Since When Did #BeefwithRice become #BeefwithMitcham? | People, Celebrities, Actors & Profiles O
I think a lot of what Chris says above is a great litmus test for scenarios like this. Whenever we have otherwise nice people throwing about words they seem unaware people could misconstrue, the audience has to stop and think about the context and intent. Sure, in this case we have a girl who might have gay friends, and might overall not be homophobic.
We also have a girl who by way of a "burn" threw out the word "faggots" to the opposing team. Easiest and most effective way to impugn the character of a male in a patriarchal society? Draw his masculinity into question. By doing this its either suggest he's a woman, or suggest he's gay. Its part of the way we rank importance by gender, and its embedded in our culture overall.
That said, its entirely possible to do that- to use homophobic or heterosexist thinking "in the heat of the moment" and NOT be an awful person. Plenty of good people are homophobic and sexist as our culture is homophobic and sexist. Its impossible not to internalize a bit of it from time to time. And its often incredibly important to THINK about the implications of what you say before you say it. Actions and words have consequences.
But on the same line of thought, I've had people I know directly "in the heat of the moment" try to explain to me the difference between "N*****s and black people". Suffice it to say they're not friends anyomre. Stigmatized language isn't some harmless exchange that happens in a vacuum. It indicates who we value in society and who we hold in disdain. She may have meant "Suck on that sports team X" and perhaps it would have been WAY smarter just to have said that. People get into hot water when they display their oblivious biases, and this is just another example of that.
Since When Did #BeefwithRice become #BeefwithMitcham? | People, Celebrities, Actors & Profiles Of Gay & Bisexual Men In Movies, TV Shows & Music | AfterElton.com