Use of the f-word results in an instant ban in /r/movies.

I used to be ambivalent about that but having spent a lot of time around gay men, I can say with clarity that if you want a wall to go up, throw "fag" around.

I wrote it up once, in a mod mail discussion with someone angry at being banned for calling someone a "bundle of sticks." Here it is:

* * *

...and while we're at it,

- "The first known published use of the word faggot or fag to refer to a male homosexual appeared in 1914 in the U.S. It referred to a homosexual ball where the men were dressed in drag and called them "fagots (sissies)." Ernest Hemingway, in The Sun Also Rises (1926), included the line, "You're a hell of a good guy, and I'm fonder of you than anybody on earth. I couldn't tell you that in New York. It'd mean I was a faggot." A 1921 cite says, "Androgynes [are] known as 'fairies,' 'fags,' or 'brownies.'" The Straight Dope

- ""male homosexual," 1914, American English slang (shortened form fag is from 1921), probably from earlier contemptuous term for "woman" (1590s), especially an old and unpleasant one, in reference to faggot (n.1) "bundle of sticks," as something awkward that has to be carried (cf. baggage "worthless woman," 1590s). It may also be reinforced by Yiddish faygele "homosexual," literally "little bird." It also may have roots in British public school slang fag "a junior who does certain duties for a senior" (1785), with suggestions of "catamite," from fag (v.). This also was used as a verb. "He [the prefect] used to fag me to blow the chapel organ for him. ["Boy's Own Paper," 1889]"

Etymology Online

"A (male) homosexual. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.). - 1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 30 s.v. Drag, Example: ‘All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.’

- 1926 C. Wood & G. Goddard Dict. Amer. Slang 16 Fagot, a chorus man; an effeminate man.

- 1936 J. Dos Passos Big Money (1937) 273 The first thing Marge thought was how on earth she could ever have liked that fagot.

- 1962 H. Kane Killer's Kiss xxvii. 207 Duffy was no queen, no platinum-dyed freak, no screaming faggot.

- 1966 New Statesman 18 Mar. 392/3 The American word ‘faggot’ is making advances here over our own more humane ‘queer’.

- 1970 New Yorker 28 Nov. 21/2 A gathering of homosexuals..a Jew, a Negro, a butch faggot, a nellie faggot. Oxford English Dictionary

...So. For nearly 100 years, "OP is a fag" has meant "The person I speak of is not only homosexual, but also un-manly, effeminate, and contemptible for his actions, mannerisms, beliefs and behaviors and the assembled must join me in shunning him for the good of our society."

Which - let's be honest - is what you meant, right OP?

We universally recognize that in these here heady internet days, one scores points by pissing in the direction one is told to piss, jerking in the circle one is told to jerk, and waving one's cock in the face of those whom one is told to wave one's cock in the face of, all in the name of masculinity, virility, fraternity, and VERY MUCH NOT BEING GAY. We wish for you to recognize, however, that if a person who actually is one does not appreciate being called one,

YOU SHOULDN'T.

* * *