My policy with any minority is to not use slurs of any kind, “reclaimed” or otherwise. Precisely because the ethics and social dance around reclaimed slurs is very complicated and very easy to fuck up.
And there’s no need for them. Anything that a slur, “reclaimed” or otherwise, says can be said without the “reclaimed” slur.
I think this is generally a good policy, but I’m going to add a tiny bit of nuance if that’s alright. Language is changing and evolving constantly and nonuniformly: what might have been a slur decades ago is now a proper academic term (“queer”) and what would have been lightly negative schoolyard insult is now pretty heinous in most circles (r* slur).
I think the important takeaway here is that you can’t reclaim slurs for groups you are not a part of, full stop. If someone from a group requests to be referred to by something that sounds disrespectful to you (it/its pronouns is a huge one), it’s not up to you to decide better for that person, you know? But you shouldn’t also extrapolate that to other people of that group without confirming with individuals either.
For a quick example, when I came out to my mom she was horrified that I would use queer to describe my sexuality and my community, because she had only ever known that word as a slur. But we talked it out and she understands now that you can say queer with pride instead of hate, you know?
So I’m okay getting outpaced by folks who want to feel empowered by language that has been used to put them and their community down in the past (and I think little shits making people feel bad by saying they’re reclaiming something they don’t have a claim to should be told to fuck off and grow up).
I didn’t say that groups shouldn’t reclaim slurs for themselves. (I mean I use “queer” myself, or when I feel especially spicy I’ll use some of the more ugly slurs of “Asians”.)
I’m saying that as a non-member I won’t use slurs to “reclaim” them. They’re not mine to reclaim and the process is fraught with too many chances of hurting people.
All the power to the younger generations on reclaiming slurs, but as someone who is trans I’m not gonna be running around dropping the T word anytime soon. It’s still a rather hurtful term for many per my understanding. Perhaps when I’m old and gray and the young adults have no clue it used to be one I will join in on using it.
My policy with any minority is to not use slurs of any kind, “reclaimed” or otherwise. Precisely because the ethics and social dance around reclaimed slurs is very complicated and very easy to fuck up.
And there’s no need for them. Anything that a slur, “reclaimed” or otherwise, says can be said without the “reclaimed” slur.
I think this is generally a good policy, but I’m going to add a tiny bit of nuance if that’s alright. Language is changing and evolving constantly and nonuniformly: what might have been a slur decades ago is now a proper academic term (“queer”) and what would have been lightly negative schoolyard insult is now pretty heinous in most circles (r* slur).
I think the important takeaway here is that you can’t reclaim slurs for groups you are not a part of, full stop. If someone from a group requests to be referred to by something that sounds disrespectful to you (it/its pronouns is a huge one), it’s not up to you to decide better for that person, you know? But you shouldn’t also extrapolate that to other people of that group without confirming with individuals either.
For a quick example, when I came out to my mom she was horrified that I would use queer to describe my sexuality and my community, because she had only ever known that word as a slur. But we talked it out and she understands now that you can say queer with pride instead of hate, you know?
So I’m okay getting outpaced by folks who want to feel empowered by language that has been used to put them and their community down in the past (and I think little shits making people feel bad by saying they’re reclaiming something they don’t have a claim to should be told to fuck off and grow up).
I didn’t say that groups shouldn’t reclaim slurs for themselves. (I mean I use “queer” myself, or when I feel especially spicy I’ll use some of the more ugly slurs of “Asians”.)
I’m saying that as a non-member I won’t use slurs to “reclaim” them. They’re not mine to reclaim and the process is fraught with too many chances of hurting people.
Totally! I think we’re saying the same things :)
We might indeed be agreeing vociferously! 😆
All the power to the younger generations on reclaiming slurs, but as someone who is trans I’m not gonna be running around dropping the T word anytime soon. It’s still a rather hurtful term for many per my understanding. Perhaps when I’m old and gray and the young adults have no clue it used to be one I will join in on using it.