2015 WOULD APPEAR to be the year of the ‘gal pal’.
Well, according to some sections of the media anyway – and plenty of people out there are none too pleased with this development.
It all started way back in January, when Kristen Stewart was spotted with her new girlfriend Alicia Cargile.
The gal pal headlines were out in force
Much to the bemusement of many onlookers
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But it didn’t stop there, as gal pal continued to reach into every corner of celebrity news coverage
Any time a high profile same sex relationship was being reported on, up popped the phrase
Again and again, the word lesbian or bi-sexual was snubbed
Even when the characters were explicitly lesbian
It got to the point where it was happening so often, loads of people started to take notice:
The New Statesman made a passionate plea for it to never be used again – and questioned why it existed in the first place:
Why is “lesbian” still a rude word? Why, in certain chunks of society, do I have to have “gal pals” and not girlfriends?
What I would like though is an embargo on the phrase “gal pal”. It’s irritating at best and backward at worst. There are two acceptable alternatives and they are “girlfriend” or “woman with whom the woman in question is engaging in sexual relations.” And, clunky as the latter may be, it’s still infinitely better than “gal pal.”
People everywhere concurred. But there was form for this type of labelling in the past with men
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With “passionate friendships” now replaced with “close friends” or the dreaded “gal pal”
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People think it belittles lesbian relationships
And have a weary eye out for the term from now on
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Everyone: gal pal needs to be stopped
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Please, soon.
