Verbal bullying is one of those timeless subjects that’s a hot topic some days and seemingly forgotten about the next.
With the sudden suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley, who went to my high school, I think it’s time to bring the topic back up.
Such a tragedy happening so close to home, at the school I graduated from only two short years ago, really catches my attention.
Today, I am a second-year university student studying, ironically enough, applied linguistics — a program which is founded on the premise that everything we say, and subsequently everything we don’t say, is a choice, whether intentional, subconscious or whatever.
We need to be more conscious about our word choices and the effects they have on everyone around us.
Phrases like “that’s gay,” “no homo” or even just words like “fag” and “dyke” have become so common place that they’ve replaced the words that originally relayed the same ideas — for instance, “that’s silly.” It’s ridiculous.
We have a crisis on our hands when people would rather commit suicide than deal with our ignorant remarks.
Our utterances are what alienate entire groups of people, whether that was our intention or not.
In fact, I hate calling the gay community a “group of people” because they are no different than the rest of us.
I’m a firm believer that we are our choices. By that I mean, we are the words we speak and the meanings carried through them. They’re what connect us to the rest of the world.
The intimacy of our language creates relationships that are productive, while the hatred in our language can destroy these relationships. But at the end of the day, the choice is ultimately ours. Remember that your words always carry implications.
Calling something “gay” carries a negative connotation, so whenever this word is used, regardless of context, it carries the negative meaning we’ve attached to it.
The significance of this has proven to be deadly, particularly in the case of Hubley.
I hope that you, dear reader, can look at the ideas that you — consciously or not — are suggesting through your word choices.
This problem is not unfixable, but it must be corrected.
Biting your tongue might hurt you for a second, but it could save someone else from hurting forever.
—Mario Pizzuto,
second-year linguistics
