Woman asks people why they say ‘that’s so gay’ (VIDEO)
A woman has set out to find out why people refer to bad things as ‘being gay’ in a new video.
The documentary, titled ‘The Gay Word’, follows filmmaker Amy Ashenden as she tours south east England asking members of the public why they use the term ‘gay’ in a negative way.
Ms Ashenden produced and directed the film, and also relied on her student overdraft to finance the film.
Talking to The Guardian the filmmaker explained “I decided to make a documentary exploring how this piece of language had evolved, and speak to people both gay and straight to see how they felt about the word taking on a negative meaning.”
She immediately found that the issue was very divisive, as she went on to explain:
“Some gay people I spoke to were content with the word evolving, while there were straight people who were outraged.”
“Younger people, whom we might have expected to have more awareness of what it means to identify as gay because of media coverage, were often the demographic defending the negative use of this word.”
In the film she also talks to a group of straight students about how they use the term, academics about the history of the word and various gay rights activists and campaigners.
Watch the full documentary here.
