While trying to create my previous post I came across something that caught my attention. If we search up the word "gay magazine covers" in Google Images, we MOSTLY see men. But wait...let's trace a little back to the origin of the term "gay"
"The term gay was originally used to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637.[1]
The term's use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19th century, but its use gradually increased in the 20th century.[1] In mode
rn English, gay has come to be used as anadjective, and occasionally as a noun, referring to the people, practices, and culture associated with homosexuality. By the end of the 20th century, the word gay was recommended by major style guides to describe people attracted to members of the same sex."--wikipedia ( not the best site to quote, but does the job).
So the term "gay" simply denotes sexual attraction towards the same sex. It does not favor any specific gender. So why did I only see males in my Google search?
Here is the link (NOTE: turn on Moderate Safe search before doing this)
In my opinion, the reason behind this issue is simple. In our current society we have a large male heterosexual population. This population has basically has taken over our media/governments/etc. There aren't many women in power. A picture of two homosexual women does not rise many "wows" because the male dominated society views it as the "norm". Males are attracted to women. In my opinion, the more the "wows" the more money the media makes. This is why the term "gay" in the media only refers to men. It is what brings in the most amount of money.
I would also like to bring up a topic we have discussed in class. The media would not exist if it was not for its followers. Most of the class members decided that the media was only a reflection of ourselves. They are showing us what we want to see. I remember mentioning this same idea about the music industry. No one would listen to songs about rainbows and sunshine, where everyone is happy. So in a sense, we have turned the media into what it is today. We, the public have turned the word "gay" into a term that only refers to male homosexuals.
I want to hear what you guys think about this? Are we the ones to blame? is the media only fulfilling the public's demands?
-Safar
A Google search is not exactly the best evidence to support the bold generalization that the term “gay” only refers to male homosexuals in society. If I change your Google search from “gay magazine covers”, to “gay people”, the first search result in Google images is a picture of two women kissing. See how I can also manipulate search results in my favour as well?
ReplyDeleteYes you can consider the fact that a magazine is an outlet of media, but then again, so is Google itself. I agree that there is a strong undertaking towards homosexual males when the term “gay” is used, but there is a reason for that; the coining of the term “lesbian”, which strictly refers to homosexual females. This is the cause, and the effect was the term “gay” deviated towards homosexual males.
Statements such as; “there aren’t many women in power”, “male dominated society views it as the “norm””, and “We, the public have turned the word "gay" into a term that only refers to male homosexuals”, are all vague generalizations, and until you can come up with solid concrete evidence to support those claims, they’re completely subjective and expendable.
I see what you are trying to say. First of all the above post was only my perspective and in no way 100% correct. I would like to address some of your statements.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that searching the phrase "gay people" would bring up a picture of 2 women kissing. This is a very inaccurate way of looking at it. The order in which Google lists the images does not make any difference. As you may have already noticed, when searching the phrase "gay people" it is still evident that images of males are the majority.
I already mention in the post that the word "gay" is an umbrella term for people attracted towards the same sex. It does not divide the genders.
IF Google is not a representation of our current media, then I don't know what is. The 2010 version of the Websters dictionary defines the term gay as : a homosexual person, esp. a male.
In conclusion, it is safe to assume that in our current society "gay" is simply implied towards males. It has lost its original meaning, which included the homosexuality of both males and females, and in my opinion the media was the cause.
Thanks for posting by the way, nobody seems to be on today. All the posts are pretty much filled with old comments.
ReplyDeleteactually gay used to mean "happy"
ReplyDeleteI'm commenting now, give me a moment to read through all of this.
When discussing homosexuality, should we really defer to using slang related terms like “gay”? I know it’s the norm in society to do so, and as I’ve said, there is a reason for the term deferring to homosexual males in society, and that is the coining of the term “lesbian”. Another reason is the fact that there are less homosexual females in western society than there are males, as statistics show. The reason for this is not clear, but the difference in gay population between genders is another reason as to why the term “gay” revolves around homosexual males more, rather than females. If you search the term “lesbian”, you would obviously get all images of females, and I will once again state that it is due to the coining of this term, that the term “gay” started to revolve around homosexual males more. I agree with you in terms of the media effect on the term “gay”, but you cannot use ludicrous generalizations such as “there aren’t many women in power” without giving concrete evidence first.
ReplyDeleteWould you agree that we live in a society that is bias against women?
ReplyDeleteactually the definition of Gay meaning happy comes from the British style of English, where as, with many other words in the english language, the meaning of Gay as homosexual comes from the American style English. as many other languages when a word is used by a different culture ussually the meaning or interpretation changees based on the perspective of what it signifies.
ReplyDeleteAnd with the question of why only men appear when you search up Gay magazines, im guessing that the term "gay" is a category of homosexuality; just as we have Male/Female there is division of Gay(Male)and Lesbian(Female). And if your wondering why the terms are related to gender; this is because of Latin where the gender of the speaker effects the diction of a word
You avoided the question. Gay is a term meaning "a person who is attracted towards the same sex" there are favoring of a specific gender. Also , I was not referin to the "happy "'meaning of gay, just the part that relates to homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteOh also, fag is a bundle of sticks or cigarettes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8ko2nCk_hE
Stephen Fry plays with it nicely in this "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" sketch.
Oh by the way, Stephen Fry is also gay, and according to Wikipedia, he was told to joke and say; "I suppose it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, 'That's the last time I'm going up one of those.'"
Just thought it was funny.
Hahah. Ok , fair enough . :D
ReplyDeleteWikipedia is does not provide legitimate evidence.(If that's where you got your info from.) I think the reason you end up with a lot more guys in the search engine is because if you were to put in "lesbian" instead of "gay" I'm sure you would have gotten more females than males.
ReplyDelete^I can give you a TON of websites and sources that explain the origin of the word gay.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm not sure what you mean by:
" I think the reason you end up with a lot more guys in the search engine is because if you were to put in "lesbian" instead of "gay" I'm sure you would have gotten more females than males"
What are you trying to say? This sentence is grammatically incorrect. From what I understand, you are saying that the term "gay" has become a "male" term because homosexual females are called "lesbians". You are not providing me with any legitimate arguments.
Oscar Wilde was the start of the homosexual meaning of gay, (Irish poet/writer from the 1880s). After it became publicly known that Wilde was homosexual in 1895, the term gay started to develop its homosexual meaning.
By the 1920s it was being used to describe homosexuals, mostly among homosexuals themselves.
In the 1960s, the word became more known and used by the public and by the 1970s it was used to refer to homosexual people. (NO SPECIFIC GENDER).
ahhh Oscar Wilde, I love him so much.
ReplyDeleteumm just to add something here, what about the origin of the word lesbian? Did it come from some interesting source too? Maybe it was made to describe females due to the association of the word gay with males? (I personally don't know, its just a question).
I'll look that up. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat is the origin of the word lesbian?
ReplyDeleteThe word lesbian means a female homosexual or woman who is primarily attracted to other women. Where did this word come from?
Answer: The word lesbian comes from the Greek Island of Lesbos, where the poet Sappho lived in 600 B.C. Sappho was an intellectual and poet who wrote many love poems to other women. Although much of her poetry has been destroyed by religious fundamentalists, the few poems of Sappho that remain speak clearly to her love and infatuation with women.
It is unclear when the word "lesbian" was first used to describe women who love other women, but the first usage can be traced back to the 1800s. It came into popular use in the lesbian feminist era of the 1960s and 1970s.
Very interesting,I like the fact you took the term "gay" into consideration. BUT I don think that Wikipedia would be the best place to quote. Also I'm wondering why you didn't mention the term and origin of lesbian.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get it from Wikipedia. I got it from about.com.
ReplyDeletehttp://lesbianlife.about.com/od/herstory/f/Lesbian.htm
Thanks for defining "lesbian" Granit :)
ReplyDelete