Now before you come after me over the thread title, please let me explain. When I was in elementary school, us boys had a game we called Smear the Queer. I don't know what we were thinking, nor did I think any of us really know what the "smear the queer" really meant in literal terms; we just thought it was an innocent name for a game where we beat each other up. Looking back, it's like: Holy shit! We actually called it that?! What were we thinking?! The rules of the game were to hold into a football and run around to avoid the other kids from taking it away from you, and we all tackle and jump the person with the football who we called the Queer. Whoever held onto the ball the longest period of time before the school bell rang, was the winner. No points, no end zones, no boundaries. Punching, kicking, and foul play wasn't allowed. Did anyone else play this? If so, did you have the same name for this game? Or something more appropriate.
yeah, we played smear the queer, but the version we played involved baseball bats, crowbars, brass knuckles and cruising Hollywood after the gay bars closed. just kidding...... seriously, I remember something like that from grade school called "smear the queer", but that was at least 20 years before you played it.....traditions, gotta luv 'em. I also fondly remember the Frito Bandito jingle; I love Frito corn chips I love them I do, I love Frito corn chips I'll steal them from you sung by a short, ludicrous stereotype cartoon of a Mexican bandit while we watched our Saturday morning cartoons. wish I still had my Frito Bandito eraser, that thing could be collectable and worth $$$$ today. also used to sing a little ditty in the sixties as a kid; Daniel Boone was a man a biiig man but the bear was bigger so he ran like ****** up a tree Don't remember how or where I learned that, but we sang it playing and stuff, no adult ever said anything about it that I recall. bunch of 6 year olds playing cowboys singing that little ditty....LOL damn civil rights movement ruined a lot of great and education children's traditions!!!
I remember this from the 60s. We weren't smart enough back then to even know what "queer" really meant. The fact is we don't talk like this anymore, certainly not like we did in the 60s. We in America have indeed matured and are moving beyond casual bigotry. Sure, it didn't happen overnight, but what does these days?
Games and rhyme,,,look at the comments at the bottom, funny! http://mentalfloss.com/article/55035/dark-origins-11-classic-nursery-rhymes
Yeah I remember learning the game and how it was played from the bigger kids. Then a couple years later inviting the littler kids to play Smear the Queer with us and showing them how it's played. Keeps the cycle going. I wonder if the school kids are still calling it Smear the Queer... Hmmm probably not in today's climate of zero tolerance policies at public schools.
Yes, but in the '60s didn't Queer have a different meaning? Queer used to mean odd or strange, just as Gay used to mean cheerful and glad. So was the game called Smear the Queer in a derogatory way against homosexuals back then? I played this game in the 90s. In a time when you'd have thought that casual bigotry in a children's rough-housing game title would have been eradicated. Clearly we all said, "Hey guys, lets play smear the queer," right in front of adults and teachers. They didn't seem to care about our choice of words.
Buncha queers jumpin' and rubbin' up all over one another. :biker: Tackle me, Tackle me! *exposes thigh*
I was just going to mention that. Queer did have a different meaning in the past. The equivalent to what you said: odd, strange, weird. I remember hearing that phrase before during middle school, but never really gave it any thought. The world was generally a lot less sensitive back then, it seems. Also more ignorant perhaps. As for the literal sense of the term, idk if it was meant as a derogatory statement or not. Be interesting to know.
I vaguely recall some boys bullying others with a game in middle and high school however I never watched. Typically i was long gone and or too high to know
Oh no, there were plenty of flamboyant homosexuals back then who had no problem calling each other queer. Paul Lind and Allen Sues come to mind. Yes, they were the butt of a lot of jokes, but they laughed all the way to the bank with it. I remember an interview Lind did, I want to say it was on Dick Cavett or another talk/variety show. One of the other guests, an older woman of some notoriety suggested that since Lind was single they would do him a favor and find him a nice girl to marry. Lind replied with something like "Where are you from, Mars?" the lady had no idea he was gay. So there were certainly some less informed folks back then.
all that may be true, but hatred of strangeness has always been retarded, what ever the context or excuses for doing so.
I was in school in the 80s I never heard it called smear the queen. It was always kill the man with the ball. There was a similar basketball game no rules except who could get the most baskets every man for themselves. It was called Gorilla ball.
Kill the dill with the pill British bulldog Bullrush I don't know what you horrible old foggies were thinking, but you darn well ought be ashamed of yourselves. :toetap05:
