HomophobiaI’m so tired of the normalization of the word “queer”

submitted by MaxDefacto from self.LGBDropTheT

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]ArthnoldManacatsaman🇬🇧🌳🟦 23 insightful - 1 fun23 insightful - 0 fun24 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Strongly agree. I hate the word queer and relish any opportunity to inveigh against it.

If people want to refer to themselves as 'queer', that's not really any of my business. People should be free to refer to themselves however they wish, even if I cringe internally every time someone uses the word.

The problems, for me, are manifold.

Firstly, the word 'queer', like any word that has been co-opted by the woke, no longer has a specific, agreed-upon definition. Originally (if we discount the Victorian usage of 'feeling / acting queer' etc.) it was a slur directed towards gay men. I have no doubt that lesbians or bisexuals of both sexes were also referred to as 'queer', but primarily it was a word used against gay men.

Nowadays, however, anyone can be queer for apparently any reason. It has reverted to its meaning of 'strange or unusual'. People with unusually-coloured hair are 'queer', as are people who likes BDSM or every character in Steven Universe. It's become a quickfire way to signal to people 'I'm not heteronormative! Therefore I'm virtuous!'. It's also something that you can't really disprove. You can't identify into race-based or sex-based oppression because it's obvious to everyone when someone is lying about those things. But being 'queer' is basically invisible and there's no 'test' for it.

Secondly, it's bothersome when people (usually of the above kind) use the word 'queer' when they really mean 'same-sex attracted' or 'trans' or 'gay' or whatever. So things like 'queer representation' or 'the queer community' are particularly jarring because 'queer' doesn't mean anything any more. And it's a further issue when the 'queer' people speak on behalf of others and pretend that they understand the issues that anyone faces based on characteristics they don't share.

I wouldn't be allowed to tell black people about the issues they face. I wouldn't (or for the love of God, shouldn't) be allowed to weigh in on issues of women's bodily autonomy or abortion etc. because I'm not a woman.

As I say, if people call themselves 'queer' I will smile condescendingly and hold my tongue but I have made a promise to myself that if anyone tries to rope me into their horrible 'queer' umbrella I will speak up. Like you, I find it a highly offensive word, on par with 'faggot' or 'poof'.

[–]MarkJeffersonTight defenses and we draw the line 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Nowadays, however, anyone can be queer for apparently any reason. It has reverted to its meaning of 'strange or unusual'.

That's very true. And maybe that's a good thing in some ways. It's decreasingly associated with gay men but being associated with society's mediocre, shallow, attention-seeking weirdos. Of course, the said weirdos don't even see that happening because they are a mostly non-reflective lot mindlessly clawing for some social status. They still think it means "Special", "Unique" or "Oppressed Minority deserving of Kudos", because they haven't experienced victimization from these gay slurs; They actually want the labels to be used on them, because they have no negative connotations from them. I think one of these days they're gonna wake up and realize they played themselves, that they shot themselves in the foot by labeling themselves rather fittingly as your run-of-the-mill, strange freaks, and at the same time they will have mostly decoupled the word from actual gay males.