Gay fairy

These are from a very useful Word Wizard debate on the question. Some gay men have reclaimed the word, but if it is being used to refer to someone by others and they don't seem gay fairy with the term it's likely being used with the historic and harmful context.

Thus by association the fairies in the plays came to mean the men who played the parts. In the words of the same Word Wizard forum quoted above:. The Radical Faerie exploration of the "gay spirit" is central, and that it is itself the source of spirituality, wisdom, and initiation.

The OED has this example from [actuallychecked]. First, in Elizabethan theatre men were expected to take on female and fairy roles in drag. This is not, on its own, particularly convincing but there are some other American sources from the same general period that do better and that ground the reference.

Since the ’s “fairy” or “faerie” has been used as a positive name for radical gay identity. Slang often starts as metaphor, which is contextual— one might stand on firmer ground by assuming the term originally held multiple connotations.

Fairies are historically linked with gender transgression and homoeroticism in the pagan cultures of Europe. The related term “faggot” is derived from fagus, the beech tree. It is something that a conclave of bishops might come up with for their sermons.

Could fairy have been extended from there to mean homosexual? It is interesting just how difficult it is to find slang like this in a puritanical age: the last three are all retrospective comments from a looser time.

Is calling queer people : Rewriting folk and fairy tales in a queer light is considered radical; however, there is nothing revolutionary about wanting representation in the stories we engage with

It may be a mistake to assume the term originated based on a single comparison. When scholars start to make these kinds of connections then some exactitude is needed. Coffee-clatches, where the members dress themselves with aprons, etc. Where does this idea come from and when did it gain currency?

Faeries represent the first spiritual movement to be both "gay centered and gay engendered", where gayness is central to the idea, rather than in addition to, or incidental to a pre-existing spiritual tradition.

Radical Faeries Wikipedia: The term fairy has been considered a reclaimed term since the s [1], however not all queer men choose to reclaim it

Colin A. An old friend of this blog, Leif writes, 16 Mar Why are gay men referred to as fairies? This coincides with gay fairy is known of the peculiar societies of inverts [homosexuals]. The primary one is, of course, a supernatural creature with or without wings.

It is not clear that fairies are barren and this seems a far too intellectual approach for what was clearly east coast slang. But somewhere down the list is a gay man. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. Well, it seems unlikely, though both were seen as sexually deviant at the time.

The outlandish, the anomalous and the curious from the last five thousand years. Just recently I heard a friend of mine tell how the use of fairy to refer to a gay male came from the time when men were typically used to play female parts in plays and the type of male who would take the part was more effeminate and often a homosexual.

Homosexual culture is not, by any means, a simple effort for men to become women: but in the eyes of nineteenth-century society this is what homosexuality was. Therefore… Well, it is a bit difficult to understand how the logic for this worked.

The entry shows that this sense of fairy was well-established by the interwar period in the English-speaking world. Fairy is generally considered a slur for gay men; particularly if they are considered stereotypically flamboyant or effeminate.

“Fairy” is a common term of homophobic abuse that gay men have reclaimed as a symbol of their magic powers. Bourke, a careful scholar, gives a note, but hopefully some more of the same will help others who come after.