Oftentimes, it is not all about you.
Years ago, perusing a book that mentioned about Hinduism I encountered that swastika was not exactly the Nazis’ invention. (I know, it took me so long.) Finally understanding that the European bigots found their way to make the symbol theirs, it is of course disheartening that this symbol of good luck became notorious for anything evil. (There is an emerging racist/Islamophobic problem in India, but I digress.)
Which reminds me of this post yesterday. “Fag” and “fagging” are terms originated in England and never meant to be a slur like we all know in the US context.
Fag masters or prefects choose their fags according to their beauty.
Fagging is a very old, old tradition where the elder boys select a younger boy who does chores for you, and you pay him every week. The pay is normally between £5 to £10 a week. You can get him to go shopping for you or to clean your shoes, or you text him to get him to get you some food if you've been out late. If you'd been out on a Saturday night on "restaurant leave" to have a couple of pints and a curry in the local town, you could text him at 12 o'clock at night and just say, "Look, I'm quite pissed, I need you to go make me a coffee and some baked beans on toast so that I can look sober for my house master so I don't look like a moron." If you didn't wake up or didn't answer, that's when the repercussions could occur. There was some real bullying sometimes. You don't want to risk getting a bad name with the other boys because then everyone is out to get you. The social hierarchy is kept in place. ( x )
Eton College, which obviously was Yana Toboso’s model for Weston College, stopped practicing fagging in the ‘80s.
However, the term “fag,” a shortened form for “faggot,” is confined to the United States, that may or may not have been related to the English definition.
The British continued to use the words fag and faggot as nouns, verbs and adjectives right through the early 20th century, never applying it to homosexuals at any time. To fag or to be a fag was a common term in British schools from the late 1700s and referred to a lower classman who performed chores for upperclassmen. While this term was also in vogue at Harvard in the first half of the 19th century, it died out by the mid-1800s in the U.S., leaving it in use only in England. Nineteenth century Britons also heard "faggot" used in reference to an ill-tempered woman, i.e., a ball-buster, a battleaxe, a shrew. That meaning of the term continued into the early 20th century, and the usage was gradually applied to children as well as women. The relationship, if any, between faggot-as-bundle-of-sticks and faggot-as-shrewish-woman is unknown.
I haven’t read John Peel’s autobiography, but it highlighted the problems in the UK public schools where bullying and sexual harassment are rampant. He admitted that he was raped. The practise is very controversial and I don’t think that it hasn’t stopped until this day.
Yana T might be a Japanese mangaka, and she’s not always perfect, but she employs Anglophile historian Riko Murakami for English translations and anything about the UK. Yana also collaborated with her for the anime. She wrote the princes in the Tower episode during season 1. So the accusation that Yana T is ignorant is very US-centric. She wasn’t talking about the homophobic slur used in the North Americas. Mentioning it in the manga wasn’t meant to be disrespectful. The aspiration to be as historically accurate as possible has been evident even though she leaves her style all over the place. She probably would be surprised that it was a concept synonymous to homophobia in other parts of the world. Or has perhaps understood that it is. But I still don’t believe that offending people was in the cards. @plague-of-insomnia’s interpretation of Chapter 176 is a sole reminder that the staff is very careful not to offend anybody.