Can anyone sum up the history of derogatory terms for gays? Here's what I've got so far:
>Sodomite was the big one back in the day, but fell out use somewhen idk when.
>Fag seems too modern, I feel like there must've been something between the two.
>Bender/poof seem UK-only, exclusively modern and also semi tongue-in-cheek (can you imagine trying to offend someone by calling them a poof?).
>When did queer change its meaning (the first time, since it's changed again now to be a term of self-identification)?
>I might've missed some
Also, when did breeder come into play as a derogatory term for straights, and are there any other such terms?
I wish I could participate in the discussion, but I'm not an expert, since English isn't my native language and I don't live in an English-speaking country.
I think tumblr is responsible for "queer" with their race to add more letters to lgbtipzbbq+ and invent new meme sexualities.
Probably they had also invented and forced the "cis" thing, I haven't heard the word outside of chemistry class until quite recently.
And breeder is rarely used.
Jonathan Swift used the term breeder as early as the 1700s, specifically in "A Modest Proposal". The term was used to liken women more to being livestock instead of wives/mothers. He took issue with families who had too many children and are unable to properly rear them.
The term really picked up again when the gay marriage debate started in the mid 2000s.
Queer again had much earlier usage, first recorded around the 1500s. The word started to shift in the 1890s, most notably when a Scottish nobleman was arrested for accusing Oscar Wilde of being a sodomite, particularly with his son.
tl;dr most shit shifted during the late 19th/early 20th centuries, around the same time as the coinage of the world "homosexual" itself.
Other terms related to breeder that I can think of at the moment:
LUG - Lesbian until Graduation
Yestergay
Other terms:
Nancy
Nelly
Sissy
Queen
Swish
I've been up way too late, hope this is coherent.
>>5404640
Just remembered my personal favourite term fruit, that feels modern too.
>>5404652
Fruit might be the broadest term pejoratively. Weirdly enough it was derived from polari which was adopted by gays in Britain as a form of subversive communication.
When it carried over to the US, it was associated with the "mentally ill" homosexuals who were treated with lobotomies and electroshock therapy.
Another bizarre one is fairy.
Are you accepting the more colourful terms like knob-jockey or fudge-packer?
>>5404727
Yes they are very welcome
Bum pirate and Marmite miner are two other gems (the latter might not mean much to non-UKs)
>>5404539
Fag isn't modern at all, faggots were the bundles of sticks used when burning witches at the stake. Gays didn't deserve a stake, just faggots.
Sodomite obviously comes from the Bible, Sodom was an immoral city (see Sodom and Gommorah)
Poof is 19th C. It's a corruption of puff, like a puff of smoke ie ephemeral, weak, insubstantial like an effeminate man. Yes it's British.
Bender is short for gender bender, fairly obvious reasons, also British.
Queer originally meant strange, perverse, ill etc, came to mean gay or undefinably different gender wise in the 19th C.
I would posit that it has been reclaimed as its original meaning of odd isn't really perjorative. In UK the term ginger is sometimes used, from 'ginger beer- queer' cockney rhyming slang.
Other terms such as >>5404640
and queen, fairy etc. tend to focus on effeminacy.
>>5404652
>>5404695
Fruit is a Polari word (although as an interesting side note, fruit used to mean friend in the UK- Cockney rhyming slang 'fruit gum- chum')
Polari is indeed a form of cant slang used by the international but especially British gay (mostly male) community to avoid detection. It also gives us words such as zhoosh, naff and cottaging, using loan words from italian, romanian etc.
I don't really know about the American words (I'm a British lesbian lol)
Dyke comes from the Harlem Renaissance (Black East Coast US writers in early 20th C) and may be a corruption of Hermaphrodite (meaning intersex, essentially)
The word 'lesbian' comes from lesbos, the island on which Sappho lives, who was an ancient greek dyke poet. Interestingly, people of the island get really pissed off about the word and they're like 'we're lesbians!' lol
>>5404740
I've heard bum bandit more than bum pirate.
If we're doing lesbian terms too then you've got dyke, fanny-basher and I guess, rug-muncher.
>>5404539
Cold War America called homosexual men Lavender Lads, hence the "Lavender Scare" in the 50s.
>>5404765
bum bandit, poo pirate
all about alliteration
As a straight guy, most of these terms are dead funny to me. What do you gays think about them though?
Like, fag is pretty boring and seems to be used the meanest so I can get not liking that, but what if someone called you a poo pusher, or a fruit, or a lavendar lad. Would you find it funny or would it still hurt?
>>5404817
Lavender lad might make me die from laughter irl
>>5404817
Pretty sure it depends on the person and context, but I personally feel that self-deprecation is a key aspect of gay humor for obvious reasons. We adapt words like these to still have the same meaning, just in a crudely humorous way instead of antagonistic.
If you yourself are proud to be a faggot, it's a transference of power. I know I'm a faggot and I can guarantee I'll die with a dick in my ass... so what's the point in me getting upset by it? There's worse things to be called than a fag/homo/queer so why let it bother you?
>>5404539
>Bender/poof seem UK-only, exclusively modern and also semi tongue-in-cheek (can you imagine trying to offend someone by calling them a poof?).
We also have batty-boy
Faggot is and always will be the go-to best homo slur
>>5405101
Batty-boy is used for gays? I've only ever known it as a "aw mate you is mental bruv" kinda thing.
>>5405115
Nope, batty is an old word for "butt".
I was about to use a connotation of Americans using the word "fanny" to mean butt by saying fanny-boy, but that just sounds so wrong to me.
>>5404817
Call me a fudge packer and fuck me silly
