Comparative Study of Gay and Lesbian Aestheti...

Comparative Study of Gay and Lesbian Aesthetics in Postmodern British and Indian English Fiction

Author Name : Mohd Abas Parrey

Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual . The term was originally used to mean “Carefree” ,”Cheerful” or “Bright and Showy”.

The terms use as a reference to homosexuality may date as early as the late 19^th century but its use gradually increased in the mid-20^th century . In modern English, gay has come to be used as an adjective and as a noun, referring to the community, practices and  cultures associated with homosexuality . In the 1960s, gay became the word favoured by homosexual men to describe their sexual orientation. By the end of the 20^th century,the word gay was recommended by major gay and lesbian groups to describe people attracted to the members of the same sex.

At about the same time, a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. Among younger speakers, the world has a meaning ranging from derision  to a light-hearted mockery or ridicule (e.g. equivalent to weak, unmanly or lane). In this use, the word rarely mean “homosexual” as it is often used, for example, to refer to an inanimate object or abstract concept of which one disapproves . The extent to which these usage still retain connotations of homosexuality has been debated and harshly criticized.

The word may have stated to acquire associations of immorality as early as the 14^th century. But had certainly acquired them by the 17^th. By the late 17^th century, It had acquired the specific meaning of “addicted to pleasures and dissipations.” An extension of its primary meaning of carefree implying uninhabited by moral constraints. A gay women was a prostitute , a gay man a womanizer, and a gay house a brothel. The use of gay to mean “homosexual” was often an entension of its application to prostitution.A gay boy was a young man or boy serving male clients.