this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2025
344 points (98.6% liked)
tumblr
5525 readers
2 users here now
Welcome to /c/tumblr, a place for all your tumblr screenshots and news.
Our Rules:
-
Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.
-
Must be tumblr related. This one is kind of a given.
-
Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
-
No unnecessary negativity. Just because you don't like a thing doesn't mean that you need to spend the entire comment section complaining about said thing. Just downvote and move on.
Sister Communities:
-
/c/TenForward@lemmy.world - Star Trek chat, memes and shitposts
-
/c/Memes@lemmy.world - General memes
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Learn a little history.
Vonnegut came out of a time when having a gay kid was one of the worst things a parent could imagine. "I'd rather have a daughter who was a whore than a son who was gay" was a common expression.
He could have just as easily wrote 'bank robber' but saying 'gay' made the line much edgier.
Go figure the context is important
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's really funny when you read books from back in the day when 'gay' meant 'rowdy.'
"The cowboys rode into town, got drunk and got gay with the citizens."
That line can have two wildly different meanings.
I always thought that Barney walked a little funny...
Brokeback Mountain was just about two rough and rowdy cowpokes. Nothing to see here
I am well aware of said history. That's why I wrote what I wrote
I think it's much, much more likely that a closeted gay man of the time would studiously avoid all mentions of homosexuality in any context.