I read Details magazine cover to cover while I was traveling over the break. The January edition profiled the top 50 most powerful people, ideas, and institutions of 2007. Can you guess which loaded word made the top 10?
9 // The Other F-word
Age: Forever young
If you take a look back, it appears that 2007 was the year of the F-word—but not the one you’re thinking of. America’s rent-a-quote harridan of hatred, Ann Coulter, used the word to slag presidential candidate John Edwards. Presidential candidate Bill Richardson used the Spanish version (maricón) to slam a guy on the Don Imus radio show. Controversy exploded after Isaiah Washington allegedly dropped the F-bomb on a fellow cast member of Grey’s Anatomy. It’s a word that anyone who ever spent time in an American school yard is familiar with: faggot. But some bullies grow up, get famous, and keep on using it. “I hate gay people,” blurted former basketball star Tim Hardaway. Tucker Carlson bragged about having given a dude who tried to tap toes with him in a men’s room a taste of his bow-tied brutality (“I . . . hit him against the stall with his head, actually”). Hmmm. The word faggot, it seems, is on the tips of a lot of men’s tongues. They can’t stop thinking about it. Without it they’d be lost, and that makes you wonder who really has the power.
The full list can be found here.
When a magazine for men (writ large) notices the import and significance of this word, are we encountering the potential for discourse or the all-too likely reconstitution of its power position? It's worth a thought. Apparently this word is more powerful than the Iraq war veterans who are currently speaking out against the war. Accuse them of being faggots, and their credibility goes out the window.
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