Tweet of the week goes to Amy Chatwin who said, 'I did it. Just binge-watched Cristen
Conger video's for an hour and a half. Time well and hilariously spent. #ladylaugh.' #patontheback.
This week on Stuff Mom Never Told You I answered one of your Ask Cristen questions about whether
straight guys prefer butts or boobs. Then I showed y'all vintage body products that
look like torture devices. On Friday I made 7 ways to not not get pregnant which I made
largely because I am concerned by the number of people who think that douching is an effective
form of birth control. Enough about douching and on to Ask Cristen. Thanks to everybody
who watched a commented on last week's Ask Cristen video, 'Why is pink for girls and
blue for boys?' In reading your comments I realized that I don't think I have a favorite
color. Does that mean I am part robot? I think Frankie Kaye knows what I'm talking about:
'When I was a kid, my favorite color was "Stripes!" because I thought it was unfair to the colors
to pick one favorite...I still think that way sometimes." I have a stronger preference
for polka dots than I do for a color. nowisgoodforme also had this to say: 'I think as you said
in the end it's a lot about cultural differences. When I lived in Southern Africa I got so much
flack for wanting to wear red traditional clothing because in their culture red is strictly
for boys while blue is appropriate for girls. Everytime someone tries to tell me our blue-pink
scheme comes from the hunting-gathering days, I tell them this story. A story as old as
time-no, that's a different story. Now to this week's question from susan blue wondering,
'why and when the term "gay" changed from meaning "happy/merry" to "homosexual"? Gay
people first adopted gay as a slang reference to themselves in the 1920s and 30s. You might
be wondering well why didn't they just call themselves homosexual. Homosexual hasn't always
been such a friendly term to gay people. Until 1973 homosexuality was listed in the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders aka the Psychiatrist's bible categorized as
a sociopathic personality disorder. Calling yourself gay probably a lot nicer feeling
than saying, 'Hi I'm Jerry and I'm attracted to men because I am a homosexual man oh also
I have a sociopathic personality disorder.' 'Hey Jerry.' That was Barry, Jerry's friend.
And that's kind of ironic considering that the first person to use the term homosexuality
was actually a nineteenth century Hungarian journalist who was writing in opposition to
Germany's anti-sodomy laws. Huh? The New York Times reported earlier this year that quote,
'The early gay rights movement was called the homophile movement because it's founders
explicitly rejected the word homosexual. They did not want to be identified as exclusively
sexual beings. Which makes sense when you consider that during that time they were reduced
down to their sexual orientation and by virtue of their sexual orientation considered deviant
and other and even to have a sociopathic personality disorder. The general use of the term homosexual
has largely fallen out of favor to the point that for instance the Associated Press restricts
its use, there are a lot of newspapers where you will not see the word homosexual used
unless it is explicitly in someone's quote. A lot of linguists today are thinking that
it will gradually fade from our common vocabulary and really become a linguistic relic of our
discriminatory and not so equal past. Now I'm curious to know from gay viewers in particular
what do you think about the term homosexual, do you think that it should be retired, does
it not bother you, do you think that it should be reclaimed in some kind of way and for other
people were you aware that homosexual might not be the friendliest term to use? You can
just use gay. It's not about language-policing, it's about language improving. Hmmm. Let me
know below and as always ask me your questions so I can give you some answers and maybe make
you mad because I'm making you think twice about what you oughta say. People don't like
that when you say 'don't use that word it's not a good word', people are like 'first amendment'
and you're like 'be a good person, you can still have freedom of speech'.