Commen-Tater

I received a couple of comments on the Super Bowl blog from some folks who seemed upset at the use of particular word.

“It is too bad you chose words like fag and faggot in this post-maybe you should be more cognizant of who might be reading....
As an overweight or fat, obese, beefy*, big, blimp, brawny, broad, bulging, bulky, bull, burly, butterball*, chunky*, corpulent, cow, distended, dumpy, elephantine, fleshy, gargantuan, gross, heavy, heavyset*, hefty, husky, inflated, jelly-belly*, lard, large, meaty*, obese, oversize, paunchy, plump, plumpish, ponderous, porcine, portly, potbellied, pudgy*, roly-poly*, rotund, solid, stout, stubby, swollen, thickset*, tubby, weighty, whale person, you know all too well the negative thoughts and feelings hatred and bigotry cause. Your wording expresses this to gay people. I guess you get the drift...
Very disappointing for someone who has probably faced their own discrimination issues.
You stated that you enjoyed Princes' peformance, why didn't you call him a fag too?
His stage which is a sacred symbol to him; represents the integration of male and female sexuality.
Chose your expression carefully as you ARE on the World Wide Web.”

Okay first of all I need to address the intent in which I used the word “fag” (and by the way I never used the word “faggot” as the commenter states). The thing is, I always use that word to describe even manly men as well as gay men. I have known and been friends with, and hung out with, and been in love with, and danced with, and lent money to, and been in car accidents with so many gay men in my life, I think it would surprise even the haggiest of fag-hags. The comment was not meant in a harmful way, and I was not by any means demeaning anyone of the gay persuasion. For that, I apologize.

Sometimes I think we get hung up on words and their meanings and the intentions in which they are used. It’s just the way I am – it’s why I call Greg "a bastard” or my sister’s family “hillbillies” or my nephew “honey.” I have nothing against bastards or hillbillies, it's just words I use.

And then there’s the question of using the word “retard.” Now most people think that’s a cruel moniker for a person who is mentally challenged. For me, having taken care of my mentally retarded aunt for 20 of the last 30 years, I feel like I’m entitled to use that word. I would sometimes call her a retard, but it never hurt her feelings…

I have been called most of the names the reader mentioned (you left out "Jabba" and "Sta-Puft") but you know what, maybe I was all those things. Maybe I’m still some of them, but I don’t care. It’s someone else’s problem. I’m over it. (thanks for putting those in alphabetically order by the way so I can easily file them for later when I get skinny and can make fun of fat people too).

Actually it’s too bad that this person is nitpicking my tiny little insignificant blog, when there are SO many sites on the world wide web that are there solely for the purpose of persecuting groups of people, created by narrow-minded boobs who view those they hate as "different."

I’m impressed with the reader’s passion and I am just as passionate about these issues. See my friend Greg’s blog on the subject here. It’s a mean world and we can’t change it overnight. We can only be careful and kind in and of ourselves and hope some of it rubs off on others. And the reader is right, using hateful words in any forum sometimes fosters those prejudices.


And maybe Prince is a fag too. That’s okay with me.