Or that he doesn't want women to think he's gay. Which could be a valid concern having nothing to do with any animus toward gays.
That is definitely not the reason he said it. It was a joke and he thought it would be funny. He didn't say it because he actually thought that women would think he is gay, and that is not the reason the phrase is used by other men. Being called gay, as it stands now, is an attack on the manhood of guys. If this wasn't the case, "no homo" wouldn't exist. I guarantee that if I went outside and started calling a bunch of guys gay for no reason incessantly, I would get into dozens of fistfights. On the otherhand, if I were to just call a bunch of guys ugly in the same way, I would just be shrugged off. "no homo" is a joke, but it has origins in homophobia at its core. People saying it now such as Hibbert aren't inherently homophobic though.
Like you said, "queer" was once accepted, but if a player called Jason Collins that now they would be fined. "Mentally r****ded" was once a medical term but changed through decades to be a pejorative. Any time someone does something wrong, they're called a r****d. At this point, I wouldn't ask a parent whose child had a disability whether their child was r****ded, a term I could use freely as a younger man. No homo is just an innocent joke by Hibbert. He meant nothing, but this is a politically charged time for gay rights. They've been historically ostracized and have only recently broken through to mainstream acceptance. Any joke that implies it's not okay to be gay is going to be targeted. The NBA released commercials this year targeting anti-gay language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7EOG8z_e0 Hibbert knows this and apologized, so that really should be the end of the story.
No its not Its a "Everyone is trying to force in THEIR concept of what MASCULINITY is and 'should be' doing, except actual straight males. And straight males are having a hard time being expressive about emotional issues and transitioning over, but no one gives a sh** cuz they've 'had it coming' " thing. This is a GREAT time for all the progressives to get their say in. Society is hamstrung, and its what its about. Gays should actually be laughing at how dumb the guys are about it and their limited concept of identity. (Or at least thats my view of how it should be, but first things first)
Yes, total freedom of speech now is considered having NO impunity from being a self fulfilling raging *******. The heralded founding forefathers where VERY AHEAD of their time. But I don't think they quite had concepts of "douchebag" in mind when creating freedom of speech amendment. (Still, "freedom of speech" as a rule is still better than limited censored speech) And right. You can argue if defining "hate speech" is actually contradictory to "freedom of speech". But even the most hardcore zealots of freedom of speech knows everyone has rights to DEFEND themselves and ATTACK VICIOUSLY on hearing pure hate speech and intentionally incendiary words (Which I think these Hibbert comments...just was NOT)
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zBLrSz0oNvs" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe> .....
I'm surprised at all the flak this is getting, imo ridiculous. When I do gaming, I get this message a lot when we win a clan war, "I love you- no homo," or when I show up in a match. It is a slang more than an offensive word. What is more offensive is if Hibbert called Lebron, "he's my beech."
My gay friends use "that's gay" all the time to signify that something is stupid. Oh well. I wonder what would happen if an openly gay athlete uses the term "no homo" in a press conference. Would the universe implode? I would say so, yes.
I think this part is right and everything else is reading way too much into it. The joke is applying a double-entendre to an innocent, nonsexual thing he said: 'Lebron really stretched me out.' He doesn't have a fear of being thought of as homosexual; if anything it is the opposite because he's bringing to everyone's attention the homosexual interpretation that can be applied to the nonsexual thing he just said. He conjures a pretty graphic image of him and Lebron with 2 little words. If he said nothing, no one notices any sexual content at all, no one thinks he's gay, and no joke is achieved. There is no homophobia here or insecurity or secret homosexual desires -- just a sophomoric double-entendre involving him being on the receiving end for Lebron. Regardless, of course it's wholly inappropriate for the NBA's public relations. Someone mentioning Lebron stretching him out in a sexual context (even if it were a woman instead) is not what they want out there.
People can watch guys fist fighting on ice but get offended by a guy who's just said the equivalent of "that's what she said"?
Obligatory.... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F0yFyW7Ysps" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> So when this song came out, no one criticized Andy Samberg, so why all the hate now smh
