Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

"Queer" - quick question

56 replies

CallMeCleo · 10/06/2021 21:42

Sorry if I seem naive but I am in my 60s and clearly am not too hot on ever changing meanings.

I belong to a neighbourhood social media site and a young woman (19) has joined and posted in the women's section asking to make new friends. She describes herself as "Vegan, queer, artistic."

I don't understand what she means by queer. If she is a lesbian, why not put "lesbian"?

Am I missing something? Can someone bring me up to date, please?

OP posts:
NiceGerbil · 10/06/2021 21:58

I have seen that plenty of gay men do not like the 'reclamation' of this word

Cyberworrier · 10/06/2021 21:57

She’s probably bi/lesbian but could potentially be a straight person who identifies as being - -(special)- -queer. I have a straight friend who works in the arts who describes herself as queer, mainly coz of reading Judith Butler I think. Judith, queen of queer theory , is fine with straight people being queer.

Cwenthryth · 10/06/2021 21:56

Honestly it could mean anything. It could mean she is same-sex attracted, but it could equally mean that she just places a lot of importance on gender identity, isn’t like the other girls, etc.

Ninkanink · 10/06/2021 21:51

Queer can have extremely dubious connotations these days. Although I’d be surprised if she even knows what she’s aligning herself with, sadly.

lazylinguist · 10/06/2021 21:48

She might be using it as a synonym for gay/lesbian, but apparently some non-gay people now use it to mean they're a bit alternative and absolutely definitely not fully signed up conformist, vanilla heterosexuals, or something.

AssassinatedBeauty · 10/06/2021 21:47

It used to be an insult, and for someone my age (40s) it still seems odd that people use it as a positive description.

Either way, it's used to mean "not absolutely heterosexual", I think, these days. So this particular woman might be bisexual, or a lesbian, or even simply open to the idea of having a same sex relationship/encounter. Or just having blue and pink unicorn hair.

Swipe left for the next trending thread