Talk:Videohead/@comment-26876932-20150918214204/@comment-5774809-20151214002301

Though I am not gay, I WAS called that word a lot in high school, which is why I used it here. W hen I wrote the original draft, I had my former Creative Writing teacher (who is gay) act as my LGBT consultant to see if  I could get away with using that word. He said it was fine  in context because 1.) only the story's established villain says it and 2.) it validates a motif that comes full-circle when the villain admits to masturbating to "girl-on-girl" porn, thus proving that he is not only homophobic but also a hypocrite.

THEN when Thought Catalog later published the story, their editor had me change it to "bitch" and I actually found his explanation pretty reasonable: Even though I was called it, me being straight meant that I would never know the true weight of that word. Plus, I probably shouldn't risk alienating my audience for the sake of something that wasn't absolutely necessary to the story. I've left it in this version for posterity but if anyone were to tell me it truly offended them, context or no, I'd take it out. THEN when Thought Catalog later published the story, their editor had me change it to "bitch" and I actually found his explanation pretty reasonable: Even though I was called it, me being straight meant that I would never know the true weight of that word being slung at me. Plus, I probably shouldn't risk alienating my audience for the sake of something that wasn't absolutely necessary to the story. I've left it in this version for posterity but if anyone were to tell me it truly offended them, context or no, I'd take it out.