[Strange Dreamer]

Quote by: Jack I think I know what you're getting at, but by using examples particular to sexual orientation I have to wonder if you're discussing the language or have a more political motivation. If we're talking language; Take the words "windows", "screw", "killer"; all have taken on modern meanings that don't relate at all to their earlier uses. If we're talking politics/orientation; Homosexuals adopted the term "gay" specifically because it indicated joy and happiness. By using that term to apply to themselves, they wanted to convey an image at odds with the image being spread by heterosexuals, who call them "queer" as in odd or strange. Eventually they co-opted the word "queer" as well to take the sting out of its usage. Another example of political word play; is someone anti-abortion or pro-life? It depends on who's using the words.

good points... As for the examples I put forward they were the most prominent ones that came to mind when I was writing my original post, and I did have misgivings about the potential of it being taken as a direct opinion about the gay lifestyle.

Quote by: Maryjane Let's take the word cracker. Does the "average person" think saltine or Ritz? Look the word up in an urban dictionary and you get a new meaning. I suppose it depends on whom you consider "average." Is it only when the word has been given a "positive spin" that you feel it's been corrupted?

Point taken on the matter of who may fit average, as it can vary depending on local to regional circumstances. As for my choice of saying 'corrupted' in regard to what I considder a
'positive' being turned 'negative' or at least diminished, it seemed an appropriate way to present my perspective on wanting to keep many uplifting things in the same light that I have known them. Perhaps that is selfish of me, but alas I am just a human being.

Quote by: Sonart . My opinion on this issue is that it's a pathetic, bigoted whine that people who should "know their place" have had the uppity audacity to re-define themselves. Or should we go back to calling African-Americans 'Negroes' and 'coloreds'? .

I had anticipated that my post may be taken as such, though it was not my intent to have it be an attack aimed at a particular group of people.

Quote by: Sonart . To your second point, if people who have traditionally been persecuted and discriminated against, treated as 2nd class citizens or worse, want to break out of that role and re-define themselves in terms free from the baggage of old stereotypes, then more power to them. .

I have never felt it was fair of valid to treat anyone as a second class citizen, but that isn't the point I was trying to make here. What I am trying to get to is that attempting to improve your image by creating a new association with something that has a previously had a popular/healthy/positive/good meaning attatched to it has a distinct potential to backfire. That in turn ends up changing the thing you were trying to use into something else entirely.

Of course you are free to think what you want about what I have said, I take that risk knowingly when I post here.