'Dude, You're a Fag' : Higher Ed

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/06/28/pascoe

June 28, 2007
By C.J. Pascoe
Author of Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, 2007. ISBN: 9780520252301

use the term fag and not gay, advisedly. Boys at River High repeatedly differentiated fags from gay men. For these boys gay men could still be masculine, whereas a fag could never be masculine. Thus the term “gay” functioned as a generic insult meaning “stupid” or “lame” whereas “fag” invoked a very specific gendered slur, directed at other boys. For these boys a fag was a failed, feminine man who, in all likelihood, was also gay.