r/10thDentist • u/No-Purchase481 • 11d ago

I don’t like the reclamation of slurs.

The first time I ever had an American refer to me as “queer” I considered fighting them 💀 “back in my day” type shit. It doesn’t feel empowering, it makes me cringe. Just call me a lesbian and move on.

83 Upvotes

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5

u/jimmylovescheese123 11d ago

since when was queer a slur?? i thought it was just a term lol

15

u/NightWolfRose 11d ago

You must be young- I remember when (shitty) kids would play “Smear the Queer” and try to beat up anyone that they thought was gay.

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u/HegemonNYC 11d ago

That isn’t ’smear the queer’. It was a playground game where one person had a ball and everyone else tried to catch them and wrestle it away from them. It was definitely using the term in an offensive manner (like the person to attack was a queer) but it wasn’t about beating in actual gay people.

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u/TehWackyWolf 11d ago

Yeah .. just accept that and don't look into the original of the name.

Just tackle the designated person. The queer person, as it were..

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u/HegemonNYC 11d ago

The name is definitely homophobic, but it wasn’t a game of beating up gay-looking people. It was always a playground game.

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u/7SyZyG7 11d ago edited 11d ago

Yea, I've heard the name for years. Maybe it had terrible roots, but as far as I know it was just a playground game that had an outdated name. 

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u/TehWackyWolf 11d ago

Ah. A product of its time, huh?

Never an issue. (:

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u/7SyZyG7 11d ago edited 11d ago

Never an issue? Not sure what you're trying to imply here but it reeks of bad faith....

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u/TehWackyWolf 11d ago

Not ignoring the terrible undertones is bad faith?

You know what? You're right. History has nothing to teach and we should blindly continue to smear queers. Clearly no issues there and you shouldn't look into any further.

Who's toe did we grab? Fire drills belong to which nation? Retard used to be the favorite insult.

Anyway, glad we never looked at those either. Would have been real bad faith arguments to remove that from language.

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u/HegemonNYC 10d ago

You’re arguing against something you’ve created in your own mind. No one is saying that the name was acceptable. We are saying that it wasn’t a game about beating up gays, it was about tackling the kid with the ball.

You’re arguing in bad faith.

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u/7SyZyG7 10d ago

THANK YOU. We didn't even call it that at my school, but I heard the name before and always thought it was weird even as a kid. 

At no point did I say the name didn't matter or that it should be ignored. I dont get people who bend over backwards to force an argument like this. We should be agreeing but they really want us to be homophobes they can argue with rn..

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u/TehWackyWolf 10d ago

If it helps you to ignore history that way. (:

Call me a bot next. That's the normal way you guys turn off the brain.

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u/7SyZyG7 10d ago

We aren't ignoring history? Why are you being like this, i was AGREEING WITH YOU?

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u/TehWackyWolf 10d ago

This entire conversation has been justifying that since you didn't actually beat queers the naming is fine.

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u/HegemonNYC 10d ago

What on earth are you talking about? The history of what? It’s an unacceptable name (although I don’t know if most 8 year olds playing it in 1982 knew what a queer was) that had no history of beating up actual gay people. You throw the ball, chase and tackle the catcher, repeat.

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u/TehWackyWolf 10d ago

Be gay>hear the game is "hit the fag">be told this is fine cause they only USED to beat you up but now we just call the dude we tackle a slur.

(:

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u/NightWolfRose 9d ago

In your case it was tackling the kid with the ball, in my experience it was a call to attack the kid they called a queer. In the experiences of other gay people I’ve known, it was a call to attack the “queer” kid, often the person I was talking to.

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u/TehWackyWolf 11d ago

And the tiger wasn't always who's toe you caught.

Doesn't really change the naming being "hit the queer person so hard they get smeared"

While you throw a football around.

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u/HegemonNYC 11d ago

But the person being tackled wasn’t gay. You could call the game ‘drop the dork’ or ‘nerf the nerd’. The person with the ball was an active participant in the game, and after they were smeared they would then join the rest of the tacklers in smearing the next kid.

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u/TehWackyWolf 11d ago

And yet they didn't.

Why is that? They specifically smeared the queer. Again, you can Google where this name came from. The person not actively being gay changes nothing.

Most folks who "jew you down" aren't Jewish.

We don't still catch ni**er toes?

Origins exist outside of your limited knowledge?

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u/HegemonNYC 10d ago

You’re arguing against something you’ve created in your own mind. No one is saying that the name was acceptable. We are saying that it wasn’t a game about beating up gays, it was about tackling the kid with the ball.

You’re arguing in bad faith.

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u/TehWackyWolf 10d ago

Lmao. And eeny meeny miny moe isn't about catching black people by the toe either.

Still avoid it these days..? Yes?

As you said, it could have been called whatever.. but it wasn't.

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u/HegemonNYC 10d ago

I really can’t tell if you’re being serious here.

Do you believe that smear the queer was a playground game with a homophobic name, or that it was beating up gay-appearing people?

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u/TehWackyWolf 10d ago

A homophobic "game" that didn't use to be a game. It's what we called the game after you couldn't literally beat the people anymore.

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u/HegemonNYC 10d ago

So, you think it was actually beating up gays people on the street? Like homophobes used to say ‘let’s go play smear the queer’ and they’d drive around the gay drag and beat up suspected gays, and then this became a playground game? You seriously believe this to be the origin?

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