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| Who knew that frigging was an actual word? Its in the dictionary
anyway! Among the thousands of words in the English dictionary,
is the simple three letter word, "gay". This one syllable word
carries much more weight than it appears. At first glance at the
definition, the word still seems as unpretentious and simplistic
as it visually appears. After all, gay has always be synonomous
to the word happy. However, the newest edition to the dictionary
definition of gay is not the traditional meaning. Gay is a word
to describe someone that has sexual desires for those of the same
sex as oneself. That's not the only way in which it is used though.
This is very true for, quite often people will use the slang word
gay to mean unfortunate, dissappointing, or just simply bad. In
fact, as a college student, I have heard gay used in this slang
context, far more often than the other two forms of the word.
The word has now become much more complex, hasn't it? The three
definitions of gay are all very different. Or are they? Can there
be a correlation. When a person is living with the uncertainty
of their sexual preference, they can feel emotional and psychological
pressures of significant amounts. Unfortuanately, traditionally
Protestant based- American society is not the most supportive
of the non-heterosexual lifestyle, and this contributes to a homosexual
individual's personal struggle. This struggle is mainly self rejection,
but many times it is rejection or fear of rejection by one's family,
friends, or even career environment. |
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| http://mrshowbiz.go.com/celebrities/people/ellendegeneres/index.html |
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| The public awareness and acceptance of "alternative" lifestyles
has been evolving in recent years, for example, on the television
sitcom Ellen, the question of her sexualty was answered within
the storyline of the show. She created a comfort zone for other
issues of sexuality that are now a large part of other television
sitcoms and dramas like Will and Grace, and Dawson's Creek. On
the show Ellen, the actress Ellen Degenres "came out of the closet"
to her viewers, which means that she revealed that she was gay.
Soon after Ellen went off the air, Will and Grace became a popular
sitcom portraying the (to some people) entertaining idiosyncrasies
of a gay man (Will) and his close friend ( Grace) living together.
In addition, the Dawsons' Creek includes a male character, Jack,
who has revealed the trials and tribulations of a gay teenager
in today's society.The signifigance of these shows is that the
awareness of homosexuality is expanding, however it is still a
category that carries one of the heaviest burden's in American
Society. This unpleasant burden is how I would correlate the derogatory
slang use of the word gay and homosexuality. Through replacing
the word unfortunate with gay, it is also portraying the attitude
which many people have towards homosexuality. |
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| http://mrshowbiz.go.com/news/2001/4/glaaddawsonskiss043001.html |
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| "I timed it," Scott Seomin, a spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation, told USA Today. Seomin described
the kiss between Jack and his lover, Tobey (David Monahan), as
"a five-and-a-half-second, mouth-to-mouth kiss. We haven't seen
anything like this before on network TV." |
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| It is not necessarily surprising that it isn't considered "normal"
for one to be attracted to one's same sex, for most dominant religions
found in the U.S. are not accepting of this concept. At the same
time, it is a fact that almost every person has dealt with the
rejection by society at one point or another. In my personal experience
as a heterosexual woman, with Irish and Italian heritage. I am
aware of inequalities and the second place role of women in not
only the U.S. but even more dominant in other nations. I am also
aware that when my family left Ireland and Italy, they were spit
upon by the American culture. They did not have it easy finding
employment for it was evident that they were immigrants by their
little knowledge of the English language. This discrimination
has depleted over the generations for many of the immigranted
cultures have been brought together through new mulit-cultured
families. These struggles against the path that has been created
by society are just a small part of many atrocious matters of
inacceptance. Other groups of people that have been shamelessly
ostracized include, the Jewish citizens throughout the world,
especially during WWII, the African Americans, particularly those
enslaved during European expansion, and the Japanese Americans,
most drastically after the bombing of Hiroshima during WWII. These
are a mere piece of the pie of cruelty that humans feel towards
one another. The relevance of these cruelties is that it is shocking
and unforutuanate, in fact, it is pretty gay, that people are
not willing to accept others for who they are. It seems that anyone
that cannot accept the existence of homosexuality must have trouble
with putting him/herself in someone else's shoes. |
| I know that I do not understand the confusion, shame, and frustration
of living in a strongly hetero-sexual world, and being homosexual.
I have been educated in the struggles of the other widely discriminated
groups and the fact remains that any person does not deserve this
disapproval. The traditional definition of gay, meaning happy,
light-hearted, and bright are all correlated in an obvios way
to homosexuality. Gay is how one feels when he/she has overcome
their personal battle and confronted those individuals whom they
fear personal rejection from. Gay would be the state of society
if each of us would take the time to reflect on the fact that
we should not judge others. When one believes that their way to
live is the only way to live, whether it be cultural, religious,
polticial, or sexual, well, that is just frigging gay in the most
unfortunate way! |