Why is this phrase blocked?!
There was a REALLY toxic fuse on my team, I got called the f word (the slur, not the swear) I replied with “Why do u hate gays??” And it came out as “why do you hate ******” gay is not a swear word,...
Forum Discussion
It wasn't me. For the obvious reason.
Sadly, that word remains a swear, particularly among the under 20s where it has made a comeback. Social media puts pressure on under 20s males to be uber masculine, and that word is seen as anti-masculine, which is ridiculous (speaking as a 6ft, 200lb muscular hairy bloke).
Life though is far too short to allow toxic people into your headspace. Don't engage - just ignore and block if necessary. Toxic people are just unhappy, and they leech happiness from non toxic people. If you don't engage, they're easier to forget.
@EdwardDLuffy @PeterN_UK
I appreciate the responses 🙂 they have great advice, and speak truths, but unfortunately that was not quite my point. They’ve blocked the word gay. I’m not a fan of them doing so, last I checked they haven’t blocked straight, or any of the others. All words can be used to belittle and marginalize, but we don’t block them all, becase without more words around it, they mean nothing bad. Only words that are bad in and out of a sentence should be banned, but gay is not one of those.
Forgiveness of course, but never forget.
I appreciate the responses 🙂 they have great advice, and speak truths, but unfortunately that was not quite my point. They’ve blocked the word gay. I’m not a fan of them doing so, last I checked they haven’t blocked straight, or any of the others. All words can be used to belittle and marginalize, but we don’t block them all, becase without more words around it, they mean nothing bad. Only words that are bad in and out of a sentence should be banned, but gay is not one of those.
Forgiveness of course, but never forget.
- @BigMacAttack8u Gay is used as an insult and straight isn’t.
Don’t really see how you could insult someone with beeing straight. On the other hand you can offend many people with calling them gay. Plus we have people that use gay as an insult…
Just how it is- @matzesingt Being gay is not an insult, and should not be taken as one unless you are accused of it in a country where you could die for it.
- @BigMacAttack8u While I agree that it isn’t, that doesn’t solve that others take and use it as an insult
- @BigMacAttack8u I understand what you are saying. Words have various meanings from culture to culture. Bloody and Randy are considered as "bad language" in the UK. English has it's roots in the German language and to use bird as a verb is like dropping the F - bomb and never ask for your "morning latte" unless you are in Starbucks.
Ages ago, my wife and I was called into the school about my youngest son's rude offensive behavior. My wife and I sat through a lecture from his teacher telling us he said "Hell" in class. My wife calmly asked what context he used the word. The teacher replied, "Why does that matter?".
She explained, Hell is all too often a real place on the maps. You can go to Hell, Michigan for example. Then there is the Dante's Inferno or the Biblical Hell. She continued to educate the teacher on language and I remember sitting very quiet listening while my eyes started tearing up from holding back the laughter.
Later that day my wife politely asked our son to refrain from telling people to go to Hell at school. Of course she continued to cuss like a sailor around the house. I really do miss that woman.
"Words, words, words.", replies Hamlet. 
EA_PythiaCommunity Manager
Hi @BigMacAttack8u,
while I wasn't aware that the word "gay" is banned, it does make sense to me - sadly it's about the people using it and the context it is used in, which is the problem, not the word itself. In my friend group, as example, we use the word gay to describe each other, as we are indeed all queer, but when someone yells it across the street on a night out, it's sadly generally speaking not used in the positive sense.
In an online game, where you get randomly matched with people from all kinds of demographics, the chance that the word gay is being used to insult someone is far more likely than not. And I don't know about you, but being called a word that you identify as, but which is used in a way meant to hurt you, is not a good feeling.
Banning a word is not necessarily meant to marginalize it, it's actually meant to keep it from being misused and reappropriated back into a negative connotation.
About the player that called you the f-slur though - if you remember their details, please report them, as that kind of behaviour falls under EA's no tolerance policy and will get them banned.
- Pythia
- @EA_Pythia Thank you for your response and your insight. Unfortunately the offender communicated the hate over voice chat, which isn’t usually isn’t detected by the system, and I am unable to record voice chat audio on Xbox, I’ll be turning speech to text on in the future. Unfortunately the offenders usually skip past gay, and go straight for the big one. I have been called unfavorable things, but the f-slur seems to be the most common, especially in arenas and modes like control and gun run. I’ve even usually preformed better than them in the match, which I do like to point out when that happens 🙂
Best wishes to all that responded to this thread, thank you for your support, insight and for sharing a little about yourself, I know it can take a lot to do that.
