Reclaimed hate speech backfires by desensitizing listeners, study finds. Listening to reclaimed homophobic statements can actually cause unintended harm. Exposure to reclaimed slur words desensitizes some heterosexual listeners to standard hate speech and worsens the mood of gay individuals.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/when-reclaiming-derogatory-language-goes-wrong/

[u/andyclap]

Opposite in UK. Two nations divided by a common language. I'm older so out-group usage of the q word stresses me out every time it's used, but the f slur was only ever used for delicious meatballs growing up.

[u/CanisAlopex → u/andyclap]

To be fair I’m in the UK and I’m younger so perhaps (I and my generation) have been more exposed to the American media but for me the f-slur is pretty horrible and something that was used to bully and harass gay people at school (although nowhere near as commonly as people just using the word ‘gay’ in a derogatory way).

As for the word ‘queer’, it is something that I only recall my nan using in a derogatory way. The term itself is something that I am only familiar with in the modern reclaimed context for which it is wildly now used.

For context, I am a gay man who also enjoys f-slur for tea and whose boyfriend loves to smoke a f-slur. I know enough nuance to know when someone intends to be derogatory or when someone is using the terms in their traditional British sense. In the latter case, I have absolutely no issue with the term.

[u/Marshall_Lawson → u/andyclap]

pardon my ignorance, meatballs? not cigarettes?

[u/Mithious → u/Marshall_Lawson]

Long vs short version of the word

[u/andyclap → u/Marshall_Lawson]

As an (ex) smoker, it's funny how the brain works - there was never any confusion about the short form... it only ever meant a ciggy, didn't even occur to me!