I see an annoying thing for a while now and I feel like I need to speak up. It regards the "gay" adjective I find in quite a few blogs, and more recently even in publications.

It seems the usage derailed in two directions.

The first one is as a replacement for disagreeable or disgusting, especially in teenagers' cool-talk. Using "gay" for this (while using "queer" for that would be somehow justifiable) is a sample of monumental bad taste. But this is only language-related and I hope it marks a temporary trend that will vanish completely soon (if it's not already passé): the kids will be cured.

The other use is consistent with its dictionary meaning, but it is nevertheless an even more disturbing phenomenon. I see more and more observations that a piece of advert copy "sounds gay," or a brand's tone of voice "is gay". Wow. What is this sudden fear? — I haven't seen this in the local advertising's list of idiosyncrasies until now. Things add up and become utterly surreal when the commentary is directed at a product targeted primarily at women (as I've seen it used the other day — and in a press release!), what the hell could that mean? Immaturity, prejudice, unprofessionalism, or just plain vanilla stupidity — perhaps. I am not saying this because such a comment was targeted at one of the brands I designed — I am pretty confident in both my heterosexuality and the accuracy of the proposed positioning — I'm saying it because it is disturbing to see such a display of distorted judgement and — again — monumental bad taste. This one will cure harder.

Guys, please sort out your sexual fears (or dilemmas) before purging them out in public this way. You're so uncool.