Faggot

A Westboro Baptist Church demonstration's picket signs, using the word as an epithet

Faggot or fag, in modern North American and Australian English usage, is a generally pejorative term for a homosexual or effeminate man. Its use has spread to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world.

The terms are little used in this meaning in British English, where "faggot" traditionally means a bundle of sticks and faggots are a kind of meatball, while "fag" is common slang for a cigarette and can also refer to the now outdated English "public school" practice of "fagging" where a younger boy acted as an unpaid servant for an older boy.

Etymology

The origins of the word in this sense are rather obscure.

One historical meaning of the word faggot, "a bundle of sticks for burning". It has been referenced that in England, burning at the stake was never a punishment for homosexuality. However, the documented burning of Heretics and those called "Witches" occurred in both England and in its colonies. Witches and Heretics were both groups accused of homosexuality. This also includes elderly women, who were persecuted as witches at the behest of the states and varied sects of Christianity throughout Europe at the time.

Female terms, it should be noted, are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen). An obsolete reference from the British 17th-century refers to a "man hired into military service simply to fill out the ranks at muster".

British meanings

"Faggot"

The primary traditional meaning of the word is indeed 'a bundle of sticks for burning' . Another meaning, especially common in Wales and the Black Country, is a kind of pork meatball covered in gravy. See Faggot (food).

"Fag"

In British English the term fag (though not faggot) most commonly means a cigarette. The chorus of the military marching song "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile" which was popular with the British army during the First World War featured as its second line "while there's a Lucifer [matchstick] to light your fag, Smile, boys, that’s the style.". This is derived from the original meaning (OED 1) of "fag-end" :"the last part of a piece of cloth", which by extension became used (OED 2, 1st citation 1612) for "the last part or portion of anything". When cigarettes were invented, this was applied to the unsmoked part, and then came to mean the whole cigarette. But the various historic British uses of "fag" and "faggot" were always distinct.

"Fag" was a term used for a junior boy who acted as a servant for a senior boy at Eton College, near Eton, Berkshire, and other British public schools. This practice, known as "fatigue duty", shortened to "fagging", was ended in the 1970s. Since the homosexual meaning was not common in the UK at this time and seems to have been first attached to faggot, not fag, this is not a likely origin for the American use of the word.

The American meaning in Britain

Originally confined to the United States, the homosexual sense of "fag" and "faggot" has been spread by American popular culture to other English-speaking countries, where it has partly displaced terms such as "queer" or the British "poof" as colloquial or abusive terms for gay men, particularly among heterosexual youth. However, the continuing use of "fag" and "faggot" with other meanings in the British isles has severely limited adoption of the American usage there.

The use of fag and faggot to mean homosexual has become understood as an Americanism in British English, primarily due to their use in films and television series imported from the United States. When Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews was heard supposedly using the word in a bad-tempered informal exchange with a straight colleague in the House of Commons lobby in November 2005, he was criticised for using homophobic abuse.

Earliest written uses

The earliest known reference to the word in print was in the 1914 Jackson and Hellyer A Vocabulary of Criminal Slang, with Some Examples of Common Usages which listed the following example under the word, drag:

"All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight."

The word was also used by a character in Claude McKay’s 1928 novel Home to Harlem, indicating that it was used during the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, one character says that he can't understand:

"a bulldyking woman and a faggoty man"

Usage in popular culture

Historically, "fag" and "faggot" have been offensive terms when addressed to American males (similar to the word "bitch" or "slut" to American women). However in recent years, both terms have been reclaimed by gay men in a defiant, self-consciously empowering or self-mocking way, much in the way some African Americans have taken to using the word "nigger" among themselves, and similar to hackers, geeks and nerds, in their respective cultures. A common example of this would be usage of the term "fag hag" to describe a woman who associates with (and may prefer as non-sexual social partners) gay men, though this use, too, was originally pejorative. When used as a pejorative, however, it is still considered by many to be a term of abuse. The term has also been used to describe lesbians or other homosexual women.

The Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" makes notable use of the epithet "faggot", although the lines containing it is often excised for radio play, and in live performances Mark Knopfler will use such minced oaths as "mothertrucker" in place of "faggot".

File:AdParody-anti-gaySlogan.png

Anti-gay slogan
c. 1990

In the early 1990's, Sebastian Bach, lead singer of the band Skid Row, created a controversy when he wore a t-shirt with the parody slogan "Aids: Kills Fags Dead".

In 1995, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey referred to openly gay congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag" in a press interview.

On July 27, 2006 American pundit Ann Coulter said that the former Vice President of the United States (Al Gore) was a "total fag", and that former President of the United States (Bill Clinton) was a "latent homosexual", while being inteviewed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Coulter caused a major controversy in the LGBT community; GLAAD and other gay rights organizations demanded to know the reason why such an offensive usage of the word was permitted by the network.

In October 2006, Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington called his co-star T.R. Knight a "faggot" on the set during an argument with Patrick Dempsey. According to Knight, the incident led to him publicly coming out of the closet. Washington again made another outburst using the epithet, this time backstage at the Golden Globe Awards. In January 2007, Washington issued a faggy public apology for using the word "faggot" and went into rehab to help him with what the show's creator Shonda Rimes referred to as "his behavioral issues."

On March 1, 2007, Ann Coulter again created a controversy when she made an off-color joke: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into faggot rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards..."[5] Her comments using the "f-word" has triggered a huge response, including a campaign initiated by a gay rights group and media watchdog to persuade mainstream media outlets to dump her for good.

Usage by publications

The New Oxford Review, a Catholic magazine, caused controversy by its use and defense of the word in an editorial. During the correspondence between the editors and a homosexual reader, the editors clarified that they would only use the word to describe a practicing homosexual. They defended the use of the word, saying that it was important to preserve the social stigma of homosexuality, which the word preserves.

Paragraph 2358 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition."

See also

• homosexuality
• hate speech
• hate mail

External links

• How did "faggot" get to mean "male homosexual"? on The Straight Dope.