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Page 16 THE LAST WORD ‘ Queers ’: More on the Politics of Language Yaacov Ben-Shemesh In "A Queery..." (Lambda, Oc tober 2000) Fred Hashagen pointed out a bias currently present in GLBT discourse —we seem to have embraced the word "queer" to describe ourselves; in that, we seem to have disregarded the fact that "queer" is a disparaging term for a homosexual. And this, ac cording to Hashagen, is not merely a linguistic or terminological issue, language being the powerful po litical tool it is. In what follows I suggest another way of looking at the issue —our use of the term "queer" does not have to be inter preted as a symptom of ignoring political implications of words, but quite the opposite—as a maneuver that exploits political implications. It is important to note, however, that I do not attempt to provide a decisive argument to the effect that we should definitely keep using the term; I only point out some considerations that might support such a position. One fairly naive reason for us ing the term "queer" is as an "um brella" word for all gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders. Given the disparaging connotations of the term, however, Hashagen suggests we use the specific terms "gay," "lesbian," etc. But this seems to miss an important point. The mo tivations behind the use of the term "queer" as an umbrella term are not merely considerations of brevity or convenience. The idea that the term is supposed to con vey is that in some important sense there is a common gay, lesbian, bi sexual and transgender identity; that, at least to some extent, we share the same values and inter ests. The term "queer" provides an anchor to ground us to this shared identity that challenges and is con trasted with the heterosexual identity. But even if an umbrella term is important, why should we use a disparaging term as our umbrella term? Because by using the term we exploit its negative implications for our own political purposes; we dismantle the term from some of its undesirable connotations, thereby achieving both change of attitude and power while keeping, and transforming, other connota tions, again to fit our political pur pose of differentiating ourselves. First, by embracing the term we, to some extent, take the sting out of it, and gain power. We take the sting out of it since by using it our selves we say that what "they" con sider as "suspicious" or as "questionmuch wider term than "gay" or "lesbian;" it can be asso ciated with an entire culture, or ways of living (think of the close connections between queerness and the Camp culture). This broadening of the notion can serve two important purposes. As an antithesis to the assimilationist sentiments within our community, it emphasizes and highlights the differences between "us" and the "bourgeois" hetero sexuals. Tm using the double quo tations because Tm fully aware of the stereotypical nature of my last remarks. First, the "Camp" notion is associated mostly with male ho mosexuals; second, many gay people, including most probably myself, are quite "boring" and not at all "Campy;" finally, not all str,aight people are "bourgeois" in the bad sense of the term. All this, however, should not make us ig nore the positive value, both for other people as well as an inher ent value, of some elements of the queer identity, broadly conceived. More importantly, the broadening of the notion of homosexuality that the term "queer" allows empha sizes the error in the idea, wide spread mostly among heterosexu als, that the sexual identity of a person is exhausted by his or her sexual habits. On this view, the use of the term queer contains a cri tique, a challenge, and a refusal of sexually defined identities. I would like to conclude by re peating the disclaimer; much of what I said in favor of using the term "queer" can be objected. In particular, people might think that assimilation should be an ideal for the GLBT community or that pro moting the "Campy" elements amounts to promoting damaging stereotypes. Furthermore, pro cesses of meaning and attitude changes are subtle and on-going; they are far from being stabilized. Unfortunately, I don't have the space or the knowledge to address these important issues. I have only tried to provide a possible frame work of thinking in which the use of the term "queer" can be viewed as an empowering, affirmative, self-nominated identity label that is conducive to our political goals. To the extent that these consider ations hold, our use of the term does not ignore the rhetorical and political significance of language; it uses it. Taacov can be reached at ybs@emaiLnnc.edn
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