Over 400 years ago, William Shakespeare posed an important philosophical question, delivered through the young and confused Juliet Capulet – “What’s in a name?” The pre-pubescent starlet of Shakespeare’s play comes to the conclusion that a name is trivial, and that it is the meaning behind the name that should be considered. Unfortunately, this idea is not as timeless as the play Romeo and Juliet. In our current society, names have been jaded and misconstrued into derogatory terms that are extremely offensive, but still used in casual conversation. It is so retarded and contradictory. See what I did there? Retarded. There is a perfect example.
The word retarded used to be a perfectly respectful way to describe a person with a mental handicap. However, the youth of our generation have taken the original denotation and carelessly dropped it into an entirely different context. Many people see nothing wrong with that, but it is wrong. It is wrong to use a word that describes what people inherently are as an insult. The same situation applies with the word gay or faggot. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being mentally handicapped, transgender, gay, or queer, yet these words are used as insults in casual conversation and banter.
Some human beings are born gay, and using the word gay as a slanderous term not only wrongly implies that being gay or lesbian is a bad thing, but continues to isolate members of the LGBTQ community and reinforce the inequality that homosexuals in our society face. There is no controversy over being straight – straight marriage is simply marriage, there are no biblical verses that advise against being straight and straight individuals cannot be discriminated against in the workplace for their sexual preferences. Being homosexual is a different story. Members of the LGBTQ community constantly have to fight for the same privileges as straight individuals, and using their identity as a derogatory term only makes this fight harder. Calling someone a faggot is not only degrading to that individual, but to the entire LGBTQ community.
This new era of verbal hate crimes targets people who already face discrimination, such as those who are mentally handicapped, homosexual or female. Slut, whore, tramp, ho and floozy are all terms that diminish a woman’s right to be sexually active. There is a constant double standard in society when it comes to men, women and sex. When men are promiscuous and engage with multiple partners, they are admired by their peers. But when women are sexually active, they are unwanted and even somewhat vulgar. Using words like slut and whore only furthers this discrepancy because they are almost exclusively insulting to women. If a man is called a whore, it does not carry nearly the same weight as when the insult is used on a female. Women are constantly oppressed by societal expectations and shaming women who rightfully choose not to follow these expectations is wrong, yet we do it all the time. Not only does this jeopardize a woman’s right to be sexually active, it also discredits a woman’s right to say no to sexual advances. Using the word slutty to characterize a woman’s attire or personality implies that she is willing to engage with multiple partners, and that may not be the case.
Whether these words are being used in a conversation between best friends or worst enemies, they carry a weight that is not being realized. By continuing to use terms like retard and faggot to communicate a situation or person that is not ideal, our society is dishonoring individuals who are actually gay or who do have a mental handicap. It is discrimination that has been disguised by popular media. It sounds trivial, but words do matter, especially when words are demeaning an entire group of people. Individuals with a mental handicap and individuals who are gay should not be ostracized because of who they innately are as a human being, and they are. Every time retard, gay, or faggot is used to insult another person, it is implied that these genetic characteristics are undesirable and wrong. But the only thing that is wrong is the way our society treats these individuals. It needs to stop. Now.