#reclaiming words

[a-queer-seminarian]

An excerpt from Eli Clare (1999) exploring the language used against and used by disabled & queer folk. TW for the r word.

_

"Handicapped, disabled, cripple, gimp, retard, differently abled. I understand my relationship to each of these words.

I scoff at handicapped, a word I grew up believing my parents had invented specifically to describe me, my parents who were deeply ashamed of my cerebral palsy and desperately wanted to find a cure.

I use the word disabled as an adjective to name what this ableist world does to us crips and gimps.

Cripple makes me flinch; it too often accompanied the sticks and stones on my grade school playground, but I love crip humor, the audacity of turning cripple into a word of pride.

Gimp sings a friendly song, full of irony and understanding. Retard on the other hand draws blood every time, a sharp, sharp knife.

In the world as it should be, maybe disabled people would be differently abled: a world where Braille and audio-recorded editions of books and magazines were a matter of course, and hearing people signed ASL; a world where schools were fully integrated, health care, free and unrationed; a world where universal access meant exactly that; a world where disabled people were not locked up at home or in nursing homes, relegated to sheltered employment and paid sweatshop wages. But, in the world as it is, differently abled, physically challenged tell a wishful lie.

...

Queer, like cripple, is an ironic and serious word I use to de- scribe myself and others in my communities. Queer speaks volumes about who I am, my life as a dyke, my relationship to the dominant culture. Because of when I came out-more than a decade after the Stonewall Rebellion-and where-into a highly politicized urban dyke community-queer has always been easy for me. I adore its defiant external edge, its comfortable internal truth. Queer belongs to me. So does cripple for many of the same reasons.

Queer and cripple are cousins: words to shock, words to infuse with pride and self-love, words to resist internalized hatred, words to help forge a politics. They have been gladly chosen — queer by many gay, lesbian, bi, and trans peoples, cripple, or crip, by many disabled people. ..."

- Eli Clare in Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation (1999)

#r slur #i debated censoring that word but it'll be easier for people who blacklist it if i don't. #also just as much as it isn't my word to reclaim i also don't think it's mine to censor when used by someone who's had it used against them #exile and pride #words words word #language #reclaiming words #disability #queerness #eli clare #quote tag

[s1mpl3sp0ng3]

this would not leave my head until i drew it. those aren't even the only things she has with faggot on it

#dumb ocs #BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IT. i had this word hurled at me all throughout middle and high school. i grew up in the most homophobic part of alabama #i have not been able to reclaim it for myself until very recently #that being said i have changed my mind and am going to tag for it #f slur #doodles

[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.

[dorliart]

i read this tweet probably now a year ago and have been wanting to draw something about it ever since.

Bonus versions:

And the sketch bc I like it too

the monitor is weird and glitchy bc that’s where the email opened

#art #digital art #cyberpunk #or #solarpunk #I’m not sure #anti capitalism #that I am sure about #nature #cottagecore #not fully but eh #nature reclaims #illustration #illustrative art #greenery #nature art #based on a tweet #I really liked the wording of it #it really inspired a clear picture in my mind #sadly I couldn’t fully make that one a reality so this is the next best thing #that I could make #please look at all the details there are many #das my art

[pharawee]

A few notes on Pat and Chot's conversation:

🔹Ke (เกย์) is a neutral expression that is the phonetic adaptation of the English word gay.

🔹Tut (ตุ๊ด) is a vulgar and pejorative expression used to refer to a very effeminate homosexual man and can have multiple translations, as sissy, queen, [or in this case: tootsie] etc. 

🔹Je (เจ๊) is a Thai honorific from 姐 for “elder sister”. Chot uses it to refer to himself. Pat later uses it to address Chot.

🔹krap/kha (ครับ / ค่ะ) are gender-oriented particles. Chot uses the traditionally female particle for himself.

🌈Sources: LGTBIQ+ Enciclopaedia, Thaipod101

#step by step #step by step the series #bruce sirikorn #ben bunyapol #stepbystepedit #thai bl #thai drama #bl drama #bl series #my edits. #i added some notes and explanations that imo make this conversation easier to understand #because a lot of the nuances are lost in translation #which isn't the translator's fault - it's just how language works #i love it so much #and i love bruce #and we need more fem gays in bl #who are allowed to be loud and proud and are celebrated for it #Tud/tut might come from the movies Tootsie but I'm not sure #(false friends are a super common thing in linguistics and i haven't checked the word's etymology) #it's a term that chot has very obviously reclaimed for himself

[seaweedstarshine]

[just after having helped River make a getaway from a heist of an astatine lace shawl — the rarest substance in the universe — without her even needing to ask beyond a simple “hello sweetie” scrawl in the sky] [Eleventh Doctor] “I can see its worth — but Alice is right! What’s so special about a lace shawl?” [River] “Ah, well, lace, you see, is the traditional gift for a thirteenth wedding anniversary…” [Eleventh Doctor] “Wedding anniversary? Whose wedding anniversary?” [River] “Spoilers…!” *winks* [Thirteenth Doctor, reminiscing] “I love River.”

HAPPY THIRTEENTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY TO THE DOCTOR AND RIVER SONG!

Sources: Diary of River Song: The Furies, Diary of River Song: The Lady in the Lake, The Day of the Moon, Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #33, The Wedding of River Song, The Big Bang, The Angels Take Manhattan, The Many Lives of Doctor Who: Without a Paddle, The Time of the Doctor, Forest of the Dead, Let's Kill Hitler, Diary of River Song: The Wife of River Song, Eleventh Doctor Year Two: Physician Heal Thyself, A Good Man Goes to War, Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Broken Hearts, The Husbands of River Song, Doctor Who Confidential: When Time Froze

#river song #eleventh doctor #twelfth doctor #tenth doctor #thirteenth doctor #yowzah #edits by seaweed #words by seaweed #I know there's not a lot of 12 and 10 and 13 rep but oh well theres not as much source material. I got like a quote from them each #regular reminder that psychopath has no clinical meaning and is more of a reclaimed slur than a descriptive term etc #reclaimed language #ableist language #this is about them being messy (positive) together. ALSO river was promised Stevie Wonder for her 13th anniversary <3 #I HAVE ZERO SOURCES FROM BOOKS WHAT im sure there are some perfect quotes from novels & short stories but well #I got episodes and audios and comics and magazines #did I miss posting a thing for 'fourteen years since fish custard' day a few weeks back? yes. yes I did. #am I trying to make up for it by celebrating a day that references a very specific comic that less people likely heard of? yes. yes i am. #maybe shoulda posted this at midnight last night. April 22 is almost over in the UK I think #okay I gotta go to work now! ima watch Wedding of River Song tonight

[aropride]

maybe this is problematic but idk i think reclaiming slurs for urself is fine and good but i think when u start using them for other people without asking. especially strangers. that's not okay actually. like it's totally fine to use them for urself but i think keeping in mind that they are slurs. is important. like maybe we shouldnt be just throwing them around

#text #discourse #this post is NOT about the word queer which has been widely reclaimed at least where i am

[sacredsapling]

Hey all! As someone who's been mute and a disability activist (including raising awareness about mutism), a few clarifications:

Mute can be an acceptable term, when used as a descriptor or identity-term, unless someone says they prefer another term for themselves personally.

Mute can refer to being unable to make any sound, being nonspeaking or nonverbal by choice, trauma-related silence, or experience periods of inability or limited ability to communicate.

Mutism is often a good "umbrella" term, since nonspeaking means "able to make sound but unable to say words" and nonverbal can mean "unable to make any sounds."

Mute can fall anywhere on that spectrum, and it also can be a descriptor used for changing states of being able to speak, vocalize, or not.

Basically, if someone doesn't like the term, don't use it for them. If someone uses it, it's fine, and it's fine as a general descriptor because it's not inherently offensive (and asserting such can ostracize a whole group of disabled people, same as being like "it's not disabled, it's differently abled." Mutism, just like disability, is not a "bad word").

Just be attentive to slang and offensive uses/word combinations and make sure those exact sorts of phrases aren't used to describe someone who is mute/nonverbal/nonspeaking.

#ps miguel happily uses the word mute #and that's also a term I can reclaim so I'm going to use it! #mutism #mute #nonverbal #nonspeaking #text post #disability activism

[bromantically]

the point of slur reclamation is not to take away its status as a slur, but to take its power from the hands of oppressors and put it into our own. i do not reclaim words like fag because my goal is to normalize it and get rid of its status as a slur, i reclaim it because im making it mine now. im taking it so the power over it is in my hands, im taking their weapons from them and i dont intend to give them back

#kitty purrs #also before someone says something NO i am not saying u should call people these things just bc ur reclaiming it #i believe in respecting peoples boundaries and preferences so no im not saying to call a person queer or a fag if theyve asked u not to #but ultimately im not going to stop using those words to describe me and my community #if u can handle people using 'transsexuals' to refer to trans communities #and 'dykes' to refer to sapphic communities #u can handle people using 'queer' to describe broad lgbt+ communities #u have to understand that there is important context and that its not always specifically about u

[6-2-aestheticsofhate]

Obsessed with the fact that Hakita sent Gianni a file literally titled fag with a pride flag. Or as GIanni said it, ***g

Original (and context) under the cut

#Ultrakill #Gabriel #Gabriel Ultrakill #reclaimed slurs #f slur #this is so sad #gianni cant even spell the word fag #my art

[gutterslimed]

fuck it. shawnter edit

#siblings told me to post it here hiiii #wwe edit #triple h #shawn michaels #dare i tag as a ship #shawnter #whatever man #its okay hunter can reclaim the word queer /silly #wrestling #pickle's posts #hardest part of this was to not use old man yaoi btw. a little old(er) man yaoi as a treat for myself

[sharkdays]

"That despite having experienced inhuman suffering, she has nonetheless been able to gain the strength to face life."

#collei #genshin impact #gi #erm. hi #something not pokemon related for once? shocker i know #anywas this was a collei piece i did a while ago that i never finished #been having Emotions abt her recently and i wanted to share even if it's a little messy... #anyways. she makes me insane. #also yes the flowers have meanings it was Intentional. however my drawing skills for nature and memory are both not all there so. #take it as you will #anyways collei i love you girl... #shes a physical manifestation of death and rebirth she's resurrection do YOU SEE MY VISION #also i miss you short haired collei but her hairstyle rn is cute too... #my collei design in my head has changed so much lmao. i tried making her a little more matching to how she is in my head now #thinking abt her growth and learning as a form of defiance. reclaiming her life.... #she refused to die!!!!! and now she's hurting but alive!!! im gonna pass out dont look at me. #i am not nearly as good as putting my thoughts into words as some other collei enthusiasts so Just Trust Me #shark's scribbles

[welcometogrouchland]

I also think it's nice that they made Camilla a sci-fi nerd and Luz a fantasy nerd. They're genres that are often seen as completely opposing one another by many people, which is what we're led to believe about Luz and Camilla in season 1. Luz is silly, nerdy, frequently in over her head and irresponsible and loves the boiling isles. We're led to believe that Camilla is the normal, conventional TV mother who'd be disgusted and terrified by the demon realm if she saw it.

Then yesterday's lie gives us a lot of nuance to this, and we realize that while they're still very different and now on opposite sides of a conflict, both mother and daughter are incredibly kind people (seen in their treatment of Vee) who love each other but struggle to make the right choices without hurting one another.

Then thanks to them drops all this Camilla characterization and we realize! She was a nerd too this whole time! The wedge between Camilla and Luz is motivated by past traumas and grief! and for the future has them switching sides on the central conflict of where Luz should stay (Camilla now wanting Luz in the demon realm because it's what's best for her, and Luz believing that staying in the human realm is what's best for the people she loves). They finally talk and realize that, like Willow pointed out earlier in the ep, the two are so alike. Camilla reveals that she's a secret nerd too! That she had a hard time growing up and accidentally hurt Luz trying to save her from the same fait! It's so important to me that Camilla keeps calling Luz a good witch. It's affirming her interests and goals, reminding her that she's just as good as the hero of her favorite story. And Luz finally only realizes that she wants to be understood...when she's finally able to understand her mom. When she realizes that the woman she loves and admires is just as much of a nerdy screw-up as her and that there's hope for her. Her palismen ends being multiple animals at once, showing both how Luz making unconventional choices (like carving an egg) keeps paying off for her and how her potential is limitless now that she finally knows and accepts her own goals, but to me it also reminds of the fact that Camilla is a vet and passed a love of all the weird and unliked animals (like wolves, possums, snakes, etc) to her.

It's just so so sweet and it really shows how much love and thought the crew put into this mother daughter storyline (FTF haters are not welcome on this page, respectfully). I can't wait to see how both of these misunderstood but healing women (who radiate "little/big sister" and "mom" energy respectively) are gonna interact with a) the lonely, easily manipulated and well intentioned but ignorant collector (a mix of both their interests as a magic being with a space motif! I just realized that lol) and b) the nasty puritan white man who's really obsessed with conforming to society's norms even when it literally doesn't benefit him at all.

Anyway, I believe in noceda( AND clawthorne 👀) family supremacy 💙

#the owl house #toh #toh spoilers #luz noceda #camilla noceda #this isn't proofread so if there's words missing or misspellings or somethings unclear feel free to mention #but this is just a messy thought dump #I have a ROUGH WEEK. I wish there was a more positive vibe in the fandom rn (although i kinda get it but also :( sad) #but there isn't one i will create it #tentatively I don't have a responsibility to do that I just wanna talk about things i noticed and like #i am going to post reqs just u wait. bitch! #also uhhhh other things i thought while making this post but couldn't include: #hunter and gus being fantasy trekkies is really funny and cute but also fits really well with both of their characters #gus has always been in love with the human realm and this is the ultimate neat little bow on that. #he's dressed as a character he relates to (captain avery trying to get back home to the family he loves) and his interest is uniquely human #bc sci-fi is kinda uniquely rooted in/associated w/ the human realm in toh. even in something like Belos' steampunk tech #SPEAKING OF. hunter oh my GODDD #he gets so attached to the human realm in TTT bc he's finally somewhere safe (he's always been entrenched in the most- #-toxic parts of the demon realm and it's culture which is ironically propelled forward by one humans influence) #and it's like a part of him is reclaiming his weird split heritage. he loves magic and he loves sci-fi and he's silly abt both #he's not a witch or a human and he's happy. or at least he will be #anyway. i love this shows relationship to fiction it is sweet and comforting and funny

[visible-schizo-spectrum]

“hey we have been victimized by the same slurs as other trans and queer ppl so we think we should be able to reclaim these slurs to call ourselves and our consenting friends”

“but if you can call yourself tranny why can’t i call you a theyfab”

#transandrophobia #i swear ppl on this site don’t understand what the word reclaim means #u can’t reclaim a slur by calling ppl slurs who do not consent to being called slurs #it’s rly not that complicated

[seaweedstarshine]

Thinking about River affectionately calling the Doctor her “madman in a box” only after he's called her his “bespoke psychopath,” and vice versa. They each were called these words by the other before ever using them to describe the other.

Thinking about the way they defy reality for each other. How modern psychiatry elevates objective reality to gatekeep full participation in society, yet they shatter objective reality with love — “I can’t let you die without knowing that you are loved.” and “You are always here to me and I always listen and I can always see you.”

Thinking about “What's the mad fool talking about now?” and how Gallifrey ostracizes those labelled mad, going so far as to see it as failure in children. Thinking about “A child is not a weapon!” “Give us time.” and how Kovarian equates psychopath with weapon as a tool of dehumanization and control.

Thinking about the way the psychiatric-industrial complex inflicts violence upon those who deviate from psychosocial norms. How their relationship was born in violence, but of madness — not madness in a post-Enlightenment framework of opposition to Reason, but madness as radical compassion that doesn’t demand so-called rationality — “Every time you've asked, I have been there.”

Thinking about how neither of them chose “psychopath” or “madman,” but they both own those words as instruments in their own agency.

#words by seaweed #(eleventh) doctor is neurodivergent tag #river song #eleventh doctor #twelfth doctor #antipsychiatry #madpunk #yowzah #doctor who #bc I've seen the discourse on whether river is ‘actually’ a psychopath heres your regular reminder that psychopath is NOT a medical term #it's madman but with a lack-of-empathy slant. #saneism #ableism #reclaimed language #actually psychotic #mental health #neuropunk #mad liberation #disclaimer: not a philsopher. can u tell I was a graphic design major w an incidental personal investment in psychotic ppl rights #anyway when I say ‘madness as radical compassion’ I don’t mean that madness creates compassion; but that this position #where participation in modern personhood is violently denied+ autonomy stripped due to weaponizing mental health interests (my river song) #elicits a different framework of compassion— one doesn't have to make sense or ‘fit’ into a convenient Narrative for compassion #the fact that they passing laws to make conservatorships easier to acquire in several states makes me shriek when I think sometimes #so uh tune in next time for me drowning my sorrows in my canon psychotic eleventh doctor evidence posts

[olasketches]

“sukuna is a fraud” the biggest of them all!! “he doesn’t fight fair, he cheats” cause he knows how to. “gojo would have won if…” if he knew how to cheat better. NEXT.

#I'm reclaiming the word fraudkuna #cause he absolutely is a fraud and a goddamn good one at that #you need an incredible lvl of genius to be able to pull this many tricks #ryomen sukuna