Faggot = Loser

I found this reading particularly interesting, from a psychoanalytical viewpoint on the word and it's connotations relative to a given context.  Ken Corbett proposes that the word "Faggot" doesn't necessarily associate with homosexuality at all, but rather a symbolic removal of manliness and manhood.  According to Corbett, to be small and to lose is to embody "faggot", and it is this internal/external motivation to be "big and winning" that drives aggression and competition between boys and men.  Corbett's analysis of his patient Josh's use of the word during a session struck me as a very well thought out, well structured response to the unconscious initiation of competition from the young boy with the older man, as a result of his brother seeming bigger, stronger, and more in control.  I found it interesting as well that the boy was able to acknowledge that he wanted to be big and to win, that his brother was big and won often, and yet he refused to admit to wanting to be like his brother.  This breakdown in the thought process and connection formation is fascinating to me, as it seems from an objective, removed viewpoint to be the immediate next logical conclusion that Josh wants to be like his older brother.  Finally, Corbett states that male competition and dominance are highly unstable, as loss and failure are inevitable in every scenario pertaining to masculine competition.  Making "Faggots of us all", the guarantee of eventual loss remains ever present in the male mind.