#slur discourse

[americascomic]

I talked to a trans femme teen yesterday who told me to not use slurs (faggot, tranny) and I think people like to blame social media for these kids being so tenderqueer-y, but this kid also told me that of the 1,400 kids in her art school, there is lots of out gay, trans masc and non-binary AFAB kids but only 10 t-femmes, and I saw in her and this other trans femme teen I know this harsh assimilationist streak (they want to go stealth, strive for conventional beauty standards, jealous of the cis het white blonde girls) because they barely have a community and so it becomes a place to survive.

The internet is this boogieman that distorts what is the consensus. It has a selection bias of hyper isolated, neurodivergent, and anxious people who are just looking to survive

I look at queer kids with annoying conservative opinions I don't see the solution being "internet stop sucking" - the assimilationist woodworking "Cross Dressing Quarterly" trannies of the 90's didn't need TikTok to get this way, it was the violence of the closet.

I see the problem being them being scared kids - what bell hooks calls "the most oppressed class" and I see the solution being a more porous, safe community between kids and adults (outside of the nonprofit industrial complex that uses queer youth spaces to condescend, infantalize, and give resources in a nondemocratic way)

We always say "protect trans kids" and it's worth queer adults of all types toughing through bigotry and accusatory stares to find these kids, build relationships, give resources and love them. All we have is each other. We protect us. Us tranny faggots

[mxjackparker]

Are you interested in being an ally to sex workers, but are unsure where to start?

Let's start with what words you should use to refer to sex workers, and why. It’s great to know the preferred terminology, but allyship requires a little more than that. Consider the implications that different words have in terms of racism and classism and general whorephobia! A digital zine:

(You can sign up for free here for regular articles and resources on allyship with sex workers!)

[crimeronan]

bi people tagging the joke fagdyke kinsey scale post about how they wish there were more slurs for bi people because they can't be a dyke or a faggot..... baby Please.....

straight people have NEVER cared about whether you experience exclusively homosexual attraction when they hurl slurs out of passing cars. those words ARE your slurs if you want 'em.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

hi bread, I received an ask from someone who thinks that because they’ve been called the r slur for being autistic, that they can say it even though they’re not ID.

i am LSN autistic and don’t have ID so I answered the ask to the best of my ability but I don’t want to speak over anyone or accidentally spread untrue info. I know you don’t have ID, but I respect your posts and advocating for people with ID, so would you be okay with me sharing the post with you, and if you want you can provide your insight. you don’t have to at all, i just wanted to ask because I don’t want to misrepresent the issue.

thank you.

would prefer not be sent that post (upset me & often lead to harassment) but here some things can say or send:

this only post that can find right now that explain why not but there a lot just tumblr search system suck. if anyone have posts written by ppl w ID about why not that want share please feel free

some off top of head thoughts from listening to people w ID & in general disability/ID history:

(you = general you / people like person you talking about)

r slur come from old medical term for intellectual disability. “mental [version of r slur that end in -tion].” n version that end in -d shortened from it.

come from medical term for ID. not autism. not ADHD. not general any neurodivergence.

r slur & mental r word been used historically AND NOW to deny rights of people w ID. it been used for eugenics. think that word been watered down nowadays but by eugenics am meaning literal eugenic policies n direct actions. it been used for dehumanize people w ID, for deny rights n dignity, for deny education, for deny services n help, for forced sterilization, for involuntary institutionalized in abusive institutions with horrific abuse & neglect to point of barely alive or straight up death, for basically murder even.

in fact, word still in laws. many them old laws but still in affect n can be (& is) used any time to deny rights of people with ID.

while it really unfortunate n bad that be bullied n be called that word. as someone who been bullied with that slur, am sorry but that simply not on same level as this systemic level of abuse behind this word.

when be called r slur when not have ID, is comparing you to people with ID. is say you near/just as bad as them.

can’t reclaim something that never about you in first place.

especially when people most affected by slur (aka people with ID) want it disappear forever.

plus. many people without ID’s idea of “reclaim” that slur is just. use as insult. use as deprecation, use as self deprecation, use as poke fun of self. wow look am nearly as bad as people with ID.

while all not even bother learn what ID is n history behind people with ID n advocate for people with ID. (does person you talk about even know what it is. that it is intellectual functioning + adaptive functioning + symptom before technically 18 but usually before child. that it not same as dyslexia dyscalculia dysgraphia. do they say “intellectual disabilities” “an intellectual disability.” do they know what ID look like. do they know what severe profound ID look like. can they name one person with ID. just one. by name.)

disability’s not like gender sexuality. disability’s not like queerness. some experience may overlap but most things, can’t just copy paste because simply not same.

why you wanna say slur so bad. why you wanna collect slurs like it cool rocks so bad.

wow. you so cool n edgy n original (sarcasm)

if want able say & “reclaim” “fun” slur so bad. then also have hundreds (n thousands bc people with ID existed before it documented by modern western doctors) years of oppression & abuse & life lost that come with it. have the mistreatment n abuse that people with ID experience now—n. if that’s case. would be extremely lucky if even able make this far n be able to sit here use your communication privilege to talk about how want “reclaim” a fucking slur. because. did i mention people with ID are treated horribly.

denied education denied communication denied autonomy denied life changing therapies & help & aides. denied personhood.

still. today.

think that’s all

(tone = not mad at asker. just wish people dare think about anything other than themselves. just tired of this same old thing. am tired. my friends with ID double that. triple that. unspeakable amounts. but yeah am mad.)

[whereserpentswalk]

Freindly reminder that idolater is a slur, as are variations permutations such as idolotry or idol worshipper. It's not some cute word to use agaisnt people you don't like. It's a slur. It's a slur with thousands of year agaisnt genocide behind it.

It's a slur that specifically to polytheists. It is part of the ideological basis of our religions being outlawed in countless countries. It's used against pagans, it's used agaisnt Satanists, it's used agaisnt Hindus, it's used agasint Buddhists, it's used agaisnt indigenous people's, it has been a part of the oppression that all of these groups have faced.

Sometimes monotheists use it agaisnt eachother. But it's in the same way faggot is sometimes used agaisnt straight people. It's essentially saying "Hey, you're like these people we both believe deserve to be oppressed." If you don't belive they deserve to be oppressed the insult doesn't work.

Never use idol worshiper, idolater, or any permutation as an insult, not agaisnt anyone, not even agaisnt people who you really hate. It's a slur and should never be treated as anything else. If you didn't know before you know now.

[hoggiebunsaa]

Wooo boy it's getting harder and harder to be a SaiScribbles fan...

[hms-no-fun]

🔥homestuck but you can't talk about the post 2016 fandom

EXCELLENT caveat there anon

probably my hottest anodyne homestuck take is that you shouldn't remove the slurs and acting like they're a "flaw" in the text is disastrously wrongheaded. you're talking about a comic that is existentially steeped in early 2000s internet culture, full of highly specific memes and mannerisms, i mean the trolls themselves are just explicitly just Types Of Guy You'd See On AIM And Forums. oh but the slurs aren't part of that? you want to remove the slurs but you don't want to remove the "it's over 9000" jokes?

i think it's genuinely *pivotal* to homestuck's resonance that the characters start off saying slurs and then slowly stop as they get older. i get if younger readers just don't understand this but like, if you were on the internet in the 2000s chances are you said the r-word on the reg at the very least. is that a good thing? absolutely not. that's why we stopped doing it. part of the homestuck cast's narrative arc is about them evolving beyond their youthful teenaged edgelord roots, which are inextricable from the peak-webcomic postmodern irony they operate on. i LIKE that the cast grew up in a way that mirrored my own maturity, as i and a lot of other (white, probably amab) millennials started to realize that oops uhh actually other people with different experiences exist and when you say slurs (even "ironically") they're probably not gonna share a laugh with you. it's an ugly part of our history but it IS the history, and i don't think you can talk about the social justice movement of the 2010s without an awareness of the culture it was reacting to. and don't even get me started on how the dancestors fit into that equation!

there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be levied against the representation in homestuck, particularly its infrequent bouts of racism vis-a-vis HIC, and the sadly more frequent bouts of ableism vis-a-vis tavros-- criticisms that were the bread and butter of the Perfectly Generic Podcast back in its day. but to approach these deficiencies as flaws in the text that need to be "fixed"???? i just don't get it. we're perfectly capable of looking at "fixes" of roald dahl and mark twain books as flagrant historical revisionism, but because homestuck came out in living memory it's a different situation?? and this opens the door to the broader tendency of fix-it fanworks that seem to have this attitude that like, "homestuck" as such exists beyond the limitations of andrew hussie's imagination and can be "rescued" from her clutches. in practice i have a very live and let live attitude about fix-it projects, i'm done with discourse and drama, i just personally don't get it and feel like it's a misuse of creative energies. but then i'm sure they'd say much the same about godfeels, so,

wait i kinda ended up talking about post-2016 homestuck fandom anyway didn't i. oops

[the-alarm-system]

Guys please remember that being a fag is not that serious and you don’t need to tag everything as q slur

and it’s never comparable to racism btw

[the-transgenda-agenda]

should straight men who get called a faggot by their bullies while they’re getting beat up get a pass to say faggot too ? ):

What

[luckytheburger]

"xyz cant say fag" "xyz cant say dyke" okay well I think that fags and dykes can kissing me with tongue. both of them. at once.

[pk-butter]

“Masc presenting amab enbies cant use the t slur” “Bi women cant reclaim the d slur” “trans men saying they hate femininity is misogynistic” “neopronouns are baaaaaad actually” “the toothpaste flag is appropriative and a recolor of the lesbian flag” what if i hit you with a truck. What then.

[queerfluix]

personal opinion. use slurs you can reclaim. make them your identity. call your consenting friends those slurs. de-sensitize yourself.

in my personal experience, my friends and i call each other slurs we can reclaim all the time, my identity is also slurs i can reclaim. i am a tra*nny fa*gdy*ke ret*arded cri*pple. (censored to avoid my account and this post being taken down)

using slurs so much has impacted my mental health in such a good way. i have reclaimed these slurs and turned them into something positive, silly, and fun. unlike before, i can now no longer feel upset, sad, or any other negative emotion when someone hatefully calls me a slur.

obviously you don’t have to de-sensitize yourself if you don’t want to but my friends and i personally have and it has helped us so much in the long run when we face hate speech. we are now able to laugh at someone saying a slur in a hateful way without getting our feelings hurt.

[our-queer-experience]

I'm sure your ask box is full so no rush on this one

Do you consider faggot/dyke as an insult? I never really have but a few of my friends do.

Thanks :)

i think it’s contextual. when i say dyke and fag it is affectionate or joking. when someone shouts “fag!” at you on the street, it is mean to be derogatory and to make you feel afraid.

some people are never ok with saying or hearing it. some people are in context. for me its a neutral word. a positive one. it depends on the person and the context.

[the-alarm-system]

you guys think you can hurt me? I survived the “femboy is a slur you can’t use it” era

[raepois]

mfs be like, “all nonbinary people are valid!” until an afab and/or remotely fem nonbinary person who’s nblm reclaims the f slur and then suddenly it’s “you’re not nonbinary/queer enough to say that word!” or “you’re basically a straight woman!” some of you queer folks have such a weirdly cisnormative and heteronormative view of the world… like you have become the very thing you fought to destroy and it’s ACTUALLY annoying listening to you drop such awful takes.

[mxjackparker]

those of you who've never fucked for money need to get less comfortable saying "whore" and calling yourselves/others that