Oh I do love to wake up to an internet full of the word “f@ggot”

[sparkindarkness]

Despite there being edited versions of this song, people are losing their ever loving mind over the idea that Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” needs to be edited in Canada to go on the radio

Never mind that broadcasters regularly alter words to cover everything from profanity to reference to drugs. Seriously, you must have heard it? Gods, there’s a song out there that if played before the watershed edits out “smoking grass in the back” because cannabis use is too risque! And no-one lost their ever loving shit over that one – but an anti-gay slur, quite possibly the vilest anti-gay word in existence and people are furious that their artistic vision is disrupted

Can I tell you how wonderful the internet is that you can’t throw a rock right now without righteous bloggers on the left and the right merrily using the word over and over. Because clicking on blogs and other websites and being ambushed by hate speech (and some straight person telling me how little that hate speech matters) is ALMOST as much fun as turning on the radio and being ambushed by hate speech. FUN TIMES!
And enough of the people saying “it doesn’t mean that in that context” about this and the Pogues (a song I love – but I love the edited version a million times more because it didn’t give lots of arseholes license to chant slurs and protest to any authority figure that it was in a song) because that’s such epicly stinking bullshit that it’s been upgraded to heaping piles of elephant shit. I know that word can mean different things in different context- in Britain variations of it are used to mean everything from meatball to cigarette. I know because people think it’s SOOOO clever to use them around me and work them in as often as they can for giggles. I also know that they aren’t what is meant here, so cut out your pathetic defence.
Honestly – the epic battle here of thousands of people desperate, DERSPERATE to keep an anti-gay slur out there

Comments

[hugh_mannity]

That's not one of my favourite Dire Straits songs, I must admit, though the use of the word doesn't bother me all that much in that context.

There's a lovely butcher's shop on the other side of Boston (Massachusetts) from where I live that sells the only decent pork pies I've found in the US. The family's from Yorkshire and is very proud of its traditions. They also sell things called "savory ducks". So one day I asked them what they were and the butcher says, in a slightly embarrased and very apologetic tone, "you've probably heard them called faggots". He then went on to apologise further because he can't get pig's caul which is the proper casing for them. I bought a half-dozen anyway and they were delicious!

Having been bullied relentlessly at school (gotta love the English Public School system. Not.) I find myself relatively insulated against abusive epithets. The old "sticks and stones" thing, but I'm always watching and waiting for the words to escalate into action.

[sparkindarkness]

The context isn't mde clear and it's also a report of bigotry without much comment, I really don't like it and think it's really unnecessary.

We have savoury ducks here - they're like veyr spicy sausage meat. But that is a rare and regional use of the word - but it's usually obvious from context


I tend not to be after being bullied relentlessly because I link the words to violence that came with them. I find the words themselves treioggering and highly dehumanising - tey bug me a lot

[onyxlynx]

1. [semisnark] That must mean that "queer" has been completely reclaimed; the suspense was killing me [/snark].
2. Most music mavens know or suspect to whom the line refers.
3. The radio station I listened to for years chopped that entire verse out (as I discovered when I moved) without changing the meaning of the song in the slightest. Mr. Knopfler, in fact, sings it with different words now, and it's still comprehensible.
4. What you said in your last line. Indeed, these are the same people who ridicule saving endangered species!

[sparkindarkness]

Uck I won't even get iunto how much commonly used 'queer' bugs me as well :)

Exactly how many times has it been edited? For years it has already been edited over and over and now it's unreal?

[onyxlynx]

See, I believe in not using any of those words At All, not even the among ourselves exception, but I've been overruled...

It turns out that there was one edited and one unedited version of the song (sorry if I gave the impression the djs were deleting the verse every time they played it), so someone knew it might be considered offensive.