May 21, 2009
The Brief Etymology of a Gay Bash
I went to library school because I am what some people call “intellectually restless” – constantly moving from one interest to the next. Honest people call this phenomenon by other names, such as “uncommitted,” “easily distracted” or “lazy,” but I prefer the more aristocratic “intellectually restless.” In any case, given my training and varied interests, I will occasionally pose imaginary questions on this site to give myself micro-research and reference problems. Please feel free to submit a real question and I’ll do my best to answer, and provide citations to any relevant digital sources (sorry, I will not read or find books in your library).
The inaugural Jefferson’s Newspaper Reference question was submitted by the curious 13 year old Latino boy that lives in my subconscious. His name is Martin. Martin asks, “What’s the deal with the word maricón? Why does it mean gay?”
Martin, let me tell you right now, I will be using Wiktionary. Deal with it.
Maricón is derived from marica, the Spanish language word for magpie – an Australian bird. The base of the word is Maria or Mary (the English word magpie is derived from another variation of Mary, Margaret), with the addition of the suffix -ica, which is diminutive and often derogotory. In other words, maricón translates into both “littly Mary” and “little bird.”
If you’re into gay bashing and/or Spanish language insults, this may come as no surprise. Mary is another slang word used to describe gay men — most often used by gay men. Gay men are also often referred to in terms that suggest aviation — fairy, for example, or another Spanish language word, pajarito, which has a couple connotations. Pajarito is a diminutive form of pájaro, meaning bird or sometimes parrot. In Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela, pájaro also means penis. Thus, pajarito means both little bird and little penis. Another double whammy.
Now, why are homosexuals so often equated to tiny virginal flying peckers? I have no idea. It’s very uncool and someone should get to the bottom of it.
But back to the question. I promised a solid source to Martin, and my Wiktionary-gleamed musings are not going to cut it.
In Marginalization of alternative gender and sexual identities: The role of normative discursive practices in Chilean society (2005), linguist Sara Balder describes use of the term as such:
A diachronic approach shows that maricón is derived from the proper name Maria. Accordingly, this female origin qualifies the term to connotatively recall feminine gender attributes such as weakness and submissiveness. Another parallel is that the term indicates submission not only in the social sense, but also in the sense of sexual passivity. In practice, this term is polysemous, and is primarily used to denote an effeminate and/or homosexual male, making it roughly synonymous with ‘effeminate sodomite’. I will refer to this primary meaning as (maricón 1).
Additionally, this term can also be used secondarily in reference to a bad, wretched, or harmful person (maricón 2). The relationship between these two senses can be best explained by the chaining approach (see Lakoff 1987), whereby maricón2 developed as a derivative of some of the characteristics of maricón 1. The characteristics, specifically, are those that give maricón 1 its negative connotation: maricón 1, which denotes an effeminate homosexual male, is connotatively negative in that homosexuals are considered bad, wrong, weak, deviant, and contemptible by dominant society. The chaining involved in the relationship of maricón 1 to
maricón 2 can be conceptualized as such:maricón 1: effeminate passive
homosexual male
↓
effeminacy, passivity, and homosexuality
are bad, deviant, and wrong
↓
a maricón is a bad, deviant person
who commits wrongful acts
↓
maricón 2: a bad, wretched,
or harmful personThe resultant polysemous outcome is that a term used for homosexuals can also be used for other people who are disreputable, odious wrongdoers (maricón 2), even if they have normative gender and sexual orientation.
Read the full text here [PDF]. No mention of magpies, though.
Maricón In the News: Bill Richardson uses the term on the Don Imus Show, hampering his presidential bid and dampening his reputation as a strong supporter of gay and lesbian rights (2007): link
Maricón In the History: Fidel Castro, preeminent among gay-bashing jerks, allegedley sent his pal, writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to leaders of both Panama and Spain with one brief spoken message: “Dice Fidel que usted es un maricón” (“Fidel says you are a faggot”): link (hover for citation)
This is a question more than a comment. I found on youtube a short film called “William S. Burroughs Buys a Parrot.” In it Burroughs goes to an apartment or residence and is met at the door by a young man wearing a motorcycle cap–the black ones with visors, similar to military hats or to Greek sailor caps. It appears to be the beginning of a homosexual encounter, and the title suggests to me a homosexual encounter based on payment for services.
Is “buy a parrot” slang for hire a male prostitute for homosexual sex? Or perhaps is the expression a joke in the film based only on the word “parajito,” as explained in your article, a double entendre, and there is no slang expression “buy a parrot.”
Hi Rick, great question! So far, I haven’t found a good answer, but I will ask/search around and hopefully come up with something solid. Regardless of whether that is/was a phrase in common usage, it seems quite likely that, given Burrough’s proclivities, his use of opaque metaphorical language, and the appearance of the “leather daddy” in the film, we might surmise that the film is suggesting something like what you have interpreted. Again, I’ll look into it some more.
For anyone else interested, the film is here: http://www.ubu.com/film/burroughs_parrot.html
Okay, here’s what I found. First I asked Twitter friends. They made pirate jokes at me, so that didn’t really go anywhere. Then I asked a historian of queer culture, who replied with the following:
Drugs seemed the most likely to be documented so I checked that and sure enough, “El Perico” is used in various Spanish dialects for parrot or parakeet, as well as white coffee or snow, as in cocaine. (Sources: Urban Dictionary and Spanish Dict)
On the other hand, you might still be right. This could be a double entendre (meaning both “Williams buys cocaine” and “William buys a male prostitute”) turned pun when he actually ends up buying an actual parrot. This film, I believe, was part of a trilogy of Burroughs-penned short films directed by Antony Balch, so you might check into that and also find out where the films were created to get an idea of what the language and imagery means in those environments.
Fidel Castro would always be an icon of history evethough he is against the U.S.’*~
Louis, lots of people are icons of history (Stalin, Genghis Kahn, Idi Amin), but that isn’t enough to recommend following their examples. I actually have a fairly tempered view of Castro, believing him to have evolved into a dictator more as a result of global political forces (including American aggression) rather than through any plan of his own. In fact, I find the Cuban Revolution to be quite fascinating and worthy of admiration in some regards. However, you cannot ignore that Castro has become a dictator over time and that his views on homosexuality are worthy of condemnation by right-minded people.
Fidel Castro may not be a hero for western countries but he did a good job in providing subsidized medical care in Cuba`::
the us hates fidel castro but he has lots of achievements too in Cuba:`”
actually, Fidel Castro is not at all a bad man. Cuba has one of the best government medical care in the world ;*~
I love the Castro-supporting bot-spam that this article attracts. Or maybe modern Cuba has taken up new naming traditions. Yo estoy hablando a ti, señores Gel Fuel, Kitchen Units, y Infrared Camera! I will keep removing your (admittedly innocuous-looking) links and leaving your comments intact for my own amusement. Tell Toaster Oven I’m onto him.
Thank you, E. Bell for this great article! I especially liked the bit on Castro, as those interpersonal relations that speak of the human quality in history. I also wanted to mention that when my father visited Cuba several years ago, he was surprised to meet individuals with the names of foreign appliances, and the first and last names of famous persons. That being said, there does seem to be a consistency in their comments.
Well, thank you for answering a question I’ve had for years.
JIID