>Choire Sicha has an interesting point about the use of the word gay to mean lame.
About Roger SuttonRoger Sutton has been the editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc, since 1996. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his M.A. in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978. Follow him on Twitter: @RogerReads.
>What's up, pussycat? What's your take on last week's discussion about Almagor article?
>Dumb used to mean mute… funny how people use disabilities to belittle other people.
Often, people would offend other people "Are you deaf or something?"
as if deafness is a bad thing.
>That's so jejune! (Says she, desperately thumbing through the thesaurus…)
Irene
>Is it lame to say "book dummy"?
>I have great hopes for the word "FAIL." I hope it takes over the world.
>i've seen this sort of observation before, and it makes me just a TEENY bit uncomfortable. Because even though there is nothing wrong with being lame or being dumb, I still don't think it's right to compare them with being gay. Because being gay isn't a disability.
>But Lili, the usage here of lame and dumb isn't synonymous with disabled. I was going to say that in this case gay=lame=dumb=dorky, but my dictionary tells me that dorky is derived from penis. Who knew?
>wow, dorky…
how about geek:
a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
[from Websters]
>Well, I'm definitely going to stop saying, "I'm such a geek", after reading THAT definition.