Teacher doesn’t give you the grade you deserve? That’s so sorority girl who pays for her friends. Someone takes your favorite parking spot? That’s so track athlete that is too uncoordinated for any other sport. Someone is wearing the same shirt as you? That’s so music major that has no life or friends outside of the Conservatory.
Stereotypes and derogatory phrases are a part of ordinary speech in the lives of college students. While they are offensive to some, many people don’t think twiceabout using them.
One such phrase is more prevalent than others. The disparaging use of the word ‘gay’ and its counterparts do not only offend homosexual members of Capital’s community, but have also hurt them.
Capital’s PRIDE organization promotes tolerance and acceptance regardless of what a person’s perceived or actual sexual orientation is. Members of PRIDE have been working on the “That’s So Gay” campaign to raise awareness of the harm caused by using the word.
President Justin Poole has been working on the campaign since last spring, conducting research on the amount of Capital students who use the phrases.
“Homophobia is an issue that is rarely touched upon and subtle terms like ‘That’s so gay’, ‘You’re so gay’ and ‘No homo’ are used to equate something with being dumb or stupid,” said Poole, “That creates an environment where someone hears those phrases and they think ‘Oh, it’s not cool to be gay,’ so people who are gay get harassed and persecuted.”
The mission behind the “That’s So Gay” campaign is a simple one: it takes a situation and relates it to someone else to portray the effect hurtful language can have.
One part of the campaign is a series of posters that will be released every few weeks. These posters include cliché stereotypes about certain groups and people on campus, including a phrase and picture immediately followed by the phrase ‘You think that’s mean? How do you think ‘That’s so gay’ sounds? Hurtful. So knock it off.’
“We’re trying to make it hit home with the people who are using those phrases because they don’t know what they are saying,” Poole said.
Various Capital students and organizations have gotten on board with the campaign to help spread awareness around campus.
A senior member of Pi Phi Epsilon sorority, Taylor Clark, makes an appearance on one of the many posters as a representative for the Inter-Sorority
Council. As a group, the ISC decided to use the phrase “That’s so sorority girl who pays for all her friends” because it is a common stereotype often associated with sorority life at many college campuses all over.
“[We] decided to become involved with this campaign, because we offer our greatest support to any organization on this campus trying to promote acceptance and tolerance of all students,” said Clark. “We are so proud of the PRIDE organization for standing up for what they believe in and asking us to take part in making a statement on this campus to end the hatred.”
The campaign is projected to last until the end of this year, where a survey will be taken to see if the number of people still using the derogatory phrases has lowered.
While there many hope that the campaign will be successful in its mission, there are still some reasonable doubts present.
“I think it’s a good campaign in my opinion, but I also know that it’s very hard for people to try to change words that they constantly say so unless they are really monitoring. It might not work,” said freshman Quentin Cowell. “Regardless, I think that it will definitely get people thinking about what they say and how they use hurtful words.”
