finnglas:

asynca:

Queer is actually different word with a different history than some words in a similar category. It’s been used politically as well as personally and it a word with a militantly inclusive and affirming background – whatever it may or may not have had in other countries years ago. 

The ‘queer is a slur’ crap was started by TERFs, apparently in the 70s and 80s – although I can only find examples in the 90s and 00s. I had to learn about its history too – because in Australia, it’s not a slur at all! It only surfaced as ‘a slur’ and something to demand people tag and to attack people over about a year ago on Tumblr. I will not buy into that loaded rhetoric. 

Please think critically about why you are asking ACTUAL QUEER PEOPLE to slur-tag their own identities because it’s a really transparent power-play and logical fallacy. Why? Because Xkit and a couple of the other add-ons with blacklist etc remove posts with key words in them ALREADY. WITHOUT you needing to tag them. If someone is hiding ‘queer’, there is NO REASON for them to ask a blogger to ALSO tag ‘q slur’, unless their reason has nothing to do with being protected from triggers at all. 

it’s a powerplay. It’s coming to someone’s blog to subtly let them know that you don’t like the fact they use the word. It’s a subtle move to make the word less acceptable. To make someone else feel ashamed of a word YOU don’t like and YOU don’t have good associations with. For some people it’s, “My pain and experiences are more important than anyone elses, and everyone is required to change their lexicon for ME.”

Nope. Just nope. This is a queer blog, I am queer, and I’m not tagging ‘q slur’ for someone who doesn’t want to research their history, think critically, and would rather be a mindless attack mob for TERFs, aphobes, truscum, and other exclusionist groups of people that benefit from an inclusive word like ‘queer’ becoming a no-no in our community. 

This is exactly why I won’t tag it – if you need the word to be tagged, that BY DEFAULT means that you are using a blacklisting service, which means YOU CAN JUST BLACKLIST THE WHOLE WORD.

Like, I blacklist the word “diet” because I need a little buffer between myself and the concept sometimes when my eating disorder is acting up. I blacklist things like ‘fitness’ and ‘weight loss’ – because that’s what I need to avoid to keep myself healthy. I don’t ask people not to post about their fitness goals when there is a perfectly easy way for me to avoid it.

There’s even! a browser extension! that replaces certain words! You may have seen people jokingly using it to replace “Millennials” with “Snake People,” for example. You could also use it to replace “queer” with “gay” or some other word if you needed to.

There are lots of ways that people use every day to protect themselves from easily avoidable words and topics – so coming onto someone’s post, when they are using the word as self-identification, especially, and calling it a slur? That’s fucking RUDE. The first time I self-ID’d as queer in the mid-00s, do you know what happened? A straight TERF came onto my LJ post comments and told me I couldn’t use it because it was a slur.

You know what I did? I fucking blocked her. My sentiment has not changed in 12 years. It’s my word, the only one that really fits me, and if you don’t like it, I’m all right with you leaving to protect yourself. You do you. But I’m gonna do me.