Dear Jon,
Thank you for pointing this out!!! I agree with you completely on this topic!
I always feel offended every time I hear the term "nelly" being applied by a specific gay person in a "pejorative" way. I view it as the Gay equivalent to the racist expressions using the "N-word". Its use seems intended by design to put others down by implying the one speaking with is so much more morally superior than the object of the communication. Lets face it, can you ever imagine this term "nelly" ever being used to make someone else feel complemented? Of course not!
I can't see why this would have to be so difficult to avoid monitoring one's speech by just being a little more careful? We aren't always so lucky to be as "butch" as others might prefer. That is no one's fault necessarily and I strongly believe it should not be frowned down upon by others. We are not totally in charge of how one is perceived by their peers anyway! Even with the best of intentions, some of use may from time to time be perceived in a unfavorable manner, beyond our own control or intent.
Sincerely,
Stimpy
Dear Stimpy,
I read your reply earlier this morning when I first woke up, and I've been thinking about your words all morning, as it gives me a different perspective than I had when I originally commented on the use of the word "nelly". I took it as a light hearted gay colloquialism that gay men use among ourselves to describe our fellow gay brethren. To me it is a word like "butch", or "queen", "auntie", "chicken hawk" or saying "her" to describe another gay guy. I always thought of it as word that a bunch of gay guys at a party or at the bar use in a light hearted self deprecating way.
However being that I've sort of "passed" through life for being straight, or at least not usually being pegged as an obvious homosexual in non gay settings, I've rarely experienced what some of the more affected gay guys have gone through starting at an early age, where they may have been bullied by the straight kids, and so hearing a fellow gay man referring to a guy as being "nelly" may strike a cord reminiscent of their childhood fears of being beat up or at least ostracized for being gay.
Of course I've had some of it, as when I was at a boy scout jamboree at age 14 or 15 and when my troop was mixed with scouts from other parts of the city, and a few guys in the tent opposite mine must have picked up on my checking them out at the lake or in the showers, and every night as we were going to sleep I would hear a couple of guys from the tent across from me saying, "(my last name) is a faggot", over and over. My tent mate from my own troop just told me to ignore them, but it hurt. Interesting they never said anything to my face during the day, but only at night when we were in our closed individual tents.
There was also a kid named Robert who joined our boy scout troop later on when he moved to my neighborhood, and I was always a leader of scout "initiations" for the new scouts which always involved "pantsing" the new guys, and he must have noticed my eagerness in getting his pants and underwear off and seeing his young cock. He quit the scouts shortly thereafter, but I can clearly remember him walking by me in the street and as I tried to say hi to him, he called me a faggot.
So while my situations were rare, but I can still remember them clearly, I can relate to those who may have experienced similar treatment by other kids on a continued basis, and so I can certainly understand the hurt involved in hearing any of those pejorative words even uttered today by our fellow gay brothers in relation to a model or a scene here on
Broke Straight Boys
Thank you Stimpy for making me think a bit harder and enlightening me as to how words can still hurt even in adulthood.