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Out of closet? | ||
Tags: Homosexuality | Meaning of words | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5373 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 25 of 27 22 December 2013 at 3:43pm | IP Logged |
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Tarvos makes a great point because whether or not a phrase like this is offensive totally depends on whether or not the listener percieves the speaker as being unable to "understand" or some other inability to "get it" from the perspective of the listener. That is really the issue.
In terms of the actual words involved there is not anything offensive about them. What matters is if the listener will perceive you as not having the ability to "understand." Someone who had heterosexual relationships in college and then homosexual relationships later could certainly refer to his "heterosexual lifestyle" in college without offending anyone because they are perceived by everyone to have the ability to "understand". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 26 of 27 22 December 2013 at 4:45pm | IP Logged |
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Hm, but is it correct to say that a bisexual person has had heterosexual and homosexual relationships? I mean technically this appears to make sense, but the meanings/definitions might have actually shifted as homosexuality is no longer considered something you *do*?
Also, "heterosexual lifestyle" doesn't sound (quite as) offensive because the stereotypes are not negative: being in long-term relationships, eventually getting married and having children... But it's still a stereotype, and one that creates pressure for heterosexual people. And IMO "I had a heterosexual lifestyle in college" implies that one used to be straight and became gay, and it's really not how it works. afaiu gay people are more likely to speak about trying to get involved with the opposite gender or passing as straight, but not really about being straight in the past prior to coming out. And at least to me lifestyle sounds like something you choose and something you change if you no longer like it, or *could* choose/change if you had more money etc. That's very different from deciding to be open about your sexual orientation. Edited by Serpent on 22 December 2013 at 5:03pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4251 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 27 of 27 23 December 2013 at 1:29pm | IP Logged |
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I consulted few people about this and apparently they are likely to find it offensive and/or belittling. So my advice is that if you want to avoid hurting someone's feelings you would steer away from calling it a "lifestyle".
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