Vaingirls #61-65

#64 was inspired by a Great serial running at Fictionmania - check it out.

"Yes, We Have No Girl Wannabes!"	"The Volunteer"	"Involuntary Wife"	"The Softening of Jessie"
"Stella's Hope"

Was I the only one bothered by Jezzi's use of 'faggot' ("...you'll just look like a faggot clown.") in Vaingirls #61, "Yes, We Have No Girl Wannabes!"? In my opinion, it is the same as if Jezzi had used a racial slur, such as 'nigger', or a religious epithet, such as 'hymie', or any other term of disparagement, such as 'crip'.

faggot:

# fagot: offensive terms for an openly homosexual man
# ...a generally pejorative term for a gay or effeminate man.


Although there are a few in the gay community that have tried to reclaim or reappropriate 'faggot' (in the same way that 'nigger' is used by some in the African-American community), it definitely doesn't have anywhere near the level acceptance that 'queer' or 'dyke' does. Furthermore, the way that Jezzi used it places emphasis on the pejorative meaning of the word.

For a similar impact, try substituting any of the following for faggot: pickaninny, gook, wetback, cracker, kafir,
slant-eyes, kike, coon, retard, kraut, etc.

In my opinion, the wording of that text box would have been more effective if Jezzi had used 'circus clown', or just 'clown'.

Surely the point is that the little creep in the bottom left is intended to be placing a loathsome insult. He's supposed to be the bad guy, and I don't see how the cover would be more effective if he were made more polite or at least more mealy-mouthed.

In works of fiction, I am not afraid to see vicious words in the mouths of vile characters. It wouldn't offend me to hear a character in a film or novel use racist or anti-semitic terms if they were appropriate to the character and period (a KKK or Milice member for example). A film or novel that purported to show that racism or anti-semitism were good or desirable, on the other hand would offend me, but there is nothing in Jezzi's cover to make me believe she approves of the horrid little man.

It's not uncommon to see offensive terms used fairly explicitly to "label" unsympathetic characters, or to use changes in their use to symbolise changes in the attitude of characters. Rent a copy of "In The Heat Of The Night" and listen to Bill Gillespie for example.

Words are the servants of authors, not their masters.

I agree with AndiJF on this. It's an offensive word, no doubt, but I don't think it is unreasonable, considering the purpose.

These were very nicely done, Jezzi. Thanks for sharing:)

boo!

Fagot or Faggot: bundle : as a: a bundle of sticks b: a bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be shaped by rolling or hammering at high temperature.

It isn't bad all the time.

Mr. Ram

Faggot, as in "a generally pejorative term for a gay or effeminate man", as well as all the other slurs that I mentioned in my first post above are pretty repugnant, in my opinion, and so there has to be a very good reason to use them. I think that Jezzi's use fails that standard.

First of all, I found the use of the word in what is supposed to be a comic book cover extremely jarring. Except for some of the ugly stereotypes of German and Japanese soldiers in WW II comics, and some more stereotyping in the war comics during the Korean War, comics have generally not had slurs or stereotypes on their covers (except for things like the Chick Publications' Chick Track anti-Catholic screeds).

Second: Even the most biased or bigoted businessmen and their employees know enough to be generally circumspect about openly expressing slurs, although they might still use code words to indicate how they feel. They might say "clownish drag queen", but probably wouldn't say "faggot clown". I think it is highly unlikely that they would write it down in a way that might be traced back to them. So it also fails the verisimilitude test, IMHO.

The CHARACTER is using the term "faggot", not me. "Faggot" IS a slur, and the guy who is, unbeknownst to Steve /Stephanie, holding the sign in front of the Vaingirls booth intends it to be. In the Vaingirls Universe there are a lot of guys like me - guys who have a "glamour girl" inside and just need a little encouragement to let her out. What a guy like me does NOT want is to come out of a transformation salon looking like a stereotype of an effeminite male, a gay stereotype, what he may think of from his days in middle school as a "faggot". He wants to come out of the experience looking, at least to himself, as beautiful as "Stephanie." The great majority of crossdressers are not gay and if they have not had the opportunity to meet and interact with gays, they may still hold that middleschool view. That's what the guy with the sign's bosses are counting on. (They will, of course, disavow any connection with him if he is caught.) If the competition can get people to believe that Stephanie is a GG, then the implication is that Vaingirls is cheating because they can't really make a guy look good. Do I, the creator, condone the use of the term faggot? Certainly not. If I were to actually write the story, the guy would get his commupance for using it.