The reason I cringe at corporations splashing queer across t shirts and totes is not because of it being a slur or whatever, it’s because queer is a political statement that companies are either trying to co-opt or erase.
They’re trying to assimilate a word that is antithetical to assimilation, and it’s natural to cringe at that.
Queer is about liberation, radical inclusion, mutual aide, anti cop, anti capitalism, anti conformity, and fighting for human rights. And by fighting I do not just mean peaceful protesting and civil disobedience. I also mean direct action and rioting.
To have some rainbow T-shirt bedazzled with Queer sold at Target—a company that shows anti union videos during training and practices lean staffing while keeping as many employees as possible under the full time threshold—is a slap in the face.
Whether or not the product “looks good” is irrelevant. And it isn’t bad because oh no a slur (as if gay isn’t also a fucking slur) either. It’s bad because a company is profiting directly off of the dilution and erasure of a political movement.
And worse, people in our own community use it as evidence for why queer people should further closet and censor ourselves because “look you’ve called yourselves queer so much that the straights feel comfortable using it” when that’s not the issue and also not queer people’s fault!
Queer, within the context of the queer community, was originally a verb. Queering is something you do. It meant to look at the problems you see around you, whether it be corporations or forms of cisheteronormativity, and resist. It’s about doing something different and creating something new.
Corporate pride is assimilation. Some people want that, same-sex marriage is a form of assimilation afterall, but queering involves questioning the systems in place, recognizing the problems, and deviating in a way that creates a space where people can be queer freely. Corporations are not queer.
