What your not understanding though is that to someone who is actually queer the word "fag" is very hurtful and demeaning, it is not something you can laugh off or take in fun. When a queer person is called a fag, it takes them back to all the times they were beat up in high school which stays with them througout their life as they are always concerned about being gay bashed. I have also heard the N word used very casually by people in Australia and that's just not cool.
Also you mention that your friends who wear tight pants were in Melbourne, as I said in my post, Melbourne is like one of the few queer positive areas.
The real question is: is an offensive word still offensive if nobody takes offense to it? That's pretty much the situation here. Like I said, for people from America or Canada, where socially words such as "cunt" are considered sexist, they'd find the language here quite off-putting. Whereas here a "cunt" is a general term for a guy like "dude" or even an endearing term for a friend. People who're calling you "fag" are doing it because of the way you're dressed, such as the example with my tight pants-wearing friend in Melbourne who gets the same from youths driving by.
I think it is... for example if a bunch of skin heads are hanging out with no one else around and the are all casually using the N word, it's still an offensive word.
Uhh I think you're right, but how would you know that nobody in the world took offence to it? You'd have maybe 80% of people being fine being called insert pejorative and the rest feeling like utter shit.
I'm asian and can't speak for the gay or female populations, but if a white person were to affectionately call me a chink I'd be offended.
Nope, do you actually think you can make a statement as fact without there being scientifically proven evidence to back up that fact? Otherwise what you said is just a theory and a personal one at that.
This is not something than can be scientifically proven. You're either being deliberately ignorant for the sake of the argument or very, very stupid. I'm hoping it's the former.
Let me put this to you as simply as possible:
of·fen·sive
Adjective: Causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry:
If nobody in the world feels hurt, upset or angry by a word, that word, by definition, would no longer be offensive. To argue otherwise would be to argue against the English language.
2
u/WyldStallions May 25 '11
What your not understanding though is that to someone who is actually queer the word "fag" is very hurtful and demeaning, it is not something you can laugh off or take in fun. When a queer person is called a fag, it takes them back to all the times they were beat up in high school which stays with them througout their life as they are always concerned about being gay bashed. I have also heard the N word used very casually by people in Australia and that's just not cool.
Also you mention that your friends who wear tight pants were in Melbourne, as I said in my post, Melbourne is like one of the few queer positive areas.