I ultimately think co-opting slurs into your self-identity are damaging and hurtful; there is a difference between claiming your right to control your reaction to hateful verbiage to reduce its power against you and referring to yourself via hateful verbiage, thereby reinforcing and cementing the negative stereotypes about your people. It is the epitome of slave mentality to wear a word used to strip your forbears of their basic human rights as a badge of honor and any narrative/justification that feeds into that is oppression from either a position of ignorance or privilege.
Kinda playing devil's advocate here, but what about "queer"?
― dutty whiney (The Reverend), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:48 (fourteen years ago)
suggested replacement: "fruitheads"
― king of torts (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:51 (fourteen years ago)
or "carmen mirandas"
what up all mah breederz
― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:52 (fourteen years ago)
"queer" got reclaimed or was never 100% negative though, right? now "faggot" on the other hand...
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:54 (fourteen years ago)
Since you asked for my opinion, I think it ultimately depends on where the term "queer" came from (which I don't know). If it came from within non-heterosexual communities, I don't really have an opinion on it. If it came from heterosexual communities as a disparaging put-down for those who were not straight, I think it falls into the same pattern of self-oppression. Since I don't know where it came from, I tend to default towards the position that it is not my term to use and I avoid it when talking about sexuality.
In general, I don't think it's possible to reclaim a word you never owned.
― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 21:54 (fourteen years ago)
What about "geek"
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:02 (fourteen years ago)
Hmmm. I guess I shouldn't have presupposed that you would be familiar with the (fairly complicated) history and politics of the word "queer". But let wikipedia tell it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer
Fwiw, I identify as Queer (and not as gay) myself.
― dutty whiney (The Reverend), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:03 (fourteen years ago)
or, god forbid I pull Jersey Shore out of my hat, "guido"
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:03 (fourteen years ago)
yeah but language is fluid, that's what's dope about it
― big triffid in my backyard (Edward III), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:04 (fourteen years ago)
It's been interesting in the last few months because a friend who is very feminist and works with pro-woman groups has been noticeably put off by the "slut walk" phenomenon. It's another reclaimed thing, right?
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:05 (fourteen years ago)
re. geeks, no one was ever denied their basic human rights because they got into an argument on the internet about whether or not greedo or han shot first.
as far as i know.
― king of torts (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:06 (fourteen years ago)
Give it time.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:07 (fourteen years ago)
Kids certainly got the shit kicked out of them while called geeks or nerds as kids
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:08 (fourteen years ago)
but then along came the internet to show that nerds were actually meaner and more misogynistic than the jocks that beat them up
― om nom nom nnamdi asomugha (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:09 (fourteen years ago)
lol
― dutty whiney (The Reverend), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:10 (fourteen years ago)
clearly what we need is a geeks/nerds roots.
― king of torts (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:11 (fourteen years ago)
million geek march
― big triffid in my backyard (Edward III), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:12 (fourteen years ago)
huh okay, apparently I did know where "queer" came from and was just hedging against being called a know-it-all again
Ultimately it is not my business if someone wants to call themselves "queer". However, it is kind of my business if someone wants to call themselves "nigga", because that often leads people to think they can call ME "nigga", which really you can't. (I mean, you can, but basically you will be on my "fuck off, moron" list; I had endless arguments with my brother about this after he went to college in Seattle that really only resolved themselves after I graduated from college 8 years later where I had to basically say "if you wouldn't call Dad that, then don't call me that, either".)
Also, language may be fluid, and personal experience may expand your horizons and boundaries, but the two don't necessarily happen at the same time; I don't like the pervasiveness of "nigga" but I get why people use it and I enjoy it in a good amount of hip-hop, but really fuck you if you use it to refer to me. I at least have the right to object strenuously to that.
― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:12 (fourteen years ago)
gotta say the underrated aerosmith enquirer's blind items are one of my favorite ilx guilty pleasures
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:13 (fourteen years ago)
Does anyone know if the word "retard" has been reclaimed?
― frogbs, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:14 (fourteen years ago)
oh my god
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:15 (fourteen years ago)
is that what you'd like us to call you?
xp
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:15 (fourteen years ago)
DJP otm. If you're saying any of these to someone and thinking it's ok, it should be because you know them. Not a bus driver.
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:16 (fourteen years ago)
you know, frogbs, despite my general rep as ilx cranky old man, i am actually pretty lenient, and certainly stingy with the sb's. and yet.
― king of torts (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:16 (fourteen years ago)
only if you're reclaiming it?I dunno, it's 2011, I would think this has happened already, but I'm not really too well versed in that culture
― frogbs, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:17 (fourteen years ago)
http://picasion.com/pic6/17e7cc34b03503b88f5791cfaa7679f8.gif
― dutty whiney (The Reverend), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:17 (fourteen years ago)
people with mental disabilities aren't a culture
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:17 (fourteen years ago)
oh
― frogbs, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:18 (fourteen years ago)
happy to help
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:18 (fourteen years ago)
she'd use
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:19 (fourteen years ago)
this fuckin frog
― king of torts (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:19 (fourteen years ago)
Sorry, iPhone issue
sb'ed users greet each other with "sup froggy" irl
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:20 (fourteen years ago)
bravo, frogbs
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:24 (fourteen years ago)
people with mental disabilities aren't a culture― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 6:17 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 6:17 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i think it's called "witch house"
― Erin Go! Bwaaaah!!! (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:25 (fourteen years ago)
you misspelled "C4lum R0bert W4ddell"
xp: huge lol
― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:25 (fourteen years ago)
whiney :)
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:26 (fourteen years ago)
http://www.r-word.org/
stands for "reverb"
― 5ish finkel (goole), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:27 (fourteen years ago)
i sometimes am amazed at the lengths people go to gain societal permission to say offensive things
― shining like national dog shit (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:28 (fourteen years ago)
shaddup, drama kid
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:32 (fourteen years ago)
?
― shining like national dog shit (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:34 (fourteen years ago)
But in all seriousness, my actual stance is that I really don't care what persona these odd future people are trying to project, but I'd probably have found them obnoxious as hell on this bus and you shouldn't just throw "nigga" at people you don't know. You're either acting familiar in an obnoxious way, or you're just being insulting.
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:34 (fourteen years ago)
x-post I was throwing theater people in with "nerd" or "geek"
― mh, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:35 (fourteen years ago)
ahh that's synonymous really
― shining like national dog shit (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:35 (fourteen years ago)
:)
― shining like national dog shit (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 22:36 (fourteen years ago)
the language nerd in me always feels like, considering how many modern English speakers tend to speak in a dialect that drops or swallows the Rs at the end of countless words, it's kind of funny how there's just the ONE WORD that many of those people tend to think has a totally different meaning or connotation if it ends with an "a" instead of an "er," and it happens to be an extremely loaded and controversial word.
― some dude, Tuesday, 9 August 2011 23:28 (fourteen years ago)
massively OTM
― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 23:29 (fourteen years ago)
That would never be the case if it wasn't an el&c word. There's nothing coincidental about it.
― dutty whiney (The Reverend), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 23:32 (fourteen years ago)
... I believe that was some dude's point but maybe I am reading irony where none exists
― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 23:34 (fourteen years ago)
my lips is like an oowop as i start to spray it
― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Tuesday, 9 August 2011 23:38 (fourteen years ago)