Intro for June 29, 2026

Dear Gossips,

Bowen Yang was the Grand Marshal at NYC Pride yesterday and, well, he looked like he had the best gay time encouraging others to have their best gay time. Bowen wore a white tee under his rainbow sash, with two Chinese characters printed across his chest: 同志.

In the past, 同志 used to mean “comrade” but for almost 50 years, it’s been used colloquially to mean 2SLGBTQ+. The direct translation of 同志 is “same will” or “same purpose” and a Hong Kong person might tell you that this originated there, subversively playing upon the Chinese Communist usage of the term “comrade” as a way to protest the regime’s treatment of marginalised communities. And from there the Chinese queer community basically claimed it pop culturally…

Not unlike how the 2SLGBTQ+ communities in the west reclaimed the word “queer”. So, in any language, around the world, queer people are finding ways to reimagine vocabulary, take back and then improve the way we speak.

Speaking of, well, speaking and words and language, Bowen speaks several languages and is also known for a turn of phrase and his extensive vocabulary and diction. I’m still catching up on all the press he and Matt Rogers were doing to promote the Las Culturistas Culture Awards a couple of weeks ago – every interview, obviously, was hilarious but I especially enjoyed the one with The New Yorker where, at one point, Bowen cheekily mispronounces “can-ape” instead of “canapé”. I don’t know if he was subtly highlighting this but it’s giving me a reason to: there are a lot of words Gen Z doesn’t know how to pronounce, and I’m not sure they’re being corrected, so more and more people are saying it wrong. The one that I’ve heard several times recently, like almost a dozen times in the last three months is “epitome”. And it happened last week on Love Island USA, went kind of viral, when Sincere used it correctly in a sentence but not correct in pronunciation. Instead of “uh-pit-uh-mee” or “ih-pit-uh-mee” he said “ep-it-ohm”. Sincere has made a lot of mistakes this season, this isn’t the most egregious one. And, again, he’s not the only member of his generation to say it like this. I’ve heard it on several nerdy girl podcasts, I’ve heard it on social media, I’ve heard it everywhere and, most probably, it’s because most of the people mispronouncing it have only read the word and not actually heard it. Also, well, they came of age during COVID when no one was talking to each other in person.

As noted at the beginning of this post, meanings of words and expressions can evolve, or expand, as our communities change. Will the same be true of pronunciation? In the case of “epitome”, I hope not – only because the right way – or the current right way – is so much more fun to say.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey