06/11/2008
Shia LaBeouf 'Embarrassed' by Slap Video, Gay Slur
The clip I posted yesterday, which was circulated heavily around the internet, showing a presumably inebriated Shia LaBeouf taunting his friend to slap him by goading him on with, among other things, the word 'faggot', has been pulled from YouTube and LaBeouf has made a statement through his representative, E!'s Marc Malkin reports:
"The videotape that is currently being circulated is several years old and captures Shia playing a game among friends in which he uses a derogatory word toward a friend. He regrets having used the word in any capacity and is very embarrassed that this footage is being seen by anyone.”
Clip AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted 8:01 AM EST by Andy Towle in Gay Slurs, News, Shia LaBeouf | Permalink
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I agree that I don't think this is really newsworthy but I find it hard to take offense at Shia's use of "faggot". I use the term all of the time. Would it have been better if he call his friend "fat ass"?
In fact I think I probably called a friend of mine a fag and fat ass to get him to slap me before too?
I know it's juvenile but is it really that offensive?
Posted by: Kurt from Milwaukee | Jun 11, 2008 3:09:03 PM
Perhaps all of you who spend time writing here to attack one another should spend that time writing to John Crosby Management about Shia's false apology.
Posted by: Todd R | Jun 11, 2008 3:27:17 PM
I don't know who this guy is, but, as they say, when folks get liquored up they tell you how they really feel. And, its a SLUR, no matter how some say it isn't, since the same ones would be offended and screeching homophobia if someone called them on the street who as the one poster said wasn't "cute."
Posted by: Luke | Jun 11, 2008 4:29:31 PM
I haven't been on this site in a while and when i read about this story I came here knowing EXACTLY what kind of comments I'd find. Thanks everyone for being so predictable!
Your government is fighting a war in your name and you're concerned about a 19 year old using the word 'faggot'! Good for you!
Posted by: UnionStayshyn | Jun 11, 2008 6:10:26 PM
As an Englishman, I can tell you that 'Faggot' , instead of meaning a burning ember of wood, means a bundle of wood or sticks. It is also the name of a meatball made from pork offal.
But it's more commonly used now to mean what it means in the US. Unless someone's buying a packet of faggots for their dinner (which you don't do unless you're working class).
Fag is still used to mean cigarette though. Seriously, when I heard 'God hates fags', I thought it was an anti-smoking campaign from the Christians.
Posted by: DD | Jun 11, 2008 6:29:25 PM
Drunkenness is presumed although I don't know why.
Someone here calls him "LaDouche" for using the word faggot. Classy.
He's not attractive. I don't see the appeal. I'm even more puzzled with Timberlake but we're talking Shia now.
He was being juvenile and we've all had our moments in life. We always will. Don't try to deny it.
There was no malice. This is not Michael Richards screaming from the stage. And, frankly, I'm annoyed with people giving pejoratives like faggot or nigger the supreme power they do. It's just sad.
Posted by: queendru | Jun 11, 2008 8:36:42 PM
Well, Union, if you don't get the correlation between 19-yr. olds calling each other "faggot" and the war the government is fighting in our name then you're not nearly the MENSA Master you'd clearly like to think you are.
Or to put it another way, fuck you and your patronization and not in the good way!
Posted by: Michael Bedwell | Jun 11, 2008 9:03:43 PM
I think it's pretty clear that Towleroad was linked by GayPatriot or WorldNetDaily or some other right-wing and/or anti-gay site. The whole "PC", "Politically Correct" meme repeated over and over is the dead give away. That is ALWAYS the term used to excuse and justify slurs and/or to defend bigotry; most especially when the slurs and/or bigotry is directed at gay people.
I suggest we ignore them.
NOTHING pisses them off more than being ignored.
The trolls are really gettin' thick on this thread.
Posted by: Zeke | Jun 11, 2008 9:54:42 PM
Well, Michael, far be it from me to suggest that drawing a correlation between a 19-year old using the word faggot and your government's illegal occupation is akin to suggesting Katrina or 911 occurred because of the wrath of God but I will (btw, you just made FOX News look sane). Everyone has some bull**** reason to ignore the facts.
You Americans need to grow up and start looking at the important issues and not get so worked up over trivial matters (and in your case Michael, UNDERSTANDING the difference).
As Rick Shenkman (author of 'Just How Stupid Are We?') just said on the Daily Show tonight, Americans need to start taking some responsibility for their ignorance.
Posted by: UnionStayshyn | Jun 12, 2008 1:04:37 AM
When discussing words like "nigger" or "faggot", the issue should not be the word itself. The issue should be the abuse underlying the word.
Because, yes, the word is an abusive word. I think we can all agree on that.
However, I think Shia has every right to be abusive -- physically and verbally -- towards his own friends as part of their horseplay.
It's not the same as maliciously abusing a stranger.
Posted by: Ted C. | Jun 12, 2008 1:31:26 AM
> ["Faggot" is] also the #1 taunt used to
> bully kids, both gay and straight.
Really? The way it gets tossed around here, I would have assumed it was "self-loathing", since that's the default slur whenever anyone dares to disagree with the prevailing groupthink.
"Self-loathing" never made any sense to me, though. I rather like myself. It's the rest of you faggots that I can't stand.
Posted by: Scott | Jun 12, 2008 2:04:25 AM
Many of these comments do not seem to reflect that the posters had actually seen the video. In direct proportion to the vehemence of the posts. Weird how that works out huh?
And with all these socially responsible type postings, l notice not a one has pointed out he and the whole party was probably all drinking underage.
Any proper "apology" should be an alcohol PSA, if need be. Better he shouldn't have bothered apologizing for his choice of friendly taunt at all, for all the good it's done with the mind-made-up set, over-represented in this thread.
He was TRYING to INSULT his FRIEND in a drunken party game, in order to shock him into slapping him. Frankly the use of the word "faggot" was a pretty good choice, it made his friend slap him pretty hard. Of all the context we know, which isn't much, we know the intent was not malicious. Big Fucking Deal.
Except that it's really stupid and really funny and kinda hot the same way Ultimate Fighting is hot, whoa.
And for those who do not (honestly) find Ultimate Fighting pretty much gay porn with pants on, this does not make you a bad person and I will not call you names like troll or wingnut or accomplice to murder, unless of course you are drunk too and playing the game and trying to make me slap you. Yawn.
Posted by: James | Jun 12, 2008 7:35:06 AM
Oh JAMES you're such a deep thinker and yet SOOOOOO cool at the same time.
You amaze me.
God, I wish I could be just like you.
Those who take issue with what you say are clearly just out of touch with greatness and what it means to be brilliant in every way.
Stand your ground bubba, you're a shining light to homa-sek-shuls everywhere.
No REALLY, I mean it!
Posted by: Zeke | Jun 12, 2008 12:08:13 PM
Thanks, John, you just made me remember an event that I'd managed to repress for many years. When I was in college I was walking from one bar to another, and this older man approached me. He was drunk, and assumed I was straight. Given that this was in Charlottesville, Virginia (which is slightly more liberal now but 15 years ago was not exactly a hotbed of gay rights), I was baffled. He started begging me to punch him and tell him what a dirty faggot he was. Many straight men who'd been drinking would probably have been happy to do just that.
When I refused, he wouldn't stop begging me to spit on him. I was trying to reason with him, and ask why he would want a stranger to treat him like that. He said it was because he was a disgusting pervert who deserved abuse.
Now, I understand S&M, even between strangers. But this was something else entirely: a man asking to be bashed. It was horrifying. And the worst part, I'm ashamed to admit, is that I finally did spit on him---though not on his face (where he wanted it), but instead on his shirt. (He had talked to me for so long that I realized he really did want to be abused by someone he perceived as being straight.) After I did it, he thanked me profusely.
It remains one of the most profoundly disturbing experiences of my life, and one that I still don't know how to reconcile myself with.
Posted by: Paul R | Jun 12, 2008 7:13:58 PM
It wasn't used in a malicious manner??? He used it to TAUNT AND INSULT. Hello??
Shia lost all my respect for using this word. It is ALWAYS a dehumanizing insult when used by a straight person. Period. The gay community's willingness to sit back and accept insults is appalling.
Posted by: Hephaestion | Jun 13, 2008 8:34:04 PM
Can you all stop projecting onto a kid that used a word that seemed appropriate in the context of a group of his friends? Having this video released completely recontextualized his language since he obviously won't have used that word if he knew it would be made public. If you think you can make any conclusions about this guy based on this short video than I would suggest you should reconsider any animosity you might have for evangelicals who are also only too quick to demonize others for using words they also find offensive and insulting. If someone released a video of you drunk with your friends would everything you said in that context hold up to the scrutiny of the public? Likely it wouldn't. I can't believe the lack of sympathy (or even empathy) in these responses. So many of you are quick to judge and have seemly learned nothing from those in your country that have twisted the words of a wise man who believed in compassion into the damning decrees of old lonely men.
Posted by: UnionStayshyn | Jun 15, 2008 7:35:33 AM