User talk:Vercalos/March 2006

I use a modified monobook.js file to add tabs to the top of user talk pages. If I click a "header" button the "Regarding your..." is automatically imputed, and if i click a "testx" button the warning and my sig is added. It works even faster. I have to thank OwenX, who set it up for me.

Prodego talk  03:02, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Help - spammer.
Hey mate, I've got to eat, and don't want to deal with this spammer on NASCAR and Nextel Cup... mind taking over in full for awhile? -- SonicAD (talk) 04:06, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
 * laughs* I'll see what I can do.--Vercalos 04:09, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Gay
Hi,

Yes, in this context Gay and Lame have similar meanings, but I don't think that's really the point. The pejorative use of gay probably derives from steroeotypes of effeminacy, so has roughly the same meaning in this context as other pejorative terms relating to effeminacy - "you pussy" etc. They are generally broadly synonymous with other terms for feebleness or weakness - limp, lame, pathetic etc. Ironically I guess "gay" may have become popular with children precisely because it's a non-gendered term for feebleness, and so can be used by girls as well as boys. My step-daughter sometimes uses it, even though she has only a hazy idea of what homosexuality is. However the pejorative use is also connected to the meaning "kitsch" which is connected to Gay stereotypes of flamboyant bad taste. So it's a aquired a specific set of distinctive connotations. Limp and Lame, in contrast, are direct extensions of the primary meaning of "lacking rigidity" and "unable to walk effectively" and probably derive from the use of farm animals, horse etc for practical purposes. In other words Limp and Lame are directly connected to the primary meaning. They are not pejorative stereotypes, just natural extensions of the main meaning of the word - like using "bald" to mean undecorated. That example is not derived, indirectly and pejoratively, from bald people, rather both meanings (undecorated; hairless) derive directly from the main meaning. The same applies to Lame. It's not derived from pejorative reference to disabled people. In contrast the term "gay" when used pejoratively is entirely derived from stereotypes of homosexual men, and uses those stereotypes to create a term equating gayness with feebleness and bad taste. The difference is that the lame usage derives from the denotation and the gay usage derives from the connotations of the word. Paul B 09:47, 8 March 2006 (UTC)