Jack comments on Rationality Lessons Learned from Irrational Adventures in Romance - Less Wrong

54 Post author: lukeprog 04 October 2011 02:45AM

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Comment author: Jack 11 October 2011 01:20:51AM -1 points [-]

But the original word was "queer"... which is now not a curse after having been reclaimed.

Comment author: Desrtopa 12 October 2011 08:01:55PM 6 points [-]

On a tangential note, this usage of "reclaim" has always bothered me. "Queer" didn't start out with positive or neutral connotations. It has not been reclaimed by the GLBT movement, it has been appropriated. Reclamation denotes previous ownership, something that simply doesn't apply when you look at the historical relationship between the words that are being "reclaimed" and the groups that are claiming them, but it's chosen for its connotations of legitimacy, since people are less likely to object to your taking back what's rightfully yours.

Comment author: dlthomas 12 October 2011 08:05:05PM 5 points [-]

I find amusing the notion of bigots launching a campaign to reclaim "queer" as an insult.

Comment author: sam0345 12 October 2011 04:21:45AM 3 points [-]

There were lots of words before queer.

Comment author: Vladimir_M 12 October 2011 04:56:48AM *  4 points [-]

I can only imagine how Roy Cohn felt during the Army-McCarthy hearings when Joseph Welch quipped that "a pixie is a close relative of a fairy"...

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 11 October 2011 01:31:41AM 3 points [-]

Once again guessing, I'd say that "queer" and "bent" were both at a time abandoned by the gay community (even though "bent' is of course the actual counterpart of "straight") because of the negative connotations of weirdness in the former case, and something that's not in its proper shape in the latter. "Gay" persisted because it was the first name whose alternate connotations were positive (being merry/carefree).

I don't know why "queer" became acceptable to be reclaimed again, but I'm wondering whether it's because "weird" is not really seen as a bad thing anymore -- "geek" has also become a badge of honor after all, though it once used to be an insulting word.

Comment author: Prismattic 11 October 2011 02:17:21AM *  2 points [-]

Geek was actually the specific term for a carnival entertainer who bites the heads off of live chickens, before it became a generic term of abuse, before it became a specific term for someone who is passionate about a particular interest.

Comment author: pedanterrific 12 October 2011 04:45:20AM 0 points [-]

I may never think of Best Buy's tech support department the same way again...

Comment author: pedanterrific 11 October 2011 02:00:23AM 2 points [-]

Also possibly because the original meaning of "weird" has become lost, or at least outmoded, as a result of tarnishing by association with the slur. Nowadays, high school and college literature professors have to preface discussions of Moby-Dick with a disclaimer to the effect that the passage

Well, well, well! Stubb knows him best of all, and Stubb always says he's queer; says nothing but that one sufficient little word queer; he's queer, says Stubb; he's queer - queer, queer; and keeps dinning it into Mr. Starbuck all the time - queer, Sir - queer, queer, very queer. And here's his leg! Yes, now that I think of it, here's his bedfellow!

has nothing to do with sexuality at all.

(Melville knew what he liked, I guess.)

Comment author: lessdazed 11 October 2011 05:06:20AM 2 points [-]

Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

--Moby Dick

Comment author: Jack 11 October 2011 01:34:44AM -1 points [-]

That makes sense.

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