Language and Culture

I have always been extremely uncomfortable when people use terms such as "gay" and "fag" in the often heard derogatory manner.  They were extremely common terms in the vocabulary of my acquaintances at school when I was a high school student.  For someone with a gay orientation, I suppose my disdain for these terms is perfectly natural.  Stepping back, it's interesting to see what our language says about our culture.  While I think the term "homophobic" is tossed around haphazardly which dilutes its meaning, it still is a good word to describe a culture where "gay" and "fag" are used as swear words.

Other terms that were prevalent among high school students that seem to be growing in popularity, like the so-called "f-bomb" have strong sexual underpinnings, and are indicative of a society that tolerates sexual harassment and misogyny.  Recently I read an article decrying such a culture, but it was laced with f-bombs that made it hard for me to take the author seriously.  On the one hand, the author decried the sexism of institutions that protect sexual harassment, while on the other hand the author used language that is designed to shock through its sexual indecency.  It would be like saying "homophobia is so gay" or something like that.  If we want to change the culture, we need to change ourselves, including how we communicate.