“Queer Britain said we could”
When even the Post Office is on the TQ train…
The Post Office has defended its use of the word “queer” following an outcry from activists.
Responding to criticisms about its use of the term, the Post Office wrote online: “Allow us to educate. ‘Queer’ can be used as an umbrella term for those who do not identify as heterosexual or straight. It can mean many different things to people but is a way of uniting those to identify as their authentic self.”
Nope not gonna allow you to “educate,” you patronizing clueless gits.
The critics said the word was a hateful slur often used by violent homophobes.
They added that the Post Office wouldn’t “dream” of advocating use of the N-word, which they felt was similarly offensive.
But the Post Office rebuffed condemnation and said its partnership with charity and museum Queer Britain was evidence the description was acceptable.
Acceptable to the kind of people who accept that kind of thing. Yes of course it is, as is everything, while other say they are wrong to accept that kind of thing.
Bev Jackson, the co-founder of LGB Alliance, told The Telegraph: “Many lesbians and gay men reject the word ‘queer’ as a slur, one often uttered before a vicious beating. Others reject it because it has been claimed by straight people as a fashionable identity.”
Last year, LGB Alliance released a report entitled Don’t Call Me Queer which found 90 per cent of those surveyed felt uncomfortable with the word.
See also: “bitch.” That’s a word that a hell of a lot of people think is “acceptable,” including in its traditional role as an insult to women. They’re all wrong.
A Post Office spokesman said: “We support Pride month and events every year and respond to questions about our support on our social media channels. We’re proud to have previously worked with the charity Queer Britain, the UK’s LGBTQ+ museum.
“They say that language changes and that whilst the term ‘queer’ has long been a term of abuse for LGBTQ+ people, it is being reclaimed by younger people especially who they say embrace it proudly as their identity.”
Therefore it’s brilliant for the Post Office to embrace it too? Seriously??? It agrees that it has long been a term of abuse but says younger people are “reclaiming” it and that somehow makes it acceptable for a not at all young institution to “reclaim” it too, even after many people point out the it remains a term of abuse???
Unbelievable.
As if there’s some “authentic self” to “identify” as. The stripped-of-all superficial-affectations-and-decorations “authentic self” you mean? Seems to me the gender and nonconformity connoisseurs want to get as far away from “authentic” as humanly possible. It’s about “performativity” n’est pas? Judith, care to weigh in? Seems to me as soon as one “identifies” as something, then that something can’t possibly be authentic.
While it’s true that language changes, it evolves naturally. This is a change being deliberately foisted on people who fear the menace that is behind it.
Mike, we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
Once again, for anyone who might be listening:
“Reclaiming” a particular slur is a contentious issue, even within the marginalized groups that may have some effort to reclaim the term. But one key thing that even the members of that group seeking to reclaim the abusive language will agree upon is that the term now belongs to them. You can’t drop n-bombs if you’re lily-white, and you can’t use the Q if you, yourself, are a straight guy whose personal foray into non-normative sexuality was that time you bought a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs for your hetero wedding anniversary.
Well, i’ll be danged. I looked it up and you’re right!
lol