Mark, I liked this piece a lot, and you're currently one of the best things going on CBC. But I sort of wish you'd left it at "the F word", or if anything, specified "you're meaning the derogatory word for gay men." If someone had said "the N word" would you have actually said the word? Or if someone had said "the C word" with reference to a woman's anatomy would you have said the word? For some reason it seems okay to say the F word on prime time, and frankly that's got to mean something to you -- i.e. why would you do that? I'll tell you the problem with hearing these words -- they imply violence is on the way, and that's why, outside of a particularly safe context, they make us cringe. If someone on the street says "fag" to me I know there's a good chance I'm about to encounter violence, and if I hear it from a stranger that's what it reminds me of, plain and simple. When I hear it said on TV in prime time with nary the batting of an eye, it reminds me how I am a second class citizen pretty much at the bottom of the food chain.

Thank you. That was a great piece.

Excellent piece about the phobias of macho jocks.