chavs
quote:

In reply to any claims that the word 'chav' (or 'ned' up here in Glasgow) only applies to 'poor' people, I would say that it's completely untrue. I wouldn't call someone a ned simply because they're not as well off as I am, a ned is someone who gets on the bus reeking of beer and hash, sits behind me, pokes me in the back of the head and asks me to 'Check ra nick! Dis yer ma still dress ye, ya pure brainboax?' or something similar. I've met plenty of neds whose families are perfectly well off and yet still choose to wear bright white tracksuits and three kilos of gold jewellery.

and my brilliant reposte:

OK, let's say you got mad at your friend and called him a 'stupid faggot'. Yet your friend is not gay, and you indiscriminately apply the term to hetero- and homosexuals alike. Does it follow that there is no cause for gay persons to take offense at your term?

No, it doesn't, because the important point isn't who you apply it to or how literally you mean it, the point is that you use 'being gay' as an insult.

So, to take it further, what if you apply the term 'faggot' to anyone who acts in a way you associate with being gay eg foppishly dressed weedy poetry-reading types, who may or may not be gay. You might say that a lot of these guys, maybe most, aren't gay. You might also say that you don't apply the term to 'straight-acting' gay people. So does it follow then that there is nothing homophobic about this use of the term? Again, no it doesn't - a particular way of acting associated with an unpopular group provokes the insult that they are in fact members of this group. The fact that they might not be doesn't change the fact that you think being gay, or 'acting gay', is worthy of insult, and an insult in itself. The most laddish badly-dressed gay man is still entitled to take offence.

Translating your comment above:

"I wouldn't call someone a nigger simply because they're not as white as I am, a nigger is someone who gets on the bus reeking of beer and hash, sits behind me, pokes me in the back of the head and asks me to 'Yo man, get da fock outta my face' or something similar. I've met plenty of niggers whose families are perfectly white and yet still choose to wear bright white tracksuits and three kilos of gold jewellery."
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Wed 12 Jan 2005, 5:20, Reply)