About that Word "Faggot"
There has been brewing brouhaha this weekend about the occasion at a recent meeting of political conservatives, in which Ms. Ann Coulter, in what was apparently a weak attempt at humor, used the word "faggot" in reference to presidential candidate John Edwards. I usually go out of my way to ignore Ms. Coulter, who seems to think of herself as a terribly witty satirist, but whom I think of as an attention-seeking, cruel person whose celebrity is a barometer of everything most strident and hateful about our current public discourse.
I mention the accursed event this time only to point out a piece by Pam Spaulding, "Coulter: 'The word I used has nothing to do with sexual preference. It is a schoolyard taunt.' " Pam discusses the connection between Ms. Coulter's "joke" in the context of alarming recent national increases in fag bashing, sometimes fatal fag bashing, how it is provoked, and how little it seems to upset large segments of our society.
Frankly, I think some of the response to the episode is somewhat over played, but only somewhat. On the other hand, Ms. Coulter is more than deserving as a target of the disapprobation and if something good is about to come out of it the last thing I would do is suggest that things get toned down at all.
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To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Tuesday, 6 March 2007 at 17.05
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I was strongly tempted to weigh in on Ms. Garbagemouth's latest attention-seeking outrage at Oh!pinion, but decided it's too much like giving her what she wants.
Somewhere, there's scorekeeping going on that measures how much buzz she and others like her generate. I don't think it measures whether those reacting approve or disapprove, just the overall buzz level. I don't want to add to that.
The "taunt," as she referred to it, is intended to slime and hurt, whatever the context. Ms. Garbagemouth doesn't have a vocabulary so much as an arsenal of toxic epithets. Her parents must be so proud.