Gay, ****, Homo and similar words...

[Kully]

Words like Gay, ****, Homo and the like, as I have noticed, are ubiquitous in the smash community. I have noticed this since I got into watching and keeping up with the competitive scene of Melee in early 2013.

Prior to watching competitive melee, my stance on the matter of words like this were as follows: "I don't use them because I want to eliminate the possibility of unintentionally hurting someone's feelings." Even now, my feelings are the same to this issue, but I recently caught myself telling my brother on the phone something like "Yeah, I totally ***** him" or something to that effect.

While that example is not particularly a big deal in my mind, that is when it comes to being sensitive to other people, I am nonetheless posting this thread because I want your opinions on the matter of using expressions like "Oh, he's playing so gay" in everyday melee talk.

I know this issue of political correctness transcends the video gaming world and I know people will think that I'm just ******** about useless crap, but I would really like to know how people feel about this issue.

Post your Responses!

 

[cannedbread]

i just don't like the word ******

 

[nmn]

I should probably keep my nose out of this given that I do not actually play any smash, but it is a pretty universal problem in video games. I hear it's actually worse in the fighting game community, which I can not attest to, but in general, the entire video game community is plagued with immaturity like this, and rather than attempting to address it, it is usually defended instead, using whatever necessary to justify it. You know, claims like, "It can't be helped" or "It's not my fault people are insecure."

You have the right to say whatever you want, but is it really worth damage to the community? There's plenty of other obscenities out there that work just fine. I doubt many would go around defending the use of racial slurs.

 

[Yung Mei]

im gay as hell and i use it all the time, i dont give a ****

not really, i do know people in other communities who are gay and use it though

 

[Kully]

I should probably keep my nose out of this given that I do not actually play any smash, but it is a pretty universal problem in video games. I hear it's actually worse in the fighting game community, which I can not attest to, but in general, the entire video game community is plagued with immaturity like this, and rather than attempting to address it, it is usually defended instead, using whatever necessary to justify it. You know, claims like, "It can't be helped" or "It's not my fault people are insecure."

You have the right to say whatever you want, but is it really worth damage to the community? There's plenty of other obscenities out there that work just fine. I doubt many would go around defending the use of racial slurs.

Yeah, agreed. What I forgot to mention in the original post was that there may be gay people in the community who may be offended by the use of the word "gay" as a substitute for "bad" or something like that. I am not gay, but some people are. This way of speaking, even though it has no homophobic or malicious intents (let's hope so) it definitely gives the community this subtle "being homosexual is not favorable" air. But maybe that's going to far.

 

[Kully]

im gay as hell and i use it all the time, i dont give a ****

not really, i do know people in other communities who are gay and use it though

That's interesting. I wonder if I would too if I was gay.

 

[MountainGoat]

I think all that kind of stuff has been used less and less by the community.

 

[Keblerelf]

If you're trying to avoid hurting other people's feelings, you might as well not say anything.

I like to say things like "gay", "******", "*****" because it gets the point across quickly. Then I'll go into detail about what I thought.

If someone has a problem with me saying these terms then they should let me know. I can't read minds.

 

[pokemongeof]

Personally I think **** is the only one used in the OP. That being said, everyone uses it as a term for beating someone, not to offend them.

 

[nmn]

At least acknowledge that:

1. It's not really about intention, but the potential damage to a community.
2. The damage is dealt because a large portion of people feel uncomfortable and are put off on this basis. It's not necessarily that they are offended.

I mean, of course you can't please everyone, but I don't think it's asking much to just curb the '****' and 'f**' a bit. Am I wrong?

 

[BTmoney]

Personally I can't find myself caring too much although I do try to curb my usage of homophobic slang.

**** however, I could never really care about. If someone had some sort of sexual assault issue then I'd stop saying it of course.

 

[Deleted member]

i think over-sensitivity to expression is a major affliction with our generation and i'm doing my part to oppose it.

not being able to describe things as gay is...gay.

 

[ZIngaZ]

As long as I retain the rights to use the word *** i'm happy
^think bundle of sticks since it got censored

 

[Juggleguy]

I read somewhere that the practice of using these words in gaming originated from the early competitive Halo days (H2), which sounds pretty accurate to me. I agree with nmn, it's a universal problem within almost all competitive gaming scenes... and anyone who's been a coach or mentor or manager of people knows that it's extremely difficult to change the culture of a community that's as old as Halo or Melee. So while I don't think we should attempt to censor at tournaments, I do think it's fair (and beneficial to the community) to censor from commentators working on the livestream, players doing to-be-published interviews, and anyone else who is publicly representing the Smash tournament brand. To the average spectator, there's always been a childish stigma associated with gaming scenes, so anything we can do to move away from that is beneficial to our community. And we haven't even begun to talk about potential sponsors.

 

[Oasys17]

For commentating, it's PROOOBABLY not a good look. For the PLAYERS to say it to each other? That's totally fine, Imo.

I use the word **** quite often in smash, as does pretty much everyone else I know xD. I've never had anyone ask me to stop or anything like that, usually the word is greeted with laughter, actually. *shrugs* It's only as big a deal as you make it. For me and everyone I know, it's not.

 

[Bones0]

i think over-sensitivity to expression is a major affliction our this generation and i'm doing my part to oppose it.

not being able to describe things as gay is...gay.

It's easy to say people offended by these terms are oversensitive when you aren't gay or a **** victim (or a friend of someone who is either). It's the same as a white person throwing around the n-word and then calling black people who get upset by it oversensitive. Just because the slang meaning of the word is what you immediately think of doesn't mean that's the same case for everyone else.

 

[Revven]

I'd suggest trying to transition to different words that can represent the same... well, feeling of the person who's using it.

I recall that more recently, in other fighting game communities, the word '****' has been slowly fading and instead the word 'body' is being used in place of it. Such as, "get bodied" or "that guy just got bodied". Granted, it's not easy to throw out a word from your vocabulary you've been using since early high school (or even earlier) but you should make an attempt to try to move away from it as the scene tries to get more professional.

I'm not sure how everyone else's high school culture (or even school culture in general) was but mine definitely saw frequent use of the words 'gay' and '****' and etc. so some of the issue comes from not just video games but the culture you live in period. You can't help but hear people around you using the word and it suddenly bleeds into your vocab when you don't even realize it. Curbing something like that is what's impossible.

 

[Bones0]

I used to say gay and **** ALL the time, but I've stopped saying gay completely (mainly replacing it with lame), and I only occasionally say **** so it's really not that hard. You just have to keep it in mind. Even now after a year+ of doing it, I still occasionally have to consciously restrain myself from saying those words and pick a different word. Coming up with new words for this stuff is fun anyway. "Get eclipsed, bro!" lol

 

[Kully]

I used to say gay and **** ALL the time, but I've stopped saying gay completely (mainly replacing it with lame), and I only occasionally say **** so it's really not that hard. You just have to keep it in mind. Even now after a year+ of doing it, I still occasionally have to consciously restrain myself from saying those words and pick a different word. Coming up with new words for this stuff is fun anyway. "Get eclipsed, bro!" lol

Thank God that people with injured legs are not getting offended by your use of the word lame.

 

[Deleted member]

It's easy to say people offended by these terms are oversensitive when you aren't gay or a **** victim (or a friend of someone who is either). It's the same as a white person throwing around the n-word and then calling black people who get upset by it oversensitive. Just because the slang meaning of the word is what you immediately think of doesn't mean that's the same case for everyone else.

that's quite an assumption you're making about me. and a false one, but let's not get personal here.

regardless of whether it's offensive or not doesn't necessarily mean that society at large should cater to a fairly minor group of people in the first place. it's not like being offended is a productive emotion either. i would consider the guilt and resentment from self-censorship to be the bigger loss.

 

[CyberZixx]

I say get rid of them. This is something that has stuck out to me in my few short months in this community. There is no need to say Jigglypuff is "gay" when you mean lame.

 

[Kully]

i just don't like the word ******

Do you mean pile of sticks? Fa**ot?

 

[Charlie G]

i think over-sensitivity to expression is a major affliction our this generation and i'm doing my part to oppose it.

not being able to describe things as gay is...gay.

This is the only sensible umbreon post I've seen in my ~2 years occasional lurking since I stopped playing

 

[Deleted member]

i'm glad hooked on phonics worked out for you.

 

[Shikenshu]

well, as long as you don't mean to offend the gay community or victims of sexual assault, in a community where these words gained another meaning, it's ok.

It's like in that South Park episodes where they start usiing the word "****" to describe bikers.

 

[Strong Badam]

As a homosexual I would strongly prefer if "gay, " "homo, " "******," and the like were never used in the way they are in our or any community. It's extremely offensive when my sexuality is compared to Jigglypuff. Come on guys, homosexuality isn't even remotely similar to the level of lame that is.

I can only assume similar is felt by anyone who has been literally "*****," about how we use that term. I understand that that's much easier said than done, it'll probably happen the same day Mew2King smells good at a tournament. I'm pretty desensitized to this stuff by now, so it doesn't affect me as much as it would a newcomer to the scene, but it's definitely a problem.

 

[hectohertz]

this is a complicated issue. i'm not going to take a real stance. two comments:

- i've heard openly gay smashers call things gay. i find this really interesting from a semiotics perspective
- other fighting games also use **** and gay a lot. this is not something exclusive to the smash community. one of my friends is a tourney tennis player (and doesn't play any fighting games) and i recently heard him describe a match as "i ***** him"

 

[CyberZixx]

this is a complicated issue. i'm not going to take a real stance. two comments:

- i've heard openly gay smashers call things gay. i find this really interesting from a semiotics perspective
- other fighting games also use **** and gay a lot. this is not something exclusive to the smash community. one of my friends is a tourney tennis player (and doesn't play any fighting games) and i recently heard him describe a match as "i ***** him"

To your second point: I don't hear any of those two terms used in the FGC. As mentioned, they use bodied, which I much prefer. These are words with serious meaning and there is not need to misuse them for the sake of slang. Why try to reuse a word when you can use one already in place, ie lame or create a new one ie, bodied.

 

[EbAgItachi]

Yeah I've definitely heard 'body' and 'get bodied' a LOT more frequently in the Smash community than '****' and 'get *****'.

Words I always use instead of '****' are:

• bodied
• destroyed
• exposed
• fu**ed (lol)

Regarding 'f*g' and 'fa**ot', I'll never forget when I was playing Melee with one of my friends (happens to be gay) who plays casually and he's never played against puff. Put him to sleep -> rest 2 times, gave him the wall of death 2 times. "You are by far the biggest f*g I've ever encountered. I don't think I've seen anything gayer than that, and I've seen a lot of gay sh*t." I pray he never has to play Hbox.


For the most part, you control how offended you'll get at anything that could offend you. If it really is a big deal, voice your concern and any decent person who plays against you will try their best to control what they say.

Commentators though, should really not say anything along those lines simply because if someone is going to be speaking to the masses, they need to be professional in terms of describing a tactic or playstyle.

 

[Bones0]

that's quite an assumption you're making about me. and a false one, but let's not get personal here.

regardless of whether it's offensive or not doesn't necessarily mean that society at large should cater to a fairly minor group of people in the first place. it's not like being offended is a productive emotion either. i would consider the guilt and resentment from self-censorship to be the bigger loss.

If you feel guilt or resentment from simply changing your word choice to accommodate others, then idk what to tell you... I'm by no means a supporter of "nerfing" everything in life just to avoid offending people, but I definitely think things that are out of peoples' control, such as whether they were born gay or sexually assualted, are things worth working around. I think it's misleading to say avoiding a few offensive words or racial slurs is society catering to minorities. I would hardly consider a business to be catering to wheelchair-users by constructing a wheelchair ramp, so I don't see how it is catering to gays or **** victims to avoid saying gay or ****.

Whatever though, SmashBoards isn't a civics class. Even if we're speaking strictly business of the community, it definitely seems worth it to encourage less offensive words to be used in our general vocabulary for the better image we will present to the general public, thus increasing newcomers and sponsors. I will never miss "the good ol' days" when Smashers and gamers in general threw around offensive terms, so I'm not worried about how a small bit of censorship might affect the culture of the community.

 

[Kyu Puff]

If someone has a problem with me saying these terms then they should let me know. I can't read minds.

Please tell me this is a troll. You'd have to be pretty ****ing stupid to not understand why using these words can hurt people (or in some cases evoke traumatic memories/emotional reactions). You might as well go around punching people in the face--it's their responsibility to tell you if it hurts, right?

 

[ShrieK1295]

If gay people all play Peach, would it really be wrong to describe Peach's playstyle as gay?

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

I feel there should not be any problems with smash lingo. You merely use it to express stuff about a game. I do not really care about any LBQT issues when I am clearly talking about the game and nothing else. If anything, its other people's problems for getting too uptight about language without actually caring about the intentions of the words being used. It goes back to being too quick to judge without learning more about a situation.

 

[NightShadow6]

If you're in the smash community and have seen jigglypuff, you've probably called that **** gay at least once.

 

[KishPrime]

It wasn't that way. I used to be proud that our community was, in fact, different from the Halo community at MLG.

I don't remember that terminology being prominent even up through 2007 with the last of the old FCs...not sure when it migrated in but I was sad to see it.

 

[Shorts]

I'm gay, and I don't consider it a big deal, but it's kind of annoying to hear people say f*g. Especially if I don't know them. (It helps to know someone isn't meaning it derogatory) It's whatever though. I don't really mind, but I would rather people not say it, ideally. But I honestly have no qualms with my friends saying it at all. But that's just because I know they're not h8rs yo.

I call people gay, and f*gs (albeit very infrequently), so I can't really tell others to stop I suppose.

 

[Gliffie]

Please tell me this is a troll. You'd have to be pretty ****ing stupid to not understand why using these words can hurt people (or in some cases evoke traumatic memories/emotional reactions). You might as well go around punching people in the face--it's their responsibility to tell you if it hurts, right?

****ty analogy. You know punching people in the face will very likely hurt, but you can say "gay" and "****" in my, and many others presence without offending them.

 

[Kyu Puff]

****ty analogy. You know punching people in the face will very likely hurt, but you can say "gay" and "****" in my, and many others presence without offending them.

****ty thing to do in the first place. Using "gay" as a derogatory term or "****" in a public space will very likely hurt someone, and it shouldn't be their job to tell you because at that point the damage is already done.

 

[Gliffie]

****ty thing to do in the first place. Using "gay" as a derogatory term or "****" in a public space will very likely hurt someone, and it shouldn't be their job to tell you because at that point the damage is already done.

Really? I don't have that impression at all. But yeah, of course you shouldn't need to go around telling people not to use offensive words.

 

[StickandFluid]

Words I always use instead of '****' are:

• bodied
• destroyed
• exposed
• fu**ed (lol)

^^
I feel that *** is just so trashy sounding and calling something gay can sometimes make someone sound like their 12 years old
I mean I'm not innocent of just getting destroyed in a match and exclaiming to a friend "uggh.....that was really gay" but I try not to, usually I just say it's bull ****, but you know all fighting game communities are very just loud and aggressive I actually believe the smash community is not that bad (i've been to some Marvel tourneys....) so I get why it could turn some people off it's all kind of macho sounding as well which is pretty lame honestly