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BlissC:
On my forum (a medical support forum) all the members know I'm a Brokie - I refuse to make a secret of it, and regularly we get the "gay cowboy" jokes etc., and normally I don't say that much about it. They have their little jokes, and it's only if I feel they're going too OTT or it's looking like it could turn nasty or they're being discriminatory that I step in with an "admin comment" and remind them of the registration agreement and the fact that as we're based in the UK, UK equality and anti-discrimination legislation applies as it does to any other organisation. Today though, all the jokes stopped.

A member who's been on the forum for a few months now posted a message which went along the lines of "I'm looking for some support - I'm going out with a very nice young man who was recently diagnosed. I'm really scared and don't know how to help him.  I love him to bits and think the world of him! But I'm just soooooooooooo scared. I just need some support!"

Though the post wasn't signed with a name, as the account name is "Michael" and the post today just referred to "my partner - he was diagnosed..." everyone presumed that the poster was called Michael. In one of the replies one member did ask "Has he (what's his name?) been diagnosed long?"

It was just sooooo funny watching them all tip-toe around on egg-shells and it was obvious no-one knew quite what to say, and people just kept saying "your partner". 

Now having been a forum admin for a number of years now, I thought it was a little strange that the account has 23 posts listed, but suddenly here was "Michael" asking for support for a recently diagnosed partner. Of course when I looked back through previous posts on the account, when Michael first joined the forum he did indeed tell us about how he was first diagnosed and how strange it was being in a forum full of women with the condition (it mainly affects women) and about various treatments he'd had, and about how difficult it was trying to explain to his girlfriend how he felt, and so on.  It turns out the post today was Michael's girlfriend posting using Michael's forum account! (which is actually quite common - husbands/wives/partners posting using their husband's/wife's/partner's account, particularly if the original member is particularly unwell or in hospital etc.)

I was very tempted to just leave them to it and see how long it took them to figure out that it wasn't actually Michael posting, but as I was in a good mood today I thought I'd point it out to them. I guess that's the thing about the internet - because you can't actually see who you're talking to, sometimes it's difficult to know whether you're talking to a male or female, but I guess seeing the name Michael everyone just assumed it was a guy. 

CellarDweller:
 :laugh:


Oh bliss, that's too funny!


Hope Michael is ok though.

Katie77:
That is funny Bliss...

Reminds me of time, a few years back.....in the small country community we lived in were two openly gay guys. We had been to an auction sale of household goods, and my Mum, then aged in her seventies, bought a foot rest cusihion, which is commonly called (over here in Oz) a poof. Now before I continue, the word poof is also a word used over here as a sort of derogatory name for a gay man.

Anyway.......so Mum has her purchase, and one of the gay guys started chatting to her, and asked if she had bought anything. And Mum said, "oh yes, I bought a Ppppppp, you know a Pppppppp, you know a thing to put your feet up on"......she started blushing and getting more flustered until finally the gay guy put her out of her misery and said....."Oh you mean a poof"......."Yeah, yeah, thats it" Mum said, relieved that it was he who said it, and not her.  It was quite funny being a bystander watching and listening to that conversation.

I couldnt even find a picture of what Im talkng about on the net, so I just took a pic of one we have here at home. Do you have them over there? And what do you call them?  Maybe an otterman, but poofs are a bit different, usually leather or vinyl, filled with foam beans, like a foot stool bean bag.

BlissC:
Yeah, the same here. I think (not quite sure) though that it tends to be spelt pouffe. Pronunciation's pretty much the same though, at least around here. I know in other parts of the country it tends to be pronounced more as though it's a French word is the best way I can think to describe it, but around here the local accent's quite guttural and flat in some respects, and it tends to be pronounced more like 'poof'. My mum's friend's got one similar to yours, and actually I've got one in my office in the spare room, but mine's a bit squarer and a lovely coffee brown suede. The other week I was talking to my nephew (who was 9 last month) about my mum's friend (or Granny Lowe, as she's known to my nephew) and her new sofa and mentioned her poof/pouffe.

Now my nephew's just getting to that age where obviously he hears other kids talking at school, and sometimes he'll come out with alsorts of things that he's picked up at school (though usually you can tell by his face he knows he's not really supposed to say whatever it is). So I'm telling him about Granny Lowe's sofa, and happened to mention her poof/pouffe, just something I said without thinking, but it was so funny! You could almost see the cogs going round in his little brain while he was trying to work out whether I'd said a naughty word or not, until I clarified it by saying it was a foot stool.

The other week he asked my mum why I wear cowboy boots sometimes, and my mum just said without thinking, "Oh, it's because she's a Brokie."...which of course lead to the inevitable question, "Granny? What's a Brokie?" My mum just passed it off and said she thought it was something to do with a film that I liked, and he just sort of went "Oh" and fortunately seemed to lose interest in the subject after that, at least for now, but I can see the day coming where he'll ask "What film?" and being inquisitive as my nephew is, knowing him, just telling him the name of the film won't suffice. Hmmm....how do you explain Brokeback to a 9 year old?  :-\

Katie77:
Maybe just let him watch it, and where appropriate, fast forward...........

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