More than a decade ago a Simpsons episode featuring John Waters centered on Homer’s fear that Bart was gay, or becoming gay, or catching gayness, or whatever mishmosh of ideas reverberate in that yellow head. In the story Waters voiced the owner of a little collectible shop, a man whom Marge (who knows from the outset that he is gay) takes an immediate liking to. Bart could hardly care less, but he thinks the guy is okay. When Homer eventually catches on to the fact that John "prefers the company of men"—a statement that Homer initially misinterprets—he forbids his family from having any further contact with this menace. Near the end of the episode, Homer has a conversation with the Waters character who refers to himself as queer. “And that’s another thing,” Homer says, filled with resentment. “That's our word for making fun of you!”
Which leads me, in roundabout way, to “wingnut.” Thirty years ago I taught high school with a man who used that word to describe any student who didn’t quite get it. It had nothing to do with behavior or intelligence; it simply meant there was something slightly askew that prevented the young man or woman from grasping the day-to-day workings of the universe. My friend wasn’t shy—he’d say it to their faces, and it became after a while a term of near-endearment. Out of respect I shunned the word. I figured, he thought it up; he owns it.
But now everything has changed. Somehow right wing has transmogrified into wingnut and the word is tossed around continuously. Worse, no longer does it refer to people who are slightly off the wall: now it clearly points to people who don’t even know where the wall is!
As epithets go, it’s no “tree-hugger” or “bleeding heart,” but I guess in the name-calling society in which we find ourselves situated, it serves the purpose. Still I want those former wingnuts to know that, though your academic work may not always have been up to par, you weren’t embarrassing yourselves every time you spoke. Only the new wingnuts do that.
