Sunday, March 11, 2007

This New Expression

Actually, it's not very new. In fact, it's getting so old that even us old people are starting to use it.

I refer to "It Sucks."

So, there's a need for vivid language to express the epitome of badness.
And there's always a need for the younger generation (boy do I sound like an old fogy tonight!) to invent expressions which dismay their elders.
And the meaning of words changes over years.

and so on and so on.

But "It Sucks" is a homophobic expression suggesting that the epitome of badness is how gay men have sex.

And I'm not planning to get used to it.

5 comments:

Will Shetterly said...

Oh, the things we end up commenting on. To be precise, "it sucks" reflects a fear of oral sex, which not all that long ago was something nice girls didn't do, and if they did, they did it after the first act of intercourse, and not as foreplay or an alternative to intercourse. So, while there may be as element of homophobia in some uses of "it sucks," in many cases, its use is simply like "it's fucked up."

Which leads to another tirade about the language of sex being applied to bad things, of course.

Paul Wilczynski said...

Wow .... just goes to show how shallow I am. I just thought if something sucked, it just ... sucked.

It never occurred to me it had anything to do with, well, sucking.

Lizard Eater said...

Had to quibble with you, Rev. Christine:

http://uuminister.blogspot.com/2007/04/sucks-niggardly-and-other-words.html

:)
LE

Chalicechick said...

Admittedly, one frequently heard

"You suck!"

"You wish..."

when I was in high school.

That said, I still really like it, and as Lizard Eater points out, it does have it's uses as a forceful and unironic indicator of the truly awful.

CC

Jamie Goodwin said...

As a gay man, i must say, I have never in my life heard the phrase "it sucks" as a homophobic expression.

I also feel the need to point out that there is not any particular mode of sexual relations that is exclusive to gay men, or lesbians for that matter.

I use the phrase "That Sucks" all the time, and do not associate what-so-ever with sexaul contact.

To be blunt.. they are two distinct types of sucking.