Any time I read about Queer theory, such as in Chapter 7 of Cultural Theory (Storey, 2012), I find myself focusing more on the use of the word ‘queer’ than on any aspects of the actual theory. ‘Queer’ is everywhere today – it’s all but replaced LGBT as an umbrella term for the entire community, people now refer to the ‘queer community’ in the news, papers and everyday life. At my university in Australia we have a ‘Queer collective’, though at UBC we have ‘Pride UBC’ the group itself constantly uses the word queer as an umbrella term in event names and general discussion. Though I understand why so many people have jumped to replace LGBT with ‘queer’ – it’s vague and inclusive of every gender and sexual minority group without being a ridiculously long acronym – I resent that our culture has latched onto that word in particular. The problem is simply that queer is a homophobic slur. Though for many of us, using queer in a negative fashion seems like a thing of the past, it is still used as a slur in many places to this day. And current usage aside, it will always carry the weight of a slur. While many people will reclaim slurs and, for example, a lesbian may self identify as a ‘dyke’ in a challenge of the word’s harmful history, most people know it’s offensive to refer to any lesbian as a dyke, or label the lesbian community the ‘dyke community’. But for some reason society has made an exception for ‘queer’. By using ‘queer’ as an umbrella term for gender and sexual minorities we force people to ‘identify’ with a word that is used with hatred to abuse and dehumanise them both historically and presently.
Storey, J. (2012). Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction. 6th ed. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow.
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