Are you often aware of what comes out of your mouth when you speak? What you say, how you are saying it, and how the person you are talking to might respond? Well, if you aren’t, then maybe you should be. Every day for almost as long as I can remember being around older kids, I usually hear characteristic words being used to mean something bad. Whenever something doesn’t work out, or things appear to be senseless, there’s usually someone who says, “That’s gay,” when they say that, do you think they realize what that could actually mean?

The word “gay” originates from the twelfth century with its original meaning being joyful and carefree. However, by the seventeenth century, it meant of “loose or immoral life.” Towards the nineteenth century it started to refer to men who slept with many women, or hustler/tramp. It wasn’t until the 1920s that it started to be used to refer to those persons who are of same-sex sexuality. The word retarded came from circa 1489 and meant to hinder, or keep back. By 1704 it meant slowing or diminishing, in 1922, it meant to prevent or delay, and currently it is used to describe those who are slow at processing mentally. Even the word ghetto, which first came from the holocaust to describe the Jewish slums that people were forced to live in, now refers to a city where the group or race there is poor. All these words have changed over the course of history, but today they’re commonly used inappropriately to their real meaning.

To get a deeper look at how kids in our school notice language, I performed a survey for eighth and ninth graders. I asked how often they hear characteristic words being used degrade something, what words they think are used the most, and if they do it themselves. In addition, I asked how often they use the words, and if they know someone who can be described with these words using the real meaning. In the ninth grade survey I found that twelve people hear characteristic words in a negative way every day, eight hear it several times a week, one only a few times a month, and two rarely. The most commonly used word voted upon was “gay” followed by “retarded”. Eighteen of twenty-three students used these terms themselves, most a few times a week. And eighteen also knew people who actually have those characteristics. The eighth grade numbers were much higher due to greater student numbers. Twenty-one of thirty-three eighth grade students heard such qualities used in derogatory ways. They most commonly heard words were “gay, retarded,” and “retard”. Granting, the eighth grade class showed much more diversity in the words they heard. More votes were cast upon the words “ghetto, anorexic, mental,” and “other” than for the ninth grade class. Twenty-five students used the words too, a few times a week, twenty-five also knew someone with those traits. In two grades alone, these are the results. So what does this show us? It proves how much these words are used for purposes that are incorrect. Could you imagine what the results would be like if we did this survey on the whole school? Or even a more detailed survey?

I understand that many people don’t see why this is at all important. Maybe you believe that these words don’t have much affect on someone’s self-esteem and emotions. That is okay, maybe you haven’t seen anyone care enough to tell you that it’s not okay. Though, I am someone who runs into genuine LGBTs all the time, and I know that for them it’s hard to hear words that describe them being used as words to make fun of something. It’s not even just them either, there’s many groups of people that might get mad. There might even be LGBTs out there who don’t care if you use those words in that way, so you might not have ever been confronted. So in a way maybe your environment has an affect on your opinion.

If you say something about someone’s lifestyle, or appearance using some of the words already described, you don’t have any control over how any person might act. Maybe they don’t care how you use those particular words, or maybe they very much do mind. You can make someone extremely mad, and things can go all out of control. You also may make fun of someone in particular using the words “gay” or “retarded”, this can hurt someone really bad, which is where you are becoming a bully. Tied in to suicide prevention, you may be hurting someone so badly emotionally that they can decide to harm themselves or others. That is an extreme repercussion, but it is very much still possible. In today’s society, there have been countless cases were bullying is the source of the tragedy, so along with being mindful of your words, also speak with kindness.

It is only fair that more organizations look for even more topics to bring awareness about. Most commonly, I have seen more suicide prevention, leadership, and building school climate awareness presentations than anything else. But what about language? Doesn’t a topic like this one deserve more acknowledgement? In some colleges and high schools around the country, there have been banned words lists. These are designed to stop the use of words that could trigger someone to feel offended because of their beliefs. So how, and why are we still letting “gay”, “ghetto”, “anorexic”, or “f**” be used to mean stupid and other things?

We need to start by spreading the awareness of the words we use on a day to day basis, along with being able to understand why it’s wrong. If you were gay, or had a disorder that made you learn slower, would you be okay if someone referred to something ugly or stupid as something “gay” or “retarded”? No you wouldn’t, because they would simply be implying that what you are, is something low and worthless. If anyone out there cares enough, then start bringing it up in school board meetings, to your student council, heck, if you are so passionate about it, start an organization. Bring this issue somewhere. It is one of those topics that can’t ever be fully fixed because of opinion, but it’s worth a try. No one thinks the same, so there isn’t really much of a chance that all 100% of this country will agree with this, and that’s okay. What’s most important over all is being respectful of people by being more aware of the words we say and how we use them. It’s good to at least know what it means to be using terms like these to be degrading something. To have the slightest amount of awareness out there can spark a change, it might not eliminate the whole situation all together, but it is still something we can make less common.