the real blog #3

I'm sorry. I spaced out and did the wrong blog, so ignore that postsructuralism one. Only 100 pages off. I think that "queer" and "dyke" once had a very strong power but not so much anymore. I think that the social effects have changed, not so much the word itself. Like it says on page 27, "It's the consequences that are good or bad." I'm sure that if the word "queer" or "dyke" came up in conversation at the dinner table in 1950 it would be a much bigger deal than if it came up today. I think that our generation has specifically been taught to accept everyone and everything and not be judgmental or hateful towards anyone. It is why we no longer have Christmas trees; they're "Holiday" trees. But there are certainly people who use it derogatorily and there are people who will get offended by it because of it's context. I do think reading is an open-ended process and depending on the context, I can understand how those words can be hateful. This reminds me though about how girls with their friends always call eachother "slut" and "whore" but if someone outside the group were to say that to the girl, that would definitely not be okay. I think it's the same with "queer" and "dyke", if you are not socially accepted by one of the groups, you really need to be careful of the usage of the word. I don't think it's the "queer" group as a whole that you need to watch out for the context of the word "queer" that you're using, but you either need to not use it or make sure the individuals that make up the group don't think it's a big deal. I think that it is so easy to get offended at almost anything these days that it's hard to speak about certain things with out someone getting offended. These words are out there though and people can either pretend like they don't exist or they can accept it. I also think it's a great defense mechanism if you are gay to not take the word to heart because it is a rather "common" word.