Each year we fall prey to an endless debate about whether to include the word “f*ggot” in The Pogues ‘Fairytale of New York’, Poppy explores why this debate is futile, adding how if you’re straight you simply shouldn’t sing along to that specific lyric.
If you’re not familiar with Fairytale of New York, let me catch you up. It was released in the 1987 by Irish band The Pogues and is commonly called an ‘anti-Christmas’ Christmas song due to the jovially abusive nature of the lyrics. It’s an absolute banger and one of my favourite Christmas songs, but each year – without fail – one word in this song sends the Western world into a festive dichotomy, as one of the lines involves somebody being called a “f*ggot”.
There has been controversy surrounding this lyric for some time now, ever since people realised that perhaps yelling ‘f*ggot’ was in rather poor taste. The word has its supporters, amongst queer and straight alike, with many believing it’s a fuss over nothing while others talk about censorship. The discourse surrounding this song is infamous – it’s practically a British tradition at this point, albeit a highly tiresome and unpleasant one.
‘Britain’s worst festive tradition’
Josh Milton of Pink News
Over the years, people have made stands by either specifically omitting or keeping it in the song. The BBC have flitted between both on multiple occasions, often opting to let their radio stations choose which version of the song they would like to play based on what they believe their audience would like to hear. As for the band, they have similarly been unsure over the years about how to treat the word. The front man of The Pogues, Shane McGowan, defended the use of it back in the 80s when it was written, but also said he was “absolutely fine with them bleeping the word,”. However, the bands official twitter told Laurence Fox to “fuck off you little herrenvolk shite” in response to Fox calling for the “proper version” (that being, the one with the slur in it) to reach number one on the charts after the BBC chose to omit “f*ggot” from their broadcast that year. Similarly, last year the band tweeted in support of omitting the lyric, saying: “see what happens when you make a tiny edit.. millions and millions more people hear the song, and no one gets kicked down the school bus with some outdated homophobic slur ringing in their ears. Shall we move on now?”
The bands desire to “move on” from this debate is something that is echoed by many queer people throughout the country. Harrison Brocklehurst tweeted “the word itself being in Fairytale of New York doesn’t bother or offend me, but straight people being so angry & outraged at its removal and literally fighting and arguing for the right to sing it bothers me deeply”. This is the epitome of the debate, I believe. Very few queer people that I know are bothered about the lyric’s inclusion in the song, it was written and sung in the 80s which, in all fairness, was a very different time from the one we’re living in now. However, straight people singing the lyric now – with full knowledge of its history and the power it still holds – then gaslighting queer people by saying they’re being snowflakes or too easily offended is massively frustrating.
To those who still sing this lyric, I genuinely wonder what reason you have for doing so that is better than anyone’s reason for you to not sing it, because there are no two ways around it, ‘f*ggot’ is a slur and, like all other slurs, should be used at the discretion of who it applies to. In this case that’s the LGBTQ+ community, who overwhelmingly seem to dislike the words usage in this song. When places do choose to omit the word, they’re often met with calls of censorship or even references to Orwellian types of suppression, but that is not the case.
The debate around this word comes down to having respect for people, I promise you the world will not fall apart if you’re discouraged from singing a word in a song, but it might make somebody around you feel safer or more comfortable, so isn’t it worth it?