Gay(s)language

Fülszöveg

d

gay(s)language is likely to be everj^hing you ever wanted to know about gay slang, perhaps more. Its X-rated, cross-indexed format makes it simple to find almost any term you can think of—and probably several you won't. The book is designed to be a gay look at one of the most popular languages in the world — slang.
The American general public has been indirectly conscious of gay slang for some years, from terms such as "gay" and "straight," "camp" and "campy," "in the closet" and "out of the closet," and numerous other terms that have graduated from the gay subculture to mainstream vocabulary.
Basically, however, gay slang is and always has been a means of secret identification and covert communication; in the latter respect, it is like Cockney. As the book title indicates, it is both "Gays language" and "Gay slang-uage."
The general stereotype of a gay is an upper-middle-class, educated male. So gay slang would be expected to be clever, witty, sophisticated; and it is.... Tovább

Fülszöveg

d

gay(s)language is likely to be everj^hing you ever wanted to know about gay slang, perhaps more. Its X-rated, cross-indexed format makes it simple to find almost any term you can think of—and probably several you won't. The book is designed to be a gay look at one of the most popular languages in the world — slang.
The American general public has been indirectly conscious of gay slang for some years, from terms such as "gay" and "straight," "camp" and "campy," "in the closet" and "out of the closet," and numerous other terms that have graduated from the gay subculture to mainstream vocabulary.
Basically, however, gay slang is and always has been a means of secret identification and covert communication; in the latter respect, it is like Cockney. As the book title indicates, it is both "Gays language" and "Gay slang-uage."
The general stereotype of a gay is an upper-middle-class, educated male. So gay slang would be expected to be clever, witty, sophisticated; and it is.
But there is another side to. gay slang—the bitterness of an alienated, despised, and oppressed minority. In this respect, gay slang is like black slang. Both reflect suffering from prejudice and persecution; and much of gay slang is incredibly cruel, and filled with self-hate.
And with its mordant and pessimistic wit, gay slang brings to mind the famous "gallows humor" of BerUn.
Finally, gay slang is inherently about sex; so, by the nature of things, gay slang is coarse and crude and vulgar.
Old interest in gay slang as new language has combined with new interest in gay sexual practices to bring about this brief lexicon of gay slang for gays and straights alike.
H. Max Vissza