Originally Posted by queerpunk
i don't think it's distanced from stigmatizing *****exuality, so much as it applies the apparent stigma of *****exuality to anything that fails to appropriately exhibit and exert socially sanctioned dominant masculinity.
aye. i think that the sting of being called a "***" is indeed supposed to originate from the supposition that *****exuality is bad, but i think that its use has become so normalized that many users of the term skip the cognitive association that "***" means *****exual (so like, **** are *****exual, *****exual is bad, so **** are bad) and instead just have the brute association of the term "***" with things that are not good. evidence of this is that people often employ the term in situations that have nothing to do with masculinity or *****exuality. the other day, i heard someone talking about how their friend was failing his math class, and some other guy said, "god, what a ****ing ***. how in the hell do you fail that class?" in any case, i concede your point to a large degree.