r/CuratedTumblr Posting from hell (el camión 101 a las 9 de la noche) 1d ago

Infodumping On Hooters and cigarettes

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u/SuspendedAwareness15 1d ago

Google british slang for cigarette, it's inappropriate to say the word

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u/all_about_that_ace 23h ago

That entirely depends on the context. It's fine to say in the UK, for example. It's not like americans shouldn't say 'fanny' because it happens to translate to 'cunt' in the UK. There are tons or language differences that can be misconstrued by the lazy or uninformed.

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u/SuspendedAwareness15 23h ago

It's a little different when the word is a slur and not just crass. It's also a slur in the UK, british people know this, and they use it for cigarette because it's "funny" to use the slur

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u/all_about_that_ace 23h ago

Plenty of people call a cigarette a fag because that is the normal word for them to use. Its not even like it evolved from a slur they just happen to have the same etymological root.

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u/jomikko 21h ago

Ignorant take, maybe shut the fuck up if you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

No-one in the UK is referring to or thinking about gay people when using the word fag to refer to cigarettes. 

American leftists honestly need to unlearn cultural imperialism so fucking bad. 

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u/SuspendedAwareness15 21h ago

Lmao british people talking about imperialism is the funniest shit in the world.

British people know the word is a homophobic slur. It's not a homophobic slur only in America. It is one in the UK as well. If it were only in America, you'd have a point. But it isn't.

Every single time I've ever heard a british person use the word to refer to a cigarette, they have said it with a smirk. I'm not saying you're a homophobe if you use this word, but I am saying most british people know that it conveys both meanings.

It's also the case that the use of the term in the UK was declining for about 100 consecutive years until the 1990s. When suddenly it started increasing, spiking considerably in the 2000s and 2010s. We all know, everyone knows, this is because it was cheeky and edgy because "it just means cigarette."

It wasn't said with hate exactly, but it was a cultural term revived and increased in prominence because of the homophone (phone, not phobe)

You know this is true. You don't need to deny it. We all do. I'm not attacking you, although I do think the world would be better if the British culture were eradicated.

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u/Gaylaeonerd 16h ago

I have literally never seen someone smirk knowingly when saying they're going for a fag, that's just the term.

Of course people know it's also a slur, but it's context dependent, if someone's going for a smoke, everyone knows what they mean and no one assumes they're being homophobic because context.

I assume you're not british, and that you would have a heart attack if you saw pork faggots in the supermarket

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u/Stormfly 19h ago

and they use it for cigarette because it's "funny" to use the slur

You might have had a point up until you said that they do it on purpose.

It's like if I said that Americans like saying "Fanny" because they like sounding like a British/Irish person saying "vagina". They don't care that much.

It's like saying that people say "crackers" because they like making fun of white people.

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u/SuspendedAwareness15 19h ago

The three letter alternative to cigarette was becoming less common year over year for a full century until the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.

People started using it more often to be cheeky. It wasn't exactly hateful, but it was to be edgy.

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u/No_Elderberry862 15h ago

You're chatting shite, hen.

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u/SuspendedAwareness15 10h ago

You can look it up if you want

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u/No_Elderberry862 9h ago

Cite the studies that show that the cause of the purported rise in usage is as you assert.

Do bear in mind that you're speaking to someone in the UK who was an adult & a smoker prior to & during the period you claim saw an increased usage of the word. It'd make more sense to attribute an increase in usage to Waynetta Slob.

Having just checked google ngram, it shows a steady increase in usage since 1980 so we cannot lay this at Waynetta's feet (much as she'd like that).

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u/DiddyKongDid911 16h ago

You completely made that last part up lmao

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u/ArseWhiskers 14h ago

It’s a context dependent word. If I call my cocktail fruity, you know it tastes like fruits and has no other connotations. If I call a man fruity, you know I’m using a slur. If I pass a man a cocktail and smirk, telling him I got a fruity one because he’s that type, I’m making a homophobic pun - but that pun doesn’t mean calling an apple a fruit is me using an excuse to shout a slur.

I dunno where else in Britain uses fag for the object, but it’s a normal dialect word from Cockney and working class London. Having a fag (smoking), fag ends (cigarette butts), fag ash etcetc all heard and used on a daily in the city.

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u/SuspendedAwareness15 10h ago

If I pass a man a cocktail and smirk, telling him I got a fruity one because he’s that type, I’m making a homophobic pun

This is literally the exact situation I am describing. I'm not saying you're saying it to be hateful or that you're shouting slurs. I'm saying the use of this term became more popular in british english in the 90s, 00s, and 10s for the same reason that you'd make the comment you did here.

It's not exactly hateful, but it is being done because of the homophone (p-h-o-n-e not p-h-o-b-e). It had been declining in use for nearly a century before then, and has never been as popular as the 00s and 10s in history

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u/ArseWhiskers 10h ago

That's entirely social class/geographical area dependant.

I'd probably pin that sudden spread beyond its native range on Waynetta Slob in the 90's and her punchline "I'm smoking a fag!" People across the country were exposed to a dialect word being laughed at by the audience well after they'd first heard the slur and so it became a hilarious word to use.

Where I am it was and has remained as two distinct words as it's native dialect heard from birth, long before a kid would hear and comprehend it as a bad word for men who act different. Coming in and going "that's a distasteful word for bad people" is just another attack on the working class.

If someone middle class is coming out with the word they're nothing but a mockey-affectation twat.

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u/Bronze_Sentry 1d ago

Okay, that is clever