One time in high school, I heard somebody yell "Steve, you [bundle of sticks], stop talking to your girlfriend and let's go!" and Steve was in fact at the time talking to his girlfriend.
The sheer concentration of cognitive dissonance has stuck with me to this day.
Fag evolved into something completely different in the '00s, and was seldomly used to imply homosexuality. I don't know how it happened, exactly, but it was seemingly repurposed to mean loser/douchebag, just as gay was used to express something being lame. This didn't stop the words from being offensive, but it was still an interesting change of definition. Obviously they've since reverted.
Can confirm. My friends and I used that term a lot towards each other and none of us thought anyone was actually gay.
One time in high school, I heard somebody yell "Steve, you [bundle of sticks], stop talking to your girlfriend and let's go!" and Steve was in fact at the time talking to his girlfriend.
The sheer concentration of cognitive dissonance has stuck with me to this day.
Fag evolved into something completely different in the '00s, and was seldomly used to imply homosexuality. I don't know how it happened, exactly, but it was seemingly repurposed to mean loser/douchebag, just as gay was used to express something being lame. This didn't stop the words from being offensive, but it was still an interesting change of definition. Obviously they've since reverted.
Can confirm. My friends and I used that term a lot towards each other and none of us thought anyone was actually gay.
Relevant South Park clip - https://youtu.be/6i7a0cwyDDw?si=tBUgdhQo78OEQ2hH
Green Day?
Beastie boys
https://youtu.be/-wCR65V6wxE?si=rRTJvER1ENQqoC83
I do this as a joke with basically all of my friends who are in hetero relationships.
"I'm gonna spend the evening with the wife and kids, sorry."
"Gay!"