Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
it's been said in some capacity already, but much of the N-word is about reappropration of language. It happened in the gay community as well.
Dyke and faggot were derogatory labels applied to homosexual women and men respectively. The gay community have reappropriated these words completely. Now it is so common, many don't even think of the original sense of the word. We talk about dyke culture, dyke moms, etc. They say things like, "I'm meeting a fag friend of mine for dinner." They took the negative power directed at them, and they made it their own.
|
Reclaiming words takes away some of the negative power. Remember in the 90's when it was suddenly cool for women to wear shirts and jewelry with "bitch" on it? That was women deciding that if people were going to call them "bitch," then they would too, because whatever they were they were proud of it.
I can't stop you from calling me a dyke, but I can take the word and make it into something to be proud of. I'm a dyke! I fuck women! I'm BRILLIANT. Dykes are awesome!"
You eventually have to stop fighting ideology by asking people to stop calling you "bad words." You eventually need to change the connotation of the words themselves by embracing them. Seems crazy, but look how well it's done with the queer-fag-dyke community.