I heard somewhere that, in Japan, the word “homosexual” has more sexual connotations than the same word in English, that they view it more as a naughty word in comparison to their own terms for homosexuality. But I don’t live in Japan and don’t know much about this topic. As far as I know, it is a possibility, because I think there was a similar issue with the word “feminist”, which has been used in Japan more as “gentlemanly”. But, of course, I’m not willing to just believe something I read online once. Does anyone have any knowledge on this?
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┌(┌^o^)┐ホモォ..
they’re more likely to say “homo”, which borders on a slur in English, so make of that what you will.
I don’t like the word “homosexual” in English, either. Various reasons but mainly it sounds like a clinical term for a disorder.
this is *definitely* true of the word “lesbian”, though. Makes straight Japanese people think of porn. Many Japanese lesbians shorten it to “bian”.
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Your question is hard to answer because I’m not sure if you’re asking about the native kanji word for homosexual, or the katakana loanword from English for homosexual.
The word “homosexual“ in English has a somewhat detached clinical field to it, because it’s very literal and sort of a typical medical-sounding compound with the Greek prefix and everything.
Instead, we have a bunch of other words, from “queer” to “gay” to even negative ones like “fag,” that are technically words on their own with totally different meanings already, but are repurposed to refer to homosexuals. That indirection causes their meaning to pass through a cultural prism, which gives different implied “vibes” to each.
There is a native kanji word for “homosexual,“ but just like in English, it has a very neutral and kind of detached feeling to it. And again, just like in English, you will typically not find gay people using it casually to refer to each other, except semi-ironically. (At least not in my experience as a gay dude, when I lived there.)
However, the katakanized version of the English word “homo” is already a loanword. Meaning it already comes through a different layer of local cultural interpretation, and so feels less clinical and detached than the original word in English. This might be what you’re referring to.