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Sexuality - or a sandwich.
Aug. 3rd, 2005 10:11 amDuring the bickering which followed one of my recent intemperate rants on these pages, someone used the acronym 'LGBT'. I was fairly confused by this. My immediate reaction was 'What the Hell has a Sandwich got to do with this?" and it took me about 24 hours before I finally figured out, from the context, that 'LGBT' actually stood for 'Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans(Gendered? Vestite? I haven't figured the T out yet)' and that it was the latest linguistic ghettoification of a fair swathe of the human race.
There are two sorts of Political Correctness. There's 'not being rude', which is a laudable aim, and there's 'creating tortuous acroynms and euphamisms which, by dint of trying to be all things to all people, simply succeed in belittling the very people they seek to avoid offending'. LGBT is, in my opinion, a fine example of the latter.
You see, when it comes to language and causing offense and hurt with it, it's very often not the words that are used, but the context and intent with which they are used. A good example of this is the Spastics Society, which underwent a lengthy and costly rebranding exercise to 'Scope' (because 'Spastic' is used as an insult), only for kids in playgrounds to be calling each other 'Scopers' within a matter of months.
What really made me think about 'LGBT' was the fact that it's a phrase I've never heard any one of my variously-sexualitied friends use to describe themselves. In short, it's a phrase created by people who don't fit the term to describe a large number of people who they think do. But what do I know? I've never gazed lustfully at another bloke, so I'm not really qualified to comment. However, something I realised when I first really started hanging out with people who wouldn't be classified as a '1' on the Kinsey scale some years ago is that it's only fair and polite to let the people described define the terms used to describe them - within reason, anyway - and I really don't think that 'LGBT' does this.
But like I say. What do I know?
So, in the spirit of exploration and investigation I'd like to ask the non-completely straight people out there: What term would you use to describe your sexuality?
[Poll #544964]
Still, I suppose in a few weeks time, kids in playgrounds up and down the land will be calling "Oh, you're so LGBT!" at each other, and so then Students Unions will have to think of yet another non-judgemental catch all phrases to describe humanity which, whilst being created to avoid any possible offense, will also be just as completely meaningless.
God, when I was at University we actually had to use our time for things like work.*
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neilhist and godzuki, you stay out of this.
There are two sorts of Political Correctness. There's 'not being rude', which is a laudable aim, and there's 'creating tortuous acroynms and euphamisms which, by dint of trying to be all things to all people, simply succeed in belittling the very people they seek to avoid offending'. LGBT is, in my opinion, a fine example of the latter.
You see, when it comes to language and causing offense and hurt with it, it's very often not the words that are used, but the context and intent with which they are used. A good example of this is the Spastics Society, which underwent a lengthy and costly rebranding exercise to 'Scope' (because 'Spastic' is used as an insult), only for kids in playgrounds to be calling each other 'Scopers' within a matter of months.
What really made me think about 'LGBT' was the fact that it's a phrase I've never heard any one of my variously-sexualitied friends use to describe themselves. In short, it's a phrase created by people who don't fit the term to describe a large number of people who they think do. But what do I know? I've never gazed lustfully at another bloke, so I'm not really qualified to comment. However, something I realised when I first really started hanging out with people who wouldn't be classified as a '1' on the Kinsey scale some years ago is that it's only fair and polite to let the people described define the terms used to describe them - within reason, anyway - and I really don't think that 'LGBT' does this.
But like I say. What do I know?
So, in the spirit of exploration and investigation I'd like to ask the non-completely straight people out there: What term would you use to describe your sexuality?
[Poll #544964]
Still, I suppose in a few weeks time, kids in playgrounds up and down the land will be calling "Oh, you're so LGBT!" at each other, and so then Students Unions will have to think of yet another non-judgemental catch all phrases to describe humanity which, whilst being created to avoid any possible offense, will also be just as completely meaningless.
God, when I was at University we actually had to use our time for things like work.*
*
neilhist and godzuki, you stay out of this.
