#reclaimed q

[inkskinned]

it is hard to explain without sounding vain or stupid - but the more attractive others find you, the more you're allowed to do. the easier your life is.

i have been on both sides of this. i am queer and cuban. i grew up poor. for a long time i didn't know "how" to dress - and i still don't. i make my sister pick out any important outfits. i have adhd in spades: i was never "cool and quiet", i was the weird kid who didn't understand how "normal" people behave. i was bullied so hard that the "social outcasts" wouldn't even talk to me.

i got my teeth straightened. i cut my hair and learned how to style it. i got into makeup. it didn't matter, at first, if i actually liked what i was doing - it mattered how people responded to it. like a magic trick; the right dress and winged eyeliner and suddenly i was no longer too weird for all of it. i could wear the ugly pokemon shirt and it was just "ironic" or a "cute interest."

when i am seen as pretty, people listen. they laugh at my jokes. they allow me to be weird and a little spacey. i can trust that if i need something, people will generally help me. privilege suddenly rushes in: pretty does buy things. pretty people get treated more gently.

i am the same ugly little girl, is the thing. still odd. still not-quite-fitting-in. still scrambling. still angry and afraid and full of bad things. of course it became my obsession. of course i stopped eating. i had seen, in real time, the exact way it could change my life - simply always be perfect, and things can be easy. people will "overlook" all the other things. i used to have panic attacks at the idea others would see me without makeup - what would they think? even for a simple friend hangout, i'd spend a few hours getting ready. after all, it seemed so obvious to me: these people liked me because i was pretty.

i worry about how much i'm being a bad activist: i understand that "pretty" is determined by white, het, cis, able-bodied hegemonies. if i was really an ally, wouldn't i rally against all of this? recently there's been a "clean girl" trend which copies latinx aesthetics: dark slicked-back hair, hoop earrings. i almost never wear my hair like that; i can hear the middle school guidance counsellor advising me that i might fare better if i toned it down on the culture.

the problem is that i can take pretty on and off. that i have seen how different my life is on a day where i try and a day where i don't. i told my therapist i want to believe the difference is confidence, but it's not. and when you have seen it, you can't unsee it. it lives inside your brain. it rots there; taunting. i get rewarded for following the rules. i am punished for breaking them. end of story.

pretty people can get what they want. pretty people can feel confident without others asking where they got their nerve from. pretty people can be weird and different. pretty people get to have emotions; it's different when they get aggressive, it's pretty when they cry with frustration.

of course people care about this. of course it has crawled into you. of course you want to be seen as attractive. it's not vanity: it's self-preservation.

#pretty in this post is a stand in for . literally all forms of normativity #warm up #tbd maybe idk #ps! hi!! i'm queer!!!!!!!!! it is how i identify! if you tag this 'q slur' i will fight you!!! #i am using it here in the EXACT way it is NOT a slur !! i am identifying as a queer person! #this is EXACTLY how people reclaim it !!! #it's like practically ACADEMIC in this usage!! #please do any reading into what the fuck the history of the word ''queer'' is before telling me #as someone identifying as queer #that i'm a slur. that the place i find comfort in is a slur #''well it makes me uncomfortable if people use it for me'' #im sorry to hear that dude. that sucks. i hope things get easier for you soon #but you don't get to take it from ME #in case you can't tell by the REST of this piece #i DID hear queer used as slur against me. i DID get bullied with it. i DID hear a lot of shit said #i also heard it about lesbians #about ''being gay'' #about pretty much any fucking term that could describe me. #i like queer. i like how it feels. and it's mine. #you don't get to undo the work i've done personally because it makes u uncomfortable #it's ahistoric to pretend like there are ''safe'' ways to identitfy if ur queer. #none exist. it has never been safe to be like this.

[weaver-z]

Holy shit, Target is actually selling a shirt that says "queers take care of each other." We are three years out from them putting "FAG" on a sweater.

#q slur #i don't care if you reply to this with ''but it was probably designed by queer creators!'' because it's being sold by a CORPORATION #they can't ''reclaim'' this... this isn't an indie creator #f slur

[aesthetic-gem]

q!badboyhalo knows he’s going to die. that’s why he always tacks on a ‘yet’ at the end. he is only on a delay of the inevitable. of course he hopes that everything will work out fine. that he won’t forget his kids and those he cares about again in his scrambled memories. but at the end of it all it seems like he knows he’s gonna die. when asked directly by q!tina “you’re gonna die because you’re green?” he didn’t hesitate to answer with a yes. his coughs have slowly started to become more frequent. he no longer hides the fact that he is dying to his kid. what he really wants is to get his affairs in order. to bring down the federation. to make sure his friends and family have a way out when he might not have one

#dappy i’m so sorry you have to see your dad that way :( #i’m hoping to hells and back he’s wrong though #whoever it is that wants to come reclaim him can fudge off #qsmp #q!badboyhalo #badboyhalo

[hollymacycomic]

Holly & Macy and Everyone Else

Chapter 4: Page 35

Start at the Beginning | About the comic | Tip-jar 

🌘 Support the comic & read the next page now on Patreon! 🌘

#webcomic #original characters #my characters #webcomic artist #indie comics #queer characters #webcomic series #drama comic #slice of life comic #OC artist #cw: homophobia #cw: q slur #once again I will elaborate that I do consider queer a reclaimed slur but in the context of this page it is literally being used #by a homophobic character as a slur and so I am tagging it as such lolz. #hollymacy comic #hollymacycomic

[lavendeerlesbian]

I genuinely do not believe 99% of all TRAs who claim they are reclaiming the q slur were ever actually called that term in a derogatory way. Everyone outside of North America who I've talked to about it claimed they didn't even know it was a slur. The American people I've talked to about it are all straight or bi people who have all dated the opposite sex and/or people who I grew up with and know for a fact they have never been called that slur. Except maybe in the company of people with gender identities who throw that word around like it's nothing, because again they were never called that slur in a derogatory way. So it's just a circlejerk of gendies calling each other slurs affectionately and then saying that they were called said slurs so that gives them the right to "reclaim" it.

It's vile and homophobic. I'd love for each and every one of them to have to stand eye-to-eye with Fred Sargeant and say that shit to his face.

#trans homophobia #and for the TRAs whose response is 'well why give oppressors power with that word? Just reclaim it and stop being offended' #1 that's not how that works #2 y'all have made it so normie people throw the q slur around on the regular who cannot reclaim it so fuck you #3 by that logic no trans person should ever be offended about being misgendered (which I actually agree with but I know y'all don't) #4 if y'all try to claim it's accurate because gay people ARE weird and strange you should drop dead #q slur

[cartoonscientist]

you’re telling me a queer coded this robot?

#robots #shrimp fried rice #artificial intelligence #hal 9000 #p03 inscryption #q slur reclaimed

[lumberjackloverboy-moved]

really need to start talking abt how passing trans people (esp straight ones) are disregarded and ostracized in lgbt spaces and trans people who don’t pass are seen as weird and freakish and something to gawk at. it doesn’t matter our sexuality, it doesn’t matter what we look like, as soon as we enter lgbt/queer spaces cis people make it so obvious these spaces were not made with our comfort and safety in mind.

#q slur reclaimed #lgbt #queer #trans

[burntoutuserboxes]

[This user reclaims slurs.]

#slurs #reclaiming slurs #language #this user is #userboxes #userbox #dark userboxes #black userboxes #black aesthetic #dark aesthetic #;q

[allosexualdyke]

I'm in a "progressive" liberal college and ... I don't really mind hearing "queer" so much, but I get so viscerally uncomfortable by the number of seemingly straight people who seem to be utterly delighted to say "fruity" or make a gay limp wrist joke.

Queer is a slur. An often reclaimed slur and over the years my opinion has changed to thinking that it shouldn't be used as a broad community label and that I don't think straight people should feel comfortable saying it. But regardless of my personal opinion, it is a term that in some settings, has achieved a neutral ubiquity where it is used with the same matter-of-factness that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans are used.

But "fruity" is not such a term. It is very specifically a "joke." Or at least that is how it is used.

When I see actual gay people use the term, it's used jokingly. And when I see straight people use the term, they also seem to use it as a joke. They giggle when they say it. They really love being able to say the word.

And I cannot tell if they think they're "in" on the joke as "allies" or if they're straight up mocking the community.

It's also pretty noticeable to me that all the people I have heard make the jokes IRL are all women. "Fruity" is a pejorative that has historically specifically targeted gay men. The stereotype of the limp wrist is associated with gay men as well.

They don't belong to the general LGBT+ community, but gay men specifically, so even if I am incorrect in my assumptions about all of these women being heterosexual, it is fucking bizarre how readily they have seemed to reclaim and joke about shit that doesn't at all belong to them.

It was witnessing this shift of "fruity" being a derogatory, if a bit out of date, insult into "fun" Gen Z lingo that really made me evaluate and challenged my ideas about queer. I was very much a part of the self-identified queer online community and I had no issues with the word or using it for the broader community. By the time I had began exploring my "queer" identity in online spaces, queer was an accepted label that was becoming more and more mainstream.

The first time I heard queer was in a positive context even since it just wasn't the slur of choice where I was from. So, I'm ashamed to say it, but I wasn't very sympathetic or understanding of people who had issues with the word queer. I could understand not liking the term for oneself, of course, but I didn't understand why so many people disliked it when the word was used by individuals to describe themselves and their community.

It was only when I witnessed the transition of people saying "fruity" all the time that I really came to understand. That's self-absorbed of me, but I think I needed to see the process of something being seen as an asshole thing to say to it being "normal" and even "progressive" to really come to understand the discomfort that older gay individuals must have felt as "queer" was used more readily and readily especially by people who had definitely never been called queer or had feared being called it.

There's a lot of talk within the "queer" community about reclaiming various slurs. And I'm certainly not against reclaiming slurs. The word dyke is in my url for crying out loud. I do think there is a power in claiming something like that, especially if it's something you've been afraid of for so long. I was afraid of being a lesbian, so calling myself a dyke feels very liberating.

But I do think that at a certain point ... it isn't "reclaiming," so much as it is forgetting and even bastardizing history.

The whole "gay panic" thing, for instance. That's another thing that young gay people have "reclaimed," but really, it's just a case of ignorance, in my opinion. I think as "queer" or LGBT or gay or whatever term you use, we're so disconnected from our history and ignorant of it.

And that's why it's so fucking uncomfortable to hear people laugh and make jokes about a history they don't fully understand if at all. Like, I wonder how many of the people who call celebs "fruity" even fucking known that originally being a "fruit" wasn't seen as a positive thing. Or do they think this is new lingo they have just made up.

#ramble #reclaimed slurs #q slur #d slur

[cursedluver]

insta AND twitter both really liked this mini comic i made… it’s been bouncing around in my head for a lil bit : ) feelings about connecting to community in unexpected ways.<3

#my art #trans artist #lgbtq #lgbtqplus #procreate #transgender #digital art #starpion #pride #queer #queer art #queer community #q slur cw #q slur reclaimed #comic #original comic #stars #illustration #art

[sciderman]

I've always headcannoned wade as genderqueer! :3 Big wide umbrella term! Something that can't be pinpointed. Un-describable to the outside world but makes sense to him and only him. Tho maybe I'm js projecting😭 I think it fits her pretty well! And I always eat up any genderqueer rep!!!

that's cool and allowed! i mean, i use nonbinary as the umbrella term because the literal meaning is "outside the binary" so it kind of encompasses everything. but it's also because i've kind of never sat comfortably under the q-word. i sooner use "gay" as an umbrella term than the q-word. but that's personal. different strokes.

#sci speaks #cannot describe why the Q word makes me squirm but it always always does and always will. and i know it's wholly personal. #but it IS a slur. and kind of always will be. for me. #i know it's used in an academic context but for me it always feels like a slur. #nonbinary feels more academic and more objective. whereas queer literally pointedly means “weird” #sexy that people reclaimed it! but me i don't want to be called weird. i am what i am and that's not weird. #i think “gay” is better. it means happy. happy is better than “weird”. #yeah! im happy! not weird.

[bazpitch]

mosquito: a memoir by felix lecocq (x)

#q slur reclaimed #this is written by the author of the poem that's going around #'i got so high in the operating room before my sex change i thought i was a biblically accurate angel made out of barbie doll parts' #btw this chapbook is free so #<- like legally #bulletin board #library

[morglien]

#rwby #q slur reclaimed #ruby rose #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #rwby9 #rwby9 spoilers #rwby spoilers

[stonebutchwritings]

all the palestinian dykes i know are so smart and brave and thoughtful and then all the white ppl on here have the audacity to be like "many queers FOR palestine but not a lot of queers IN palestine huh??? 🤔😏" genuinely it is embarrassing

#mine #text #d slur reclaimed #q slur reclaimed

[kiisaes]

not to talk about lily orchard on my silly goofy blog but i read her 100 writing tips again out of morbid curiosity and some of them are just objectively wrong. like, stuff u know isn't true if u've paid attention in even one high school level english class

#'sex scenes are never necessary and cannot be narratively justified' i'm gonna hit u over the head with the 'parasite' 1 minute 30 sex scene #also 'a relationship shouldn't be a dynamic' ... who's gonna tell her #and the classic 'lgbta ppl shouldn't reclaim the q-slur!!!!!!!' yeah i bet the conservatives are gonna LOVE that one #and finally 'sexual awakening isn't a character arc' like i'm not making this shit up. she actually said that. #i wish i never watched her korra and su videos in high school ... that's time i'll never get back #ok that's all back to silly and goofy posts #becki rambles about stuff

[hanzajesthanza]

petition to rename the fandom to this

#Thanks David French #txt #book: narrenturm #q slur reclaimed