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The Legend of GayBlade

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Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#91

Post by Pfhreak »

JohnBooty wrote: post #65
0xcde4c3db wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who aren't familiar, Smear the Queer is a playground game in which one person has to keep a ball away from the rest of the group, who tries to tackle them. It's sort of like a cross between "reverse tag" and gridiron/rugby football. (The gay-bashing element is just a metaphor, you see.)

This game has many, many regional names. I heard it called "smear the queer" but we usually called it other names. It's semi-interesting, though, that the "queer" was the one with the ball. It took serious guts to be the "queer" for any length of time - after all, it was you vs. everybody else trying to tackle you. The kids who spent the most time with the ball were the fastest, toughest kids. So "queer" was a slur b…

Queer, in particular, is a tough one. Obviously, smear the queer is an awful name for a game. And while queer has a century of being use pejoratively, it's also been adopted as a label by some lgbtq+ folks like myself (often as a way to be more politically forward than using the safer "LGBT" label).

You'll find that there really isn't consensus around the use of queer as an identity -- some in the community hate it, others love it. There's a lot to unpack in its history, and it's continuing to evolve every year.

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#93

Post by DonHopkins »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #47
bhfasdhjgdgsuyv wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol so when I was getting my ass beat in middle school for sounding a bit effeminate during a game of "smear the queer" it was just because I was "odd". That must be why the called me a faggot too.

If you were getting beat up for the way you sound, that was regular homophobia, not the game. In smear the queer, you only get chased and tackled if you have the ball; if you get tackled you throw the ball away and someone else gets it and everyone chases the new person. What you described does not sound like a game of smear the queer.

What is wrong with you?

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#94

Post by [deleted] »

huffmsa wrote: post #55
textfiles wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a citation in 1981 describing the game and absolutely not related to the term "odd". https://archive.org/details/BAR_19810115?q=%22Smear+the+Quee...

> Casually strolls up to a group and throws the designated victim to the ground and screams fag and runs away. That's not the game were talking about.

[deleted]

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#95

Post by sdsvsdgggggg »

cycomanic wrote: post #84
hnick wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar story, growing up in Australia we had Eeny, meeny, miny, moe [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe ] and like some other countries we used the n-word instead of tiger. I'm not sure where that came from since I don't think anyone knew what it meant and it definitely wasn't used as an insult by us kids. I don't think I learned what it meant until well into my teens. Pre-internet days,…

We had a a game in Germany which was called "wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann", which means "who is afraid of the black man". I remember that in my mind it was always a chimney sweep, I only realised at some point as an adult that it's actually an incredibly racist name for a game.

Same here, I think I just thought about thieves being dressed in black to hide themselves in the night.

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#96

Post by sdsvsdgggggg »

devenblake wrote: post #66
djaque wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how old you are, but even in 2010 when I was in high school our boy scout troop played smear the queer and the first time I learned the word gay was as an insult. Didn't really help with the whole growing up gay thing.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm a senior enrolled in a Maine high school right now and there's very little homophobia. In fact, a not-insignificant amount of the school is queer. Growing up I only ever heard "gay" used as an insult on-line. Times seem to have changed, and for the better!

"a not-insignificant amount of the school is queer"

In what way - many queer students?

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#97

Post by mudita »

cycomanic wrote: post #84
hnick wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a similar story, growing up in Australia we had Eeny, meeny, miny, moe [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe ] and like some other countries we used the n-word instead of tiger. I'm not sure where that came from since I don't think anyone knew what it meant and it definitely wasn't used as an insult by us kids. I don't think I learned what it meant until well into my teens. Pre-internet days,…

We had a a game in Germany which was called "wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann", which means "who is afraid of the black man". I remember that in my mind it was always a chimney sweep, I only realised at some point as an adult that it's actually an incredibly racist name for a game.

The "Schwarzer Mann" of the children's game doesn't have anything to do with race. Historically it was a mythical figure used to scare children (Kinderschreck) comparable to the bogey man, visualised as a man with black clothes or a shadow creature not a man with black skin color.

There is a theory which connects him to the black death also, which would fit to the game mechanics.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wer_hat_Angst_vorm_Schwarzen_M...

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#98

Post by vmception »

kohtatsu wrote: post #34
vmception wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In any case, your comment seems very aggressive. How could that be? Perhaps because I am ridiculing that person who got nothing else out of the article. It reminds me of a juvenile that just found out the world works a slightly different way than they were told in kindergarten. There is simply a more obvious and more substantive discussion to be had about the above article, then incessantly searching for ads, you c…

Assuming everything is an ad is absurd; and resigning yourself to pessimism won't lead to better outcomes. It's important to know the incentives involved in the creation of a piece of information.

Fortunately, I used the word "many", deliberately.

It wasn't a defeatist attitude at all. That is the correct quantifier.

Re: The Legend of GayBlade

#99

Post by duncan_bayne »

xmars wrote: post #92

What about gay music? Gay ice cream?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gaytime

Given the intentional double entendre and commercial success - it's now a cultural icon - I'm going to optimistically interpret its existence in a positive light. I mean, I can't imagine this product existing in many (most?) countries at the time.

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