'that's so gay'

Guest   Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:24 pm GMT
What is meant by the expression below? What would be examples of behaviour in which other people could say "that's so gay"¨?

"Ninety-eight per cent of young gay people hear the phrases 'that's so gay' or 'you're so gay' in school, and over four fifths hear such comments often or frequently."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6239098.stm
Skippy   Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:59 am GMT
It means something is ridiculous or just generally bad. A lot of folks consider it offensive... So I wouldn't say it in mixed company.
Toto   Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:20 am GMT
When I was in high school, I heard people saying that many times. They said that when they were referring to something that's hilariously strange or odd.
Guest   Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:57 am GMT
that's relative
Dance/electronic music is considered ''gay'' in the US, but not so in Europe.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:58 am GMT
It's mostly teen slang - "That's so gay!": meaning something considered to be substandard and deficient in any way....a bit rubbish or crappy. I reckon it started out as some kind of homophobic insult, basically. So it's not to be taken seriously at all. It's just immature teenspeak, and very many teens, in particular, speak their own form of the English Language which older people genuinely believe is deliberately contrived to cause total incomprehension. I can understand our own Scottish version of teenspeak (some of it containing a lot of local Scotspeak) but not that kind they use down in England - that is hard to understand....in fact, it's just so gay!

Just tune into the current Big Brother 8 on either Channel 4 or Channel E4 TV......three characters in there - Chanelle (19) from somewhere in the North of England, and the identical blonde bimbo twins Samantha and Amanda (they are so, so, so alike, mirror images of each other in every way, that they are now being identified as the single unit Samanda)....they come from God knows where in Northern England, but all three speak English English teenspeak.....virtually imcomprehensible to many people not au fait with TS. The twins' version is quite appealing in a highly innocent, baby doll, pink and frilly six years old cutesey little girl sort of way (even though they are 18 for heaven's sake!) but blonde cry baby Channelle's TS is not quite so nice - in fact, it's pretty dreich. It seems to contain the very worst of both Liverpudlian and Mancunian combined with the teenspeak - maybe she comes from some place half way between these two cities.

As for the tree surgeon guy Liam......mmmmm......Geordie through and through....he comes from Lanchester, County Durham. Mmmmmmmm...
Guest   Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:33 am GMT
What is meant by the expression below? What would be examples of behaviour in which other people could say "that's so gay"¨?


do you mean idiotic people also known as dickheads?
Guest   Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:35 am GMT
US are homophobic but it is laughable twice, because they are homophobic but plenty of repressed gays!!!
Guest   Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:24 pm GMT
"that's so gay" is homophobic. You should not say it no matter what!
Matt   Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:34 pm GMT
Liam......mmmmm......Geordie through and through....he comes from Lanchester, County Durham. Mmmmmmmm...

------

Damian, many a Durham resident would take offence to being called a Geordie. Infact, most North-easterners not from Newcastle would.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:01 pm GMT
Matt:

OK.....consider me as having had a slapped wrist. The term Geordie - I made the mistake of calling Liam a Geordie solely on account of his accent which is undoubtedly a North East (of England) accent. The lad comes from Co Durham, right enough...from Lanchester, which is exactly half way between Durham City and Consett. Assuming he was a Geordie simply because of his accent was obviously wrong on my part because Liam doesn't actually come from Tyneside, the true home of the Geordie quite a wee bit further north - ie: Newcastle-upon-Tyne on one side of the Tyne river, and Gateshead on the opposite bank, and all the other places along the banks of the river from Wallsend, Tynemouth and South Shields and upstream all along the river past N/C and G/hd and all the way up to Corbridge and Hexham and beyond. Geordieland proper.....Tyneside....all the area along the River Tyne and not just Newcastle itself, Matt? Or am I up the shute here as well?

I apologise to everyone in the proud County of Durham who may have taken offence at my boob. As for the accent, I wouldn't know the difference (if there is any) between Liam's Co Durham accent and that of any bloke from Newcastle or Gateshead, but there you go....I'm a "foreigner" from far, far across that other great river....the Tweed. :-)
Matt   Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:32 pm GMT
Ah, don't beat yourself up to much about it ;-)

After seven years of being told "You're a Geordie!" by nearly everyone I meet, I get a little sensitive about people from the North East being labelled as Geordies. My fault for living "down south", I suppose.

You are more-or-less safe with labelling the folk living along the Tyne as Geordies (although I know some "sand dancers" from South Shields who would take offence).

As for your "boob" - well, the North East (of England) is still a very tribal area and most people identify themselves with the immediate area they come from. One of the reasons, I think, which makes the area so interesting.

Impressive knowledge of the settlements on the Tyne, by the way.
Matt   Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:41 pm GMT
Damn it!

I hate it when that happens... you press the "Send Message" button just as you notice the spelling mistake.

On another note, I have just been on the Scottish Parliament web site, trying to read it in Scots. It's striking just how similar Scots is to North-eastern English, I could understand most of it. Seems the two haven't diverged too much since ancient times.
I hate spam   Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:26 pm GMT
**Impressive knowledge of the settlements on the Tyne, by the way**

Thanks! You can put that down to a fantastic history teacher at school who took us down to Hadrian's Wall on two separate occasions on field trips, sort of. And also to the remains of the Roman settlement at Wallsend. Hadrian's Wall - one of the absolute glories of Roman Britain. Just imagine all those hardy centurions out there in their lonely outposts all along that fortification trying to keep us wild Scottish savages at bay! I let my imagination run riot as we walked a lengthy stretch of the Wall - especially at Vindolanda and Housesteads...just fantastic. Just one question - those Roman centurions: how soon was it before they began to develop a Geordie accent? :-)

The Scots have a close affiliation with North Easterners...maybe that's why Scots is similar to the NE English dialect. Blood brothers! Wa hey!!
Geordies are always welcome up here in Edinburgh.

Glad you enjoyed going round Holyrood. The Parliament chamber can look a bit strange at first sight but it sort of grows on you. It should do - it cost us Scottish taxpayers and absolute FORTUNE!!!!! And you know how we Scots are when it comes to spending money.....

Best wished to Geordies - and to Durham lads and lassies, too!
Skippy   Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:21 pm GMT
It's not homophobic, it's just in poor taste. And the US is not homophobic. That's ridiculous.
Guest   Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:39 pm GMT
It's ridiculous saying US is not homophobic!!!
by the way, just a recent example: which is tyhe ONLY western country in which Brokeback Mountain was forbidden ?
And the guys beated till death because gay?
Aren't gays in US schools persecuted?
Aren't movies full of stereotypes, slurs etc.?
just few banal examples.

Poor taste? Oh yes, it doesn't lack in US. This is sure.