Lesbian vs. A Lesbian.

[ClaudiaWankleman]

I just caught myself using the words ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ differently.

Usage being ‘he is gay, and she is a lesbian’. Ie adjective versus noun.

I wouldn’t ever say ‘he is a gay’, as it sounds wrong and slightly offensive.

Should I be making the effort to use lesbian as an adjective too? My thoughts are that 1) the act of using the two words differently is in itself unequal (especially as they are really just gendered terms for homosexual), and 2) lesbian is just one facet of a person and the adjective form seems to encompass this better than the noun.

On the other hand, lesbian women may see being lesbian as a prominent and important part of their identity and therefore not mind?

Am I overthinking this? Is my use of language sub optimal here?

Maybe it is for linguists, but not for the average bear.

Women and female - I would put the emphasis on the first syllable. And the 'men' part of 'women' is pronounced more like 'min'
Lay dee - no mention of a lad.
lesbee -an - no mention of bye sexuals or male inclusion

If you are not trolling, then your posts are ridiculous.

*The thought system which creates patriarchy creates our words also. Using the holograohic concept, that distorting and deviance would be evidence in all systems including the creation of words.

The word Therapist contains The rapist for example*

What bollocks.
New Latin therapia, from Greek therapeia, from therapeuein, to treat medically.

'Female' as an English word is from the old French word 'femelle' which itself came from the latin 'femella'.
'Male' comes from old french masle, latin masculus.
Completely different root words.
But people's minds like to make connections - even if they're not there.

so 'melle' ending becoming 'male' is essentially the same as when we imported those nice new naranjas from Spain, angicised them to a norange and then misheard - because of their colour - and assumed they must be an orange

Seems like chillz just has a problem with all words about women.

I would add to this that we should also drop the word 'hamster' because our brains snag on the 'ham' part and rodents are not traditionally made of cured pig meats.

Hamsters have hams though. You could cure them.

I’m fine with either tbh although interesting point. I absolutely despise being called a gay woman. I used it as a bit of a comfort blanket when I was coming out because I was still struggling with the idea of being (a) lesbian, but now I defend my lesbianity fiercely.

My df is rather behind the times, so if he called you a gay women what he would still mean fun, happy, cheerful, carefree...

There is no 'bi' in Lesbian. The word means inhabitant of Lesvos, not Lesbos. There is no letter b in Greek.

They are all technically fine.

He's gay; she's lesbian.

He's a gay; she's a lesbian.

"A gay" is just less common, but my gay friends do use it.

Anyone I have heard use the term "a gay" was rural and usually older. It wasn't pejorative, just folksy.