Labels in a state of flux

[daresbalat]

One of my current obsessions is finding the cultural implications of the word "Queer", what it means to different people and to what extent it's a Western concept. Obviously, many people still associate it with aging queens, so that's one level. On a more subtle one though, queer as a word and concept really only exists in English - I think as I've

Comments

[radiotoothhurty]

Isn't Queer a reclaimed word like Black (as opposed to the formerly 'polite' but now condescending 'coloured') or more specifically Nigger ( in the seventies it was impolite to refer to someone in Britain as 'Black' but not outright offensive).

The problem with reclaimed words is that the amount of power derived from embracing the term is never enough to denature the power in it's previous derogatory usage and never addresses the fact that bigots in the rest of the world won't play along and will continue to use the term as abuse indefinitely.

I don't always think it's helpful to have words to describe groups of people that can only be used, without offense, by that group but are offensive to that group when used by people outside the group. It almost creates a potential conflict 'trap' where there is already more than enough background conflict.

One way to escape the moving target of re-branding (I like that point) is to speak/write plainly rather than shorthand with conceptual terms that are ambiguous and that evolve. This may seem clumsy but I find that once you encapsulate a group of people or a set of ideas into a nugget, that it's easy to forget to think about the first principals of that concept by seeing something as a 'given' especially when it's at the mercy of the vaguaries of interpretation.

I find the latching on to English words for some of the terminology that you are refering to as interesting. You often hear English words being dropped in by non English speaking people, often in jargonised contexts like computers or medicine where, in creating something new, the thought must be 'well there's already a word for it in English, lets use that.

With something more philisophical where you would expect the discussions to be worldwide because you'd expect the debates and evolution of theories and philosopies to occur in each country as that country evolves politically, that less would be 'cribbed' from English speaking countries (I'm guessing predominantly the US).

[daresbalat]

Funnily enough names for people of colour (current preferred term) was the example he cited, but I don't have enough of a memory to recall them all so I missed it out.

The problem with reclaimed words is that the amount of power derived from embracing the term is never enough to denature the power in it's previous derogatory usage and never addresses the fact that bigots in the rest of the world won't play along and will continue to use the term as abuse indefinitely.

I think in this case to some extent that's the idea. "We're here, we're queer, get used to it" was the main Act Up slogan and kinda sums it up really. the whole point of queer is it started as a rejection of mainstream ideas (including mainstream ideas of LBG) of gender and sexuality, so it was very much in opposition to something.

Now however it's used as a gender identity in itself (genderqueer), and a banner under which people do things for people of all genders and sexualities - the idea being creating spaces where these things are fluid. There's a whole load of other general connotations of anti-capitalism and sex-positivism, but generally for me it's about gender.

is to speak/write plainly rather than shorthand with conceptual terms that are ambiguous and that evolve
This is not always possible though. Movements will have names and you can't really avoid it. I can't really think of an analogy, but imagine if you never named any musical genres when talking about bands, for instance (although thats easier coz you can compare them to other bands). You see where I'm coming from?

I'm really clueless though, I didn't pick the word but can't think of an alternative. Any attempt I make to dream up a new acronym is just as problematic. I think for our site we're just going to have a big "what is queer" link on the front page.

the thought must be 'well there's already a word for it in English, lets use that.
It's not just the word though, it's the whole discussion on subversive gender identity. Which I find crazy!