Welcome to Motss! Motss Lexicon 1.2
D. Daniel Sternbergh
interest to the newcomer to motss, including a lexicon of frequently-
used terms and abbreviations (many of which are peculiar to motss),
and information on posting articles anonymously. Everybody is welcome
to post here -- women, men, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and non-gay alike.
Nobody needs to know which (if any) of those groups you belong to, and
nobody should assume that a given poster belongs to a particular group
(in fact, some have put feet in their mouth by making that assumption,
but that, as they say, is another story.) Of course, this forum works
best when we all observe rules of net.etiquette; if you don't know
what these are ask and someone will be happy to tell you.
Particularly, the one topic which is highly and specifically
inappropriate to discuss here is the morality of homosexuality. Big
no no, so seriously, please don't try it.
There is now a uk-motss mailing list operating, providing a forum for
discussions in the UK and European communities. There are currently
members in seven countries; anyone who wishes to subscribe should send
mail to the address uk-motss...@ibmpcug.co.uk. People reading
this message on a UK JANet host may need to use the address
uk-motss-request%ibmpcu...@uk.ac.ukc. Anonymous posting is also
available in the UK (for anonymous posting outside the UK see below);
information about this and receipt of soc.motss as a mail digest can
be obtained from the uk-motss mailing list.
Some useful terms:
motss: member of the same sex. Generally used to refer to those
attracted to members of the same sex and stuff like that.
Like most jargon, this can be used loosely. For example,
since I am gay, I may refer to myself as a motss. Or, I
may refer to my lover as my motss. Motss-related issues
might be issues of especial concern to gay, lesbian, bisexual
and other friendly sorts. Get the idea?
motos: member of the other sex. Analogously used to refer to those
attracted to members of the other sex. Sorry, but I refuse to
call 'em "opposite" sex, although some might.
motas: member of the appropriate sex. Used to refer generically when
orientation of the person or gender of their partner(s) is
irrelevant (or ambiguous? #:^) For example: I went to an
office party and everyone was their with their motas but me!
motts: a brand of apple juice. Not usually relevant to this newsgroup.
LGBO*: as near as I can determine, this refers to Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual people, Others, and Anyone Still Left Out. Any
permutation on this combination may also be seen, and means
the same thing. (In general, acronyms which include the
letters 'L' and 'G' next to each other can frequently be
figured out if you guess they mean "Lesbian" and "Gay".
Especially if the acronym includes 'B' -- today's Hint from
Heloise.)
muffin: a member of the soc.motss community who reads but has never
posted an article, or at least not under their own name/from
their own account. Usually used to refer to gay, lesbian,
or bisexual persons.
biscuit: non-gay persons on motss, sometimes used for non-posters
(analogous to muffin) but not always.
SO: significant other. Very unrestrictive term which may apply to
lover, husband, wife, each of the other partners in a
three-way relationship, serious fling, less serious fling,
or just about any other person of current especial importance.
IMHO: in my humble opinion. Often seems to be used ironically, but
courtesy dictates that one should not assume that this is the
case.
BTW, WRT: common usenet abbreviations for "by the way" and "with
respect to" respectively
PC: technically stands for Politically Correct, not (in this country)
Progressive Conservative, although some see oxymoronic
similarity between the two. PC is very much in
the sensibility of the beholder. At its best and most
generous it includes a conscientious sensitivity to the
difficulties faced by each person on account of prejudice,
oppression, or thoughtlessness. At its worst it includes a
sneering "more-PC-than-thou" disdain for all who are not
up-to-date in the latest trends in terminology (e.g. Asian,
Afro-American, and differently abled) and political
sensibility.
bears: persons (usually men) whose physical characteristics tend
toward the husky and hirsute.
twinkie: generally, a cute young (male) thing (CYT). Known as
"golden, cream-filled, and ready to be eaten" to the wags.
faggot, dyke: generally not to be used in these parts unless you can
do so with a tone of fondness and respect. As in "That's
*Mr.* Faggot to you!"
gay: an adjective, please. As in "Are there any other gay people in
Saskatchewan?" not as in "Bar the windows, Martha, the gays
are coming!"
tearoom, cottage: should some mention be made of the fact that if
the authour of an article is from the UK, a tearoom is
probably a small shop where you have your tea, and if the
author is from the North America, a cottage is a small house?
On Posting while Retaining Anonymity:
Do not underestimate the sense of liberty and self-esteem that may
come from posting an article under your own name. Nevertheless, many
of us are sensitive to the difficulties this may pose for some people,
especially those of us whose first articles were posted by someone
else protecting our identity. The following people have offered to
re-post submissions after removing any identifying headers, and
forward e-mail responses back to you.
In the order that I typed them in:
Cindy Tittle INTERNET: tit...@ICS.UCI.EDU
(also posts anonymously UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucivax!tittle
for soc.women) BITNET: clti...@uci.bitnet
Ro Reid Internet: rr...@dpw.com
r...@woof.columbia.edu
UUCP: {uunet|cmcl2}!esquire!rreid
Rob Bernardo INTERNET: r...@mtdiablo.Concord.CA.US
UUCP: ...!mips!mtdiablo!rob
Bradley Clymer cly...@jete.eng.ohio-state.edu
(less reliable address:) (...)!osu-cis!jete.eng.ohio-state.edu!clymer
Bob Donahue rdon...@arktouros.mit.edu
Daniel Sternbergh dda...@lindy.stanford.edu
{decwrl|sun}!lindy.stanford.edu!ddaniel
BITNET: ddaniel%lindy@stanford
Andrew Gollan INTERNET|MHSnet: ad...@softway.oz.au
ACSnet: ad...@softway.oz
UUCP: uunet!softway.oz.au!adjg
Please provide a valid name and mailing address so that this person can
get follow-up mail back to you. These names and addresses will be
kept confidential.
S...@liverpool.ac.uk
> toward the husky and hirsute.
> do so with a tone of fondness and respect. As in "That's
> *Mr.* Faggot to you!"
Well, I know at least one bear called faggot who isn't husky or
hirsute in the slightest:
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
/^\ /^\
| ~ ~ | Sonia McEwan
| o o | S...@uk.ac.liverpool
| * |
O~~ ~~O Liverpool University, UK
~~ faggot ~~
DISCLAIMER: Don't bother sueing, I can plead insanity.
Which I think is a bloody good excuse for trying out my new sig.....
Andrew Gollan
|tearoom, cottage: should some mention be made of the fact that if
| the authour of an article is from the UK, a tearoom is
| probably a small shop where you have your tea, and if the
| author is from the North America, a cottage is a small house?
Just for completeness, this type of "establishment" is known as a beat
in Australia, as in "beat-queen", "doing the beats", and so on. I thought
this one was also used sometimes in the UK.
"Hit that perfect beat, boy!" Bronski Beat
^^^^ ^^^^
--
Homosexuals are like |Andrew Gollan - "Anti-Family and proud of it"
toupees. It's only the |Softway: +61 2 698 2322 ad...@softway.oz.au
cheap ones you notice. |Fax: +61 2 699 9174
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) |GPO Box 305, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 AUSTRALIA