Faggot = Feminine = Fatal?

The chapter Faggot=Loser from Ken Corbett's Boyhoods Rethinking Masculinity, discusses the word "faggot" and how it has is seen as an insult because it threatens men's mascuilinity. Men are often taught that "To be a man is to be big. To be a man is to win. Boys don't lose" (7), and Corbett highlights this point in this chapter. The word "faggot" when used as an insult can make one man feel "bigger" than the other. It is an insult, like any other, however, the connotation of this word specifically attacks a man's "manliness." It seems that the one doing the name calling takes away the masculinity of the other. In terms of common gender roles, men are supposed to be tough and strong, and being called a faggot takes away from that.

Rapper Eminem supports this idea by explaining that being called a faggot means "...taking away your manhood. You're a sissy" (5). The fact that this is how many men commonly see this word used only adds to the derogatory connotation associated with it. Even if men don't mean to be calling each other "gay" as in homosexual, the ideas that the word "faggot" is associated with tend to be qualities stereotypically seen in gay men, therefore this becomes a derogatory term. But are you not a man if you poses more feminine qualities? This brings up the idea yet again of gender in an anatomical sense, and in a mental sense. Should the term "faggot" really be seen as something negative? Why is it a bad thing to be a more feminine man? Men feel the need to protect themselves from being too "girly," but this really should not be viewed as something negative.