Is it also a way to say, “by the way, I’m not gay?”
Loved the commercial and Wanda Sykes!! I have had that same question since high school. There have been several times when I have corrected people, usually friends. However there have been several times when I have publicly made comments on how people sound very ill educated when they say things like “that’s so gay,” “your so gay,” or “you’re such a jew,” or “don’t be a jew!” I make it a point for people to hear me when I say that using these phrases make people sound ill educated, homophobic, and racist. I don’t care if it embarrasses people who say these things. The idea is to make people think about what they say. I mean seriously, its simply just the courteous thing to do. As a personal example, after all of the blatantly disrespectful, homophobic, racist, sexist, and stereotypical statements that have been directed at me or friends, in my lifetime, coming from religious and conservative people, I still try to remain civil and be careful not to be disrespectful to them because I prefer to still give people that respectful courtesy, even if they did not do the same.