Does the word, ‘decorator’ have a special meaning other than a person who designs (or paints) the interior and exterior of houses?
I was intrigued to find the former President Nixon’s gaffe, “San Francisco is full of ‘fags’ and ‘decorators’” in an old article of Time (June 9, 2010) titled “A brief history of political profanity.”
It appears in the following statement:
“Richard Nixon holds the unofficial record for being the most openly profane U.S. President. - - In a taped 1971 conversation between the President and two of his sides, Nixon called Mexicans “dishonest, “ said that blacks lived “like a bunch of dogs” and that San Francisco was full of “fags” and “decorators.” And that was just one conversation.”
I’m curious to know why “fags” and “decorator” are placed in a pair and in parenthesis.
CED defines ‘decorator’ simply as “a person whose job is to paint the inside or outside of buildings and to do other related work. OED defines it as ‘Am Eng. a person whose job is to design interior of houses by choosing colors, carpet and furnishing. There’s nothing profane or derogative with the definitions of this word.
Does “decorator” have a special meaning other than the above definitions?
I’m interested to know how someone would respond to President Nixon’s usage of the word, ‘decorator’ in his comment, if he or she happened to be a decorator.
Well, I am not American, so I can only say what an English person might assume the phrase meant. Fag=gay man in US English (it means a cigarette in British English). Decorator possibly refers to the fact that gay men are sometimes thought to gravitate towards professions involving design? This may not be right. You probably need an American to explain this term.
Given the context, "decorator" was most likely intended to be another derogatory comment about gay men, with the belief that this group tended to pursue less masculine occupations such as decorators. Of course, that was pure bigotry.
I've heard the term being used to describe someone who has poor interpersonal skills and prefers to shout and make a scene rather than solve problems calmly, like someone shouting at a clerk for not having something they wanted or shouting at a gate attendant for missing a flight. The term refers to that person's 'decorating' the entire place with their loud obnoxious behavior.
It was in an old Henry Rollins Spoken word set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5gWzXnELRM
Never heard it used as a term for gay folks.