Gay in relation to lame= not actually related to homosexuality/ sexual connotations. It is usual said casually without malice: so it’s hard to make students stop saying it.
“The word has what we call multiple coinage and that’s the problem,” says Mr Thorne. “While teenagers are generally using it to mean ‘lame’ it can separately be used as a homophobic term of abuse.”
It’s this ambiguity that prevents some teachers from tackling pupils who use it in a negative sense, says ATL. They are afraid of “blowing trivial matters out of proportion”.
however, it is the most highly used term in bullying in schools today.
*There is speculation that once gay is labeled an offensive term, another term in relation to homosexuality will emerge.
This usage is similar to the term “special” and special needs children. Are the use of these terms as harsh as racial slurs? Both come from what was supposed to be a positive, pollitically correct term, and have turned into derrogatory statements.
“The word started to acquire sexual connotations in the late 17th century, being used with meaning “addicted to pleasures and dissipations”. This was by extension from the primary meaning of “carefree”: implying “uninhibited by moral constraints”. By the late nineteenth century the term “gay life” was a well-established euphemism for prostitution and other forms of sexual behaviour that were perceived as immoral.”
The 1890s was referred to as the gay 90s because it was such a happy time.
This would include prostitutes and womanizers. Many a time would a flirty guy be called gay for the lawls. In fact, the only relation of the term and sexuality was in a heterosexual context until around the 1920s. Here, Gertrude Stein writes”They were …gay, they learned little things that are things in being gay, … they were quite regularly gay.” about two women in a homosexual relationship. Many speculate on whether she is referring to them as lesbian or just being happy in general (as was the trend in the lost generation in Paris). Due to many cases of this ambiguity, for a few more decades it continued to simply mean carefree. This is evident in movie titles of the era such as “The Gay Divorcee”, a 1934 movie about a heterosexual couple. On the other hand, slowly over time gays began to use the term as a form of identity in an underground way such that the heterosexual community was unaware of its connotation. For example, in West Village, NYC there’s a street that was known as “Gay Street” by many homosexuals. It was a center of homosexual culture in the 1940’s, and the phrase “Are you gay?” was code for asking if someone was homosexual. Eventually, the term in relation to homosexuality was embraced by the heterosexual community as well, since you can’t really keep things of this nature quiet.
“Gay was the preferred term since other terms, such as “queer” were felt to be derogatory. “Homosexual” was perceived as excessively clinical: especially since homosexuality was at that time designated as a mental illness, and “homosexual” was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to denote men affected by this “mental illness”. The illness of homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, but the clinical connotation of the word was already embedded in society.”
great quote:”It’s still a thorny issue,” Blotcher said. “Bottom line, just because you have gay characters on television that make everybody laugh doesn’t mean that the entire country embraces gay people as equal citizens yet.”
I could possibly talk about how the number of “gay” characters on television has increased drastically lately.
Another New York times article from 1980 describes how different politicians viewed gays (they have horns and are the root of all evil, or great sources of votes) . The author talks about how surprising it is that gays used to be “the love that dared not speak its name” However, now the term gay is used hundreds if not thousands of times a day.
I remember it was very late on what could only be described as a midsummer’s night. Now, being the super awesome popular person I am, I was sitting at home scrolling through my tumblr dashboard. Nonchalantly searching for humorous memes that would produce a chuckle or two. Every once and a while, people post something inspiring, or slightly artistic, but I usually shy away from these kinds of posts, because honestly I’m on tumblr for the comedy. Sometimes in life, you scroll down and see something you cannot ignore. I stumbled upon an ad about rape, and was completely shocked. Why would anyone make a television ad about rape? Turns out that Scotland was having a rape crisis, and unlike many other countries decided to actually do something about it. Henceforth, the intended audience includes the main populace of Scotland, where 1 in 5 people would blame a woman for getting raped.
The purpose of this ad is to shift away from blaming the victim in a rape situation, which could scare a victim from turning in the rapist to the proper authorities. It calls to women to speak out, because no it’s not your fault. You were not too drunk, you did not flirt too much, and your skirt was not too short. No one asks to be raped, not ever. The ad is persuading the audience to change its views on a certain subject, as well as inviting the viewer to visit a website in order to learn more about the campaign. Clearly, it is Intended for rape victims, as well as normal members of society.
To appropriately connect emotionally with such a varied audience, a story had to be told. Story telling allows the viewer to put themselves in the victim’s shoes. First, it shows an everyday girl going out, as well as a possible rapist, on the night out. The potential rapist watches the girl as she flirts endlessly with a guy. He then turns to his friend and slyly comments, “Check out that skirt, she’s asking for it”. His friend smiles devilishly, supposedly in agreement. The scene shifts to the same girl shopping for the skirt in question earlier in the day. A sales clerk asks if she needs help with anything, and the girl replies that she’s looking for a skirt that will get a man to have sex with her against her will because she wants to get raped later on in the evening. The sales clerk doesn’t blink an eye and immediately retorts that the blue is definitely the best choice, as if this were a totally normal question. The girl then swiftly looks directly at the camera, and directly challenges the audience to consider this an actual possibility. The scene then cuts to a background with the skirt, and words spelled out (repetition). Starts out just saying no one asks to be raped, but then it adds, Ever. This redirects the thinker to the name of the program: “Not Ever”. It then invites the audience to visit not ever.co.eu, where the purpose of the 30 second ad is explained in more detail.
The syntax utilizes simple sentences, choppy, and declarative statements such as “no one asks to be raped, ever.” Simple, everyday language is used for style. This could be used for the benefit of the audience, the ad’s strategy is not to sound smart, but to sound real and elicit true emotions and thoughts. Facts and figures were not used in the ad, probably for the purpose of time constraint (This Ad was first aired during a world cup championship during a Brazil game). However, upon visiting the website many facts and figures are shown. So it was not a lack of information, but a lack of need. Too much logos could have also conflicted with the pathos and ethos that was clearly driving the ad. However, it is perfectly logical that a victim is just that, a victim of a situation they themselves did not cause and could not have prevented.
The utilization of logos brings up the question, could this be a real situation? Is it logical to think a girl would intentionally go out to buy an outfit that would get her raped? No. Think about the exact definition of rape: if she wants it, then isn’t it consensual? Therefore, the definition of rape is demolished. With this idea crashing down, how can the audience help but feel a little stupid for considering this notion in the first place?
The use of pathos is not as emphasized as it usually is for the particular topic of rape. In most advertisements concerning the manner, there is usually a tragic story involving some poor, helpless girl who is attacked in the middle of the night. Many of these ads will go through the grieving processes and will provide emotional support and perhaps a hotline to call. However, this particular ad takes a different approach. An actual rape is never shown, it is only implied that it will happen in the future, or that even if the girl wasn’t raped that she would have been judged as someone who deserved to be raped by random bystanders. The ad elicts feelings of shock and concern because at first we think that we would never blame a girl for being raped, but somewhere deep down we do. We say if she had acted in a more appropriate manner, then she wouldn’t have gotten into that situation. This is shown by the potential rapists/ judgmental bystander. Our society teaches don’t get raped, rather than don’t rape. I have seen many ads and posts that have told me strategies to avoid being raped, but very rarely do I run across an ad that says hey this isn’t your fault, it’s the rapists fault. The ad forces one to face this reality and that can appal us, and challenges us to make a stand by changing our views. It made me personally stop what I was doing and go on the internet to research what the exact amount of people actual shared these views, and how these views could be changed.
The add demonstrates ethos in the fact that the victim should know better than anyone what she wants. Obviously, she was not looking to get raped by buying a flashy skirt, she probably just thought it was really cute. Only she can know what she was truly thinking, so who are random passersby to say they know her true thought process better? The girl uses this authority to show that the argument that she is to blame is invalid. This approach to ethos may seem vague, however it seems to hold even more authority than the usual government seal accompanied by facts and figures. Science can’t tell you how to feel, data cannot completely comprehend one’s though process, and when that girl looks into the camera and says “AS IF”, there is no doubt who has the credibility in the situation.
Of course, there are many other topics that could be explored in this ad, however, I chose to focus on a few key points due to the length allotted for this essay. It is important to note the visual aspects of the ad, such as the vibrant colors and the sparkly blue background behind the text in the final cut scene. The significance of actually typing out the final phrase, and waiting to add the ever should also be explored. Is there ethos in the adding of the website, or does it make it more of an advertisment than a campaign? The choice in actors could also have an effect on style, considering if they used an attractive male as the rapist, and an unattractive female as the victim things may have been different. The ad adopts a mocking tone in order to show the intensity of the situation, as well as show how utterly ridiculous it is that a woman could be blamed for wanting rape by choosing to wear a short sparkly blue skirt. These changing tones range from humorous and mocking to sarcastic and vexed, and mock the general consensus on women blaming mentalities in rape.
Although all these notions were not explored, it is evident that ethos, pathos, and logos are all used in this thirty second advertisement. These techniques were used in order to persuade the general public of Scotland that it is not ok to blame women for getting raped, because they are simply victims of the situation. It fights against the don’t get raped, instead of don’t rape mentality and challenges the audience to take a stand against something that is obviously wrong. So I hope I have inspired you, as this ad was meant to inspire you, to take a different approach on a very worn out subject and to speak out. After all sometimes that’s all it takes to change the world.
I can’t even begin to describe how amazing our class’s speeches were. I was utterly appalled by the amount of people who seemed perfectly comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. Everyone has excellent eye contact and I didn’t have problems hearing anyone. Some of the topics were particularly appealing to me, and many got me fired up to make a change in my community. The speeches really made me see what it truly meant to be citizen, in my global and local community. On a daily basis, I’m not usually thinking about all of the small things that I can do to fulfill civil duties. However, our class did an excellent job of taking everyday things, like buying shoes or recycling, and explaining how they can change the world.
These excellent points were usually delivered very well, and I love when people used power points to aid their presentation. Power points made it easier to focus on the topic at hand and see how to related to rhetoric and civic life. I think what we as a class (including myself) need to work on is visual aid in presentations. We also need to work on saying “ummmm…” I caught myself doing it, and I noticed a few others did it as well. Obviously, we’re all nervous up there, so it’s understandable. I’m sure as the year goes on and we all become a little more comfortable with each other it will get easier over time. I was talking to a friend about how I’ve never been so nervous delivering a speech, and she thought that it was because in High School you know everyone you’re presenting the speech to really well. (or at least you recognize them, I would hope so after going to the same school as them for 12 years).
So, all and all our class did great, and I’m seriously looking forward to the next speeches!
Emotion; but I was talking about cancer. I want to be a pediatric oncologist and recent events in my life have caused me to have an acute emotional reaction when speaking of/ thinking of the subject.
Was longer than 3 min.
Moved around
Volume/projection; I hate when people have wonderful things to say, but you can’t hear them.
Nice blend of Hunger Games compared to cancer
A different topic
Looked fabulous, CONFIDENCE BOOST!
Bad!
I was way too nervous when I first got to the front of the room, but felt super comfortable at the end of my speech. I need to not pysch myself out, it’s not as bad as I think it’s going to be.
Mentally compared myself to previous speakers while speaking. Everyone who went before me was SO GOOD. I felt like I wasn’t living up to them.
Brought paper with me: I knew more than I gave myself credit for. I would lose track for a second, look on my paper, and then when I was unable to find what I was looking for I’d remember. However, I still looked at the paper!
EYE CONTACT IS KEY
In my opening, I was so nervous that I forgot to pause after asking my opening question. However, when I think about it when I practiced it I never thought to pause. I just ran through it.
My speech was too long. I put most of the important topics at the end of my presentation, however for some reason when I was in front of the class I talked slower than in front of Lauren or a mirror. So I missed some of my key points about the actual artifact… which is what the whole speech was about.
Lost my voice in the beginning of my speech due to allergies… oops
So before my next speech I’m going to memorize it completely and NOT bring up a sheet of paper. However, I did like that I wrote it all out and knew the exact wording and key points I wanted to say. I’ll try to slow down during my practices. I’ll probably be more confident, knowing that I CAN do well. I will also working on appropriate times to pause.
All in all, not HORRIBLE for a first speech! I tried my hardest, so I think it went pretty well. 🙂
