The 'Other' in the HP books (was: Harry's Sexual Preference SHIP) - LONG

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 80871

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sarcasticmuppet" 
<sarcasticmuppet at y...> wrote:
> Do you have any teen to pre-teen kids?  Because the term "gay" has 
> been in their language for some time now, meaning exactly what 
> Dallas said:  stupid.

No, I don't have kids. If I did, my attitude about the use of the 
word "gay" as a pejorative would be much as my mother's was about the 
use of a certain six-letter racist word; "&*^$%#&$&*$" might have 
gotten me smacked, but the other, as far as I could tell, might have 
gotten me disowned. (Second generation soap box, I reckon.)

> Refering either to actions of a person or object or cultural 
> things (ie movies etc).  Did I invent this?  No, so don't start 
> with the ad hominem and messenger-killing please.  I just happen to 
> know where Dallas is coming from.

Do you? Do you think that the things we say and the words with which 
we say them aren't important? If so, why are you on this list? (What 
is literature if not words?) If anything, I feel *worse* considering 
that "gay = stupid" is common parlance. I hope this does not qualify 
as "messenger-killing."

> Did she mean gay people are stupid?  I really don't think so, 
> because I doubt she knows enough gay people to have a valid 
> opinion.  It's just a hominem, a word that sounds the same but has 
> a different meaning.  Is it appropriate, probably not terribly so, 
> but I would have been more offended if she had said "&*^$%#&$&*$ 
> COMPUTER WITH THE F^#$*^% *^&%^*% GLITCH!!!" but that's just me.

Imagine that you are a minority member: racially, whatever. Imagine 
that in the country in which you live, persons who belong to your 
minority are sometimes beaten and/or murdered for simply being a 
member of that minority. Now imagine that the young people in that 
country in which you live are commonly using as a negative adjective 
(can we all agree that "stupid" is a negative word?) the word which 
is also most commonly used to refer to members of your minority 
group. Would you not experience a frisson of fear, or at least a hint 
of sadness, whenever you heard it used thus? I will never, not for a 
sackful of galleons, agree that in this instance this word is no more 
than "just a hominem." This is a teeny, tiny pale scrawny minnow 
which, fed sufficiently, could grow up to be a big ol' whale of a 
hate crime, a la Matt Shepard.

Sandy aka "msbeadsley" seriously considering armor plating for soap 
box and who is done with this now extremely OT stuff; further 
replies, please get in line with the rest of the emails. Thx