THE VANISHED WORD
by Michael Kirwan
There is an attitude afoot in this country,
one that clings to the notion that if something is not spoken of it
ceases to exist. If there is no active vocabulary for certain topics
to be discussed with, then those particular subjects will simply fade
from the public consciousness. The Rabid Right Wing Nut Jobs are
devoted adherents to this notion of label erasure as social
containment. In their understanding, if sex education is limited to
hysterical calls for abstinence then teenagers will naturally abandon
screwing around with each other. If the “Reefer Madness” mentality is
the only one presented then everyone will recoil in horror from the
joints, pipes, pills and syringes that currently offer a brief respite
from the endless tedium of modern living. If any mention of
homosexuality is excised from the curriculum then children can be free
to grow up fearing, hating and attacking queers in a religion-fueled
panic. It has become a standard practice for the Rabid Right Wing Nut
Jobs to “rephrase” anything detrimental to their odious objectives.
Suddenly what was obviously a “capricious, sullen, vendetta-inspired
invasion to shore up the war machine” becomes instead a “valiant,
noble, freedom and democracy spreading endeavor”. They do it all the
time. The latest being the irrational and discarded “creationism”
being reintroduced as “intelligent design”. I’ll go on about the new
language of war-mongering and the use of fear to encourage people to
forfeit their civil rights in a future RANT, right now I want to talk
about another word game that’s being played out in our popular
culture.
I must admit that I was very skeptical when
the “N” word business started. I’m always unhappy to see words
reworked to suit political agendas (again, I love the language and am
very leery of omissions, reinterpretations and misuses) but it seemed,
at least on the surface, that this critical examination of ethnic and
personal slurs might actually have promoted a more civil discourse
throughout the nation. During the excessively “politically correct”
movement of the mid-90’s all the derogatory expressions used to
humiliate and condemn with hateful generalities were officially
deleted from civilized conversation. It was established that no longer
would it be acceptable to refer to individuals or groups by the base
and common nicknames that permeated our speech for at least the past
hundred years. The “N” word ploy seems to have eradicated the hurtful
terms if not the underlying prejudices.
I don’t call dark-skinned people anything
anymore. When I grew up I didn’t use “Colored” or “Negro” as an
invective, but as a descriptive adjective. “Black” came into fashion
when I was a teenager but it never really worked for me. My artist’s
eye could never reconcile the color (or absence of for all you
sticklers) I knew to be black with all the hue and tone variations I
observed among that community. Sorry. I just stopped labeling
dark-skinned individuals as anything. If pressed I could squeak out
“Black” but it wasn’t actually correct, had too many negative
connotations (Black Magic, Black Hole, Black Death, black and blue)
and in general, I felt awkward thrusting so many different sorts of
people under the one umbrella denomination. And yes, I’m no saint, and
frequently described some people as “niggers” before I realized how
creepy and uncouth it sounded.
I grew up in a racist household. Ignorant,
fearful parents and relatives in a neighborhood where color and
religious boundaries were as real and recognized as solid brick walls.
I heard the word “Spic” often even though my aunt across the street
had married and bore two children to a Puerto Rican man. My mother was
from the Deep South and her loathing of dark-skinned people was as
ingrained as her love for Hank Williams’ music. The nuns at St. Rose
of Lima elementary school passed up no opportunity to condemn Jews in
the harshest possible language. It was an ugly atmosphere and by the
time I was twelve or thirteen I knew that I wanted nothing to do with
it. The shining emblem of this moral morass was my own grandmother, a
pious, pill-popping, everyday mass regular who clutched her rosary
beads while spewing more animosity and pure evil every time she opened
her mouth than any one else on the planet, living or dead. The depth
of her unyielding hatred would make Hitler seem like a powder puff in
comparison. Luckily for all of us she had no power. Her prayers to
make others drop dead seldom worked.
But I digress. As the concept behind the
“N” word gained momentum a whole slew of negative slurs fell from
everyday usage. At least as far as the media was concerned. I was
genuinely surprised. Even the insults hurled at my own tribe were
seemingly diminishing in popularity. ‘Faggot” and “fairy” and all the
other words that supposedly demeaned cocksuckers were no longer
allowed under the new rules. All of the unpleasant colloquialisms were
banished from polite society and swept neatly under the carpet of
practical speech. Hurray! We aren’t going to be as nasty to each
other! (At least verbally) The “N” word directive had actually done
some good.
But hold on, my fine buckaroos. There is
still a blatant insult to US HOMOS being used everyday, by almost
everyone, including ourselves. It’s the word “suck”. This sucks, that
sucks, you suck, this toaster sucks, this TV show sucks and that
vacation was the suckiest thing ever. It’s used repeatedly and
constantly and it is an inflammatory statement about Queers. We should
petition for that term to be included in the “N” word category. Come
along boys, do you imagine that it refers to a woman sucking on
something? Or babies nursing at the teat? It’s definitely not alluding
to the function of a vacuum cleaner. Vampires? I think not. The entire
thought process is that whatever “sucks” (or “blows”) sucks COCK. The
negative inference is that whatever is awful, whoever or whatever is
being offered up for ridicule, is being compared to one man fellating
another. If you are present when a friend exclaims, “This soup sucks.”
what you should be hearing is, “This soup is as disgusting as one guy
sucking off some other dude.” It certainly isn’t considered a “bad
thing” if it’s a woman performing the same service. Yet it’s become
such an accepted phrase, such a generally applicable put-down, that
we’ve become blinded to fact that every time it is uttered there is a
subconscious association with our signature practice. Substitute
“prays” for “sucks” and see if some other group doesn’t feel the
sting. No, no, no. In the spirit of the “N” word template, it is
imperative that we start howling if “it sucks” is used in the popular
media. WE have to stop using it and call out those who do. I know that
it’s simply regarded as harmless banter, an easy shortcut to express
displeasure, but we have to start asking the question, “What follows
the verb?” Real sentences do not end like that. The population is
reinforcing its latent discriminatory agenda against Queers whenever
this term is used and it’s high time we pointed out this infraction in
self-righteous indignation. So please, think twice before you join the
chorus and CONDEMN a person, place or thing by saying that it “sucks”.
Sucking cock is a noble, glorious, sincere act of worship and should
not be reduced to an innocuous slight. Who we are and what we do
should not be a catchall invective in polite conversation. Those days
are over. We are not the punch line or butt (excuse me!) of society’s
disappointment any longer. What truly sucks is that someone else
hasn’t launched this ship before now.
Just a few odds and ends tangentially
related to the “N” word project. I think that queers in general are
less bigoted than straight folk. We’ve been ridiculed and denigrated
and are our own unwanted minority but I don’t think that that’s
entirely the issue. I know that in my case I am certainly much more
interested in a person’s cock size and availability than I am in their
skin color. Whether they speak a different language or participate in
obscure traditional rituals is of no concern to me if they’ve pulled
their cocks out for my attention. I’ve had wonderful sexual encounters
with guys of every conceivable ethnic background. To me, being a
willing partner is the primary, secondary (and so one) consideration.
I’m sure there are queens who discriminate, but I’ll bet that they are
all in a “relationship”. Lone wolf renegade faggots like myself have
no time for that horseshit, we just want some dick.
I don’t want to sound overly enslaved to
the tenets of accurate linguistics, but can anybody clue me in as to
why “Colored People” is offensive whereas “People of Color” is not? It
just seems very “six of one, half a dozen of the other” to me. As I
pointed out, I’m not generalizing about race anymore, it’s a
ridiculous habit. A very lazy way of referencing the world. If I don’t
like somebody it’s because they’re a jackass or an idiot and it has
nothing to do with their appearance. I will however gleefully deride
any and all religious affiliations. But race? I fill in “fag” whenever
I’m called upon to specify my race on a form. I don’t identify with
“white people”. I’m a man and I’m queer and nothing else. (I know
somebody out there is going to cry foul about my lumping cocksuckers
into the same sac. I’m just building on my own experience and
observations in the tribe, I can’t draw what I can’t see. )
My one serious disaffection for the “N”
word protocol is that a couple of years back, during a contentious and
feverish Scrabble tournament with one of my gaming opponents, the word
“relates” was dropped onto the board with the “s” occupying the bottom
middle triple word square. Not a great point score but a nasty
tactical play. I countered with “wop” (a slang term for an Italian, in
case you PC boys are unfamiliar with it) in the corner, creating
“prelates” across. 54 points and the game. However, I was challenged
and cried bitter tears to discover that “wop” had been removed from
acceptance in the third edition of the Scrabble dictionary. Although
I’m glad that Americans are insulting each other less, I’m not pleased
about words being completely banished. Especially when it fucks up my
Scrabble game. Bitter tears, gentlemen, bitter tears.
THE END |